The Golden Apricot

Twenty one men and a woman in the valley.

We ate a sumptuous meal under a 100 year old apricot tree.  And ate it’s luscious fruit.

Having a three month old beard has its advantages.  The privilege and an honor to heartily shake and thank the hand of a man rolling a golden apricot.

We left at 6:30am and returned 14 hours later.  In five years it’ll be safe enough for a tourist to visit this special place.  Of course you’ll still have to bring a tent.

I don’t know if the fellas from the British Council really took to any of my ideas.  Vocational schools.  Learning a trade that can earn a little more money.  Does everyone need a college education abroad, ya, if you can do it. 

In the meantime consider that the tourism industry is percolating, or at least I am.  It’s almost ten pm, shouldn’t I be in bed now?  Tea or coffee doesn’t sound good anymore?  The blue moon is still up there but the rain and gentle thunderstorm gave the city a soak and may I say Kabul looks a lot better at night.

Three kinds of melon.  Yellow cherries and sweet mulberries.  Fresh walnuts.  Apricots with a pit similar to an almond.  Crunchy sweet green apples. 

And two pressure cookers produced an extraordinary second meal of potatoes, garlic, lemon, long green peppers, sheep fat for the savory gravy,and the joints which hold, if you work at it, the marrow of the finest flavor not found in the finest of New York restaurants.  

In the shade cool northerly breezes, the rush of the river, I asked a few men, pointing, if that way was Nuristan, land of red hair and blue eyed men.  We are just on the edge of the Hindu Kush.  Follow the river north and up and see how far you get. 

I shouldn’t generalize but that’s what one does when someone reads or sees a movie nevertheless it’s interesting to ask, did Charlie Wilson’s war help a little bit?  How many valleys did the Soviet Union find?  The Mujahedin won the war because they knew how to wait.

Afghani bread with meals.  All the combinations made it perfect to eat but the manhole sizes are intimidating.  Am I supposed to eat this whole thing?  Half is enough.  Scraps were fed to a black and white cow alongside the lake for our last meal. 

J:  “well all his teeth fell out in part because his mother smoked while he was in uterus….and he drank enough coke too...”

E:  “ah what is he, a drug addict?  That’ll do it.”

J:  “remind me later please and I’ll tell you.”

11:20pm

Oh I am staying up late and now the power has gone off but wait…wait…it’s back on.  A huge generator in the yard is the reason for this?  Ok, thanks. 

It is cool enough and if I could figure out how to draw the outside air inside, I would turn off the a/c and eliminate one possible reason for the congestion in my nose and throat.

I have to thank the American who was invited to go to the valley of abundance but declined.  I told one man it was like therapy.  I haven’t eaten good healthy food  for a very long time.  Ramen noodles ya know only go so far.  I should make a stew for the other person in this building, a simple thanks for feeding me once.  I have a full kitchen and an oven that works.  What do you say, Jay boy?

Go to bed, it's almost August.   And thank you.  Thank you.