April 14, 1978 Translated from my journal, perspective of an eleven year old
I turned eleven today! Baba gave me two big drawing pads. My brothers gave me drawing paper and crayons. Mammi gave me an Afghanistan dress. I also got two pens and an owl from little brother. A teddy bear. A treasure map from big brother, a pair of underwear from Mammi. After my treasure hunt I found the prize from big brother, a nice jackel fur. It was really nice! (Journal shows drawings of presents).
I had my birthday party. I invited my whole class, this is who came: (I left off the last names for the blog) Tamim (his house would get bombed in a few days), Yasser, Markus, Stefan, Nadia, Seema, Ann-Marie, Kamudu, Lisa, Line, Rebecca, Beatrice, Christina, Karin, Viken.
April 27, 1978
The WORST thing that has happened in my whole life.
I was cleaning my closet because Rebecca was coming over to spend the night. Mammi had driven over to Vera and Sten to borrow a mattress for my friend. My little brothers went with her. All of a sudden I heard something that sounded like someone shot a gun. I quickly ran to ask Baba what was happening. He said, "I think they are just training." Then the doorbell rang and I went to open it. It was Mammi and my two little brothers. Then it started sounding like this "BOM! BOM! BOM! ratatata...BOM! ratatata...BOM! BOM! An hour later small airplanes started flying over our house. Baba said, "if they start to shoot a lot close to our house we will need to go down to the basement." Mammi started taking out our passports if we needed to escape out of the country fast. A few minutes later they started shooting really close to the house. "We have to go down to the basement" Baba said in a calm voice. We ran down to the basement, the door was from the outside. Just as we got to the basement we threw ourselves on the floor, because a plane was coming close. When we were in the basement we sat on short stools under the upper windows. There were scorpions on the floor. When things calmed down, we sat against the stone walls. I prayed to God, I was so scared. I didn't want to die. I had just turned eleven. Mammi and my two little brothers and I sat by the left wall. Baba and older brother sat by the right wall. It was too tight where I was sitting so I had to go to Baba's side. We sat in the basement for about three hours. Baba then went up with Wahead our friend, to cover up and darken the windows in Baba and Mammi's room. We waited another half hour. Baba was covering the windows in one bedroom so the planes couldn't see light from the air. Then Baba came and said, "Come now." It was ten something at night. We had everything ready in case we had to go to the basement again. Nobody slept that night. I heard machine gun fire and tanks shooting all night long. I prayed and prayed for God to protect us. When it was morning, it was April 28th. Baba listened to BBC. The news said there was a curfew at nine. The next day the curfew would be eleven o'clock. BBC told us that President Daud and his whole family had died. Afghanistan had a new president, and his name is Nore Mohammud Taraki. We did not go to school for three days. It was like world war three. Thank you good God that you protected us. (Journal has two pictures of my family hiding in the basement, and a drawing of Tamim's house being hit by a missile. Tamim was a boy in my class, thankfully no one was home when the house was hit).
THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESENT:
A couple of years ago I read a book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, the author of "The Kite Runner." In chapter fifteen it has the title APRIL 1978. He states the events of April 27th, but through an adults perspective. When I read it, I was transformed back to my own childhood and in my mind relived that eventful scary day. The facts that I state as an eleven year old about President Daoud dying were all true, and his whole family had been murdered. What had just happened in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 27, 1978, was indeed Daoud Khan had been killed. A rebel Fourth Armored Division had taken over the airport and places around Kabul. My father was a diplomat, and even with his status, we still could not get out of the country by plane. Kabul Radio, communication and foreign ministry buildings had all been taken over. Rebel MiGs had attacked the presidential palace. Tanks had broken into the area. My friend Rebecca who was supposed to come over for a sleep over, her mother had received a frantic phone call from the servant of the presidential palace. Rebecca's family were almost neighbors to the palace. The servant had sounded petrified, said they were all going to die, and if there was anyway the children to escape and come to my friends house. Then the phone call was cut off. As news would tell us, President Daoud Khan had been killed, and the communist rebels had murdered about twenty members of his family, which included women and grandchildren. Rumors would later spread that he had witnessed his family's execution, before being killed. A revolutionary council of armed forces had been established, and for a short amount of time the country would be called the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. A year later the Soviet Union would invade Afghanistan, and occupy the land for ten years. Afghanistan would not experience peace even after that, and continues to be at war presently. Next time I write I will share about the remaing two months we spent in Afghanistan, and eventually how we had to escape by car through war torn Afghanistan, and troubled Iran.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Feb. 14 -April 13, 1978 From my Afghanistan 1st journal
Valentines Day 14 Feb. 1978
Today was Valentines day. I won the Valentines contest for the entire school! This is what I did. I entered my little brother in the contest. He is four years old and I dressed him up as cupid. I did not have any tan colored clothes, so I made him wear my blue ballet leotard and blue stockings, and made him wings. He was a blue cupid. I won!
