Shopping in a War Zone

Turquoise Mountain Foundation Compound Kabul Afghanistan 6:58 a.m. A quiet dawn here in the compound. The sun is back after a day or two of rain—somehow the cold here seeps quickly into one’s bones, even now that it’s already well into springtime. I hear the winters here are harsh, partly because with the little woodstoves often…

The Places in Between Jaipur & Kabul

Jaipur Rajasthan 5p.m. I have just today finished reading Rory Stewart’s fascinating book The Places in Between, about his highly dubious undertaking of following the Emperor Babur’s epic trek from Herat near the border of Iran across central Afghanistan’s high mountains into Kabul, alone and in mid-winter, just a few months after the USA’s invasion of…