Back to the Old Sod

A timeless afternoon at 35,000 feet altitude Somewhere between Amsterdam and New England Nine weeks later, home is on the way. It is light out, and I am sitting in the first row of this old 757 flying west across the Atlantic Ocean. I’m taking a break from a tear-jerking love and death movie, P.S.…

And in the Third Month Comes Return

Delhi National/Domestic Airport 2:48 p.m. OK, the always frazzling final Delhi work stretch is completed: we are now cooling our heels at the airport waiting for our flight down to Mumbai, where our return on Northwest Airlines departs tomorrow night back to the states via A’dam (Amsterdam).

Mountains of Textiles and Mixed Feelings

Turquoise Mountain Foundation Compound Kabul, Afghanistan 7:45 a.m Well, my heart is a jumble of mixed emotions these days. On the one hand, I feel turned slightly inside out by the whole experience of being here in Kabul, and being at the end of this road trip I’m feeling my desire to be home again, in…

The Panjshir Valley, & an ancient Buddhist stupa

Turquoise Mountain Foundation Compound Kabul, Afghanistan 9:04 a.m. sorry–this is a long post! Yesterday we launched on an epic adventure far from Kabul’s center of gravity and dove deep into the serious mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. We’d been looking forward since last week to our planned day trip to the Panjshir, but I had no clue…

Istalif: Into the foothills of the Hindu Kush

Turquoise Mountain Foundation Compound Kabul Afghanistan 11:06 p.m. Well, today was a fantastic trip out of Kabul, at last. We piled ten of us from Turquoise Mountain Foundation into a mini-van and rollicked across the fertile Shomali plains north of Kabul for the roughly hour and a half drive up to the town of Istalif, in…

A Week in Radhe Radhe Land

A few scattered thoughts looking back on a week spent in Vrindavan, the sacred land of Lord Krishna’s youthful exploits. We are now back in Delhi, at the Abracadabra Guest House complete with A/C, half-decent electricity (supplemented by our new maha Voltage Stabilizer and power strip!), finishing up work and regrouping for departure soon for…

To Afghanistan

Abracadabra GH, Delhi After all the thinking and weighing and wondering and absorbing global concern about it, it’s time: we are going to Afghanistan today. The taxi to Indira Gandhi International Airport arrives in about half an hour, so this’ll be a quick note.

In Vrindavan

Vrindavan India Immersed in a swamp of internet dis-connectivity here in the holy land of Lord Krishna’s youthful adventures—haven’t even been able to post from last week’s arrival into Delhi and the street protests for a Free Tibet, much less stay current here. I’m now officially just going to post some words and forget about…