Feb. 17th, 1978
We went to a ski place. But we only had a quarter tank of gasoline. One of my brothers had 10 Afs, the older had 20 Afs. But you couldn't buy 5 liters for 30 Afs. That is when Baba (my dad) took out his old 50 Afs. Now 80 Afs. We got gasoline for that.
I made a little pig and named him Knorr. (Journal shows a drawing of it)
I made a little mouse and I named him Baby Face. (Journal shows drawing)
(Note from the present: Gasoline was hard to come by, there was a gasoline shortage in the late 1970's and you would have to line up and wait to buy gas. Sometimes we traded gas for duty free cigarettes).
Feb. 19th, 1978
I made a cat and named her Rainbow. (Drawing)
I made a little kitten too, her name is Snowfleece. (Drawing)
(Note from present, remember there wasn't any T.V. and I had a lot of time to make things and be creative. I don't particularly like sewing today, but as a ten year old I was crazy about it. I sewed all kinds of animals and played with them, or gave them as gifts).
Feb. 20th, 1978
I made a birthday card for Tant Olga, she is turning 89 years old.
(Note from the present: I would eventually inherit her costume jewelry box, since I wrote to her often).
March 1978
We drove to Jalalabad on Friday. On our way back our muffler broke. Late that night a taxi came. The taxi stopped. Then it pulled us back to Jalalabad. So on Saturday we couldn't go to school. (Remember, our school week was from Sat -Wed, weekends were Thur and Fri).
But we fixed the car in Jalalabad. We came home that afternoon. (Drawing of car in journal).
14 March 1978
It was very rainy. The wind blew and it was very cold. We practiced for the Joseph play at school. I am in the choir and also one of the prisoners.
15 March 1978
We had the Joseph play and his colorful happy coat. The play started 7:30 at night. After the play there was food to eat. In the play I was a prisoner. Lisa, Rim, Rachel and Mohamod were also prisoners. Pharaoh was Farid. Rodney was Joseph. My brother and some of his friends showed slides for the different scenes. There are 12 songs to the play also.
(Note from the present: The play I am referring to is about Joseph and his 11 brothers from the Bible. The words to the song I still remember, especially the part when I had to memorize the long list of multi colors on his coat).
(The jounal shows several pages of drawings of each of the characters in the play).
22 March, 1978
Today was farfars (grandfathers) birthday. We went to the Kabul Museum today. We saw things that looked like they were from Sweden, New Guinea, Samoa and other places, but the signs said they were from Nuristan.
23 March, 1978
I went to Rebecca's house to play. She had some disease. I might get that disease. Then little Hannah made up a dance.
24 March, 1978
We drove to Mazare-Sharif. We also drove through the sSalang tunnel, which is the worlds longest tunnel. We stayed at a hotel called Karavan Hotel. But we had to leave at 4 in the morning the next day.
25 March, 1978
Just outside of Mazare-Sharif when it was still dark. All of a sudden Mammi (my mom) screams "Watch out for the blockades!!!" So as soon as Baba (my dad - which really means father in Arabic) heard her scream, he slammed on the brakes. But it was too late....CRASH!!!
The whole wind shield was gone! We crashed into long poles that blocked the road. There weren't any lights, so we never saw the poles. All the glass crashed onto us. Mammi got a big sore on her nose, but we were lucky. We could have died!
(Note from the present: This was 1978, and before seat belts existed in a lot of cars. The reason I called my dad Baba, which means father in Arabic, is because when my brother was born, my parents lived in Algeria. All the little children called their fathers Baba, so that stuck with him. I imitated my brother, and now all four of us siblings call our father Baba to this day).
26 March, 1978
I got everything ready for Easter. Baba had to go talk to John W. We waited and waited and it got really late, so I went to bed. We celebrated Easter on March 27th instead. I made presents. I gave Baba two birds I made in a painted egg. For my brothers I made a red crocodile, a Snoopy costume, and Easter Bunny, for my little brother I made two owls, for our parrot I made him a stuffed parrot, and for Wahead a mask and for me a red rabbit.
Jesus died on a cross. (Drawing of Jesus in journal with two other crosses with thieves on them).
THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESENT:
I am one month away from turning eleven in my first jounal. And one month from the war (coup de tat) happening. My father had to go speak to a John W. Maybe it was a political reason. He was a diplomat working in Kabul at the time. Was there possible tension already in Afghanistan that I was not aware of as a child? Yes, of course. As I read my first jounal, I see the shorter sentences that I wrote, but it brings back more memories. I remember having a bunk bed with my brother, and we always had to make our bed, because scorpions would sometimes fall onto beds. Unmade beds were a great way for poisonous scorpions to hide and surprise us at night. At night my mom would often ask, Did you brush your teeth? Did you check your bed? We all knew that meant check for scorpions. Next week, I will experience a war at age eleven.
