An Unfortunate Turn of Events

Well we all know what they say about "best-laid plans".

As fate would have it, upon arrival at Dulles airport a week ago I was informed that (despite the information given me by the Russian Consulate months ago) I would need a transit visa to travel through Russia regardless of whether or not I was leaving the airport. Although initially freaked out a bit by this quick change of events, I was able to quickly reschedule my flights in order to fall in line with Russia's rules and regulations regarding out-of-towners and planned on leaving a week later on Sunday, June 4th from Newark, NJ. Erin was nice enough to make a late-night run down to DC and I have been here In Philadelphia ever since relaxing, reading, and watching "The Deadliest Catch".

For those of you that have been following the news lately, security in Kabul has degraded over the past week or so following a number of riots and a pretty large, negative shift in anti-American sentiment. On Thursday morning I received the following email from my supervisor/host Nasrine Gross:

Hi Joe,
You probably have heard of the troubles in security in Kabul on Tuesday. I
was caught in the Parliament building with so many bullets flying all over
and I had a major problem getting back home (new home is too isolated and
nobody was willing to take me there, etc.). Right now the sentiment in the
city is extremely anti-American. Even my very good Mujaheddin friends are
cursing and hostile in front of me. If this continues which I think it
will, I am not sure how safe the place will be for. In the normal
situation I have a secure environment. But now, the situation is
very critical and I know that I cannot provide the kind of security needed
and necessary. Even the government is incapable of providing
security. All of a sudden, ISAF and the Coalition have disappeared from the
streets. There are no more patrols, no foreigners can be seen on the
streets, everyone is afraid to talk to or talk about foreigners, which is a
very different situation than a week ago.

If it is not too much of a trouble and loss of funds, it would certainly be
better if you come later in the year, perhaps in late Autumn, or next
year. I feel very bad as I have loads of work waiting for you to come and
dive in. But at the same time, I have to be very frank with myself and see
the reality of the situation right now. Please let me know of your
decision.

With many regrets,
ng


With the support of the Clinton School, I have decided that I will not be travelling to Kabul this summer. Though I am willing to accept a certain amount of risk, I feel that continuing on with my plans under the circumstances would unfairly pass the burden of my safety onto others and would limit my (and my host organization) ability to achieve any substantive goals this summer. At this point, making it all the way to Afghanistan only to spend my entire summer shut away in a house for the sake of safety would be an even bigger disappointment than not being able to go at all.

Though I will not be abroad this summer I do hope to maintain a working relationship with Nasrine and the Roqia Center. Hopefully I will be able to help them out in some small way while still here the States. Looking ahead, I'd like to try again to make the Kabul trip a year from now after the completion of my Capstone project in the spring.

I doubt I'll add to this blog for a few months, but I'll have it up and running again when I begin my Capstone project with the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative this fall.

Thank you all for the kind emails and comments and I hope to talk to you soon.











107 anti-malarial pills and no malaria!