Today was Valentines day. I won the Valentines contest for the entire school! This is what I did. I entered my little brother in the contest. He is four years old and I dressed him up as cupid. I did not have any tan colored clothes, so I made him wear my blue ballet leotard and blue stockings, and made him wings. He was a blue cupid. I won!
Feb. 17th, 1978
We went to a ski place. But we only had a quarter tank of gasoline. One of my brothers had 10 Afs, the older had 20 Afs. But you couldn't buy 5 liters for 30 Afs. That is when Baba (my dad) took out his old 50 Afs. Now 80 Afs. We got gasoline for that.
I made a little pig and named him Knorr. (Journal shows a drawing of it)
I made a little mouse and I named him Baby Face. (Journal shows drawing)
(Note from the present: Gasoline was hard to come by, there was a gasoline shortage in the late 1970's and you would have to line up and wait to buy gas. Sometimes we traded gas for duty free cigarettes).
Feb. 19th, 1978
I made a cat and named her Rainbow. (Drawing)
I made a little kitten too, her name is Snowfleece. (Drawing)
(Note from present, remember there wasn't any T.V. and I had a lot of time to make things and be creative. I don't particularly like sewing today, but as a ten year old I was crazy about it. I sewed all kinds of animals and played with them, or gave them as gifts).
Feb. 20th, 1978
I made a birthday card for Tant Olga, she is turning 89 years old.
(Note from the present: I would eventually inherit her costume jewelry box, since I wrote to her often).
March 1978
We drove to Jalalabad on Friday. On our way back our muffler broke. Late that night a taxi came. The taxi stopped. Then it pulled us back to Jalalabad. So on Saturday we couldn't go to school. (Remember, our school week was from Sat -Wed, weekends were Thur and Fri).
But we fixed the car in Jalalabad. We came home that afternoon. (Drawing of car in journal).
14 March 1978
It was very rainy. The wind blew and it was very cold. We practiced for the Joseph play at school. I am in the choir and also one of the prisoners.
15 March 1978
We had the Joseph play and his colorful happy coat. The play started 7:30 at night. After the play there was food to eat. In the play I was a prisoner. Lisa, Rim, Rachel and Mohamod were also prisoners. Pharaoh was Farid. Rodney was Joseph. My brother and some of his friends showed slides for the different scenes. There are 12 songs to the play also.
(Note from the present: The play I am referring to is about Joseph and his 11 brothers from the Bible. The words to the song I still remember, especially the part when I had to memorize the long list of multi colors on his coat).
(The jounal shows several pages of drawings of each of the characters in the play).
22 March, 1978
Today was farfars (grandfathers) birthday. We went to the Kabul Museum today. We saw things that looked like they were from Sweden, New Guinea, Samoa and other places, but the signs said they were from Nuristan.
23 March, 1978
I went to Rebecca's house to play. She had some disease. I might get that disease. Then little Hannah made up a dance.
24 March, 1978
We drove to Mazare-Sharif. We also drove through the sSalang tunnel, which is the worlds longest tunnel. We stayed at a hotel called Karavan Hotel. But we had to leave at 4 in the morning the next day.
25 March, 1978
Just outside of Mazare-Sharif when it was still dark. All of a sudden Mammi (my mom) screams "Watch out for the blockades!!!" So as soon as Baba (my dad - which really means father in Arabic) heard her scream, he slammed on the brakes. But it was too late....CRASH!!!
The whole wind shield was gone! We crashed into long poles that blocked the road. There weren't any lights, so we never saw the poles. All the glass crashed onto us. Mammi got a big sore on her nose, but we were lucky. We could have died!
(Note from the present: This was 1978, and before seat belts existed in a lot of cars. The reason I called my dad Baba, which means father in Arabic, is because when my brother was born, my parents lived in Algeria. All the little children called their fathers Baba, so that stuck with him. I imitated my brother, and now all four of us siblings call our father Baba to this day).
26 March, 1978
I got everything ready for Easter. Baba had to go talk to John W. We waited and waited and it got really late, so I went to bed. We celebrated Easter on March 27th instead. I made presents. I gave Baba two birds I made in a painted egg. For my brothers I made a red crocodile, a Snoopy costume, and Easter Bunny, for my little brother I made two owls, for our parrot I made him a stuffed parrot, and for Wahead a mask and for me a red rabbit.
Jesus died on a cross. (Drawing of Jesus in journal with two other crosses with thieves on them).
THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESENT:
I am one month away from turning eleven in my first jounal. And one month from the war (coup de tat) happening. My father had to go speak to a John W. Maybe it was a political reason. He was a diplomat working in Kabul at the time. Was there possible tension already in Afghanistan that I was not aware of as a child? Yes, of course. As I read my first jounal, I see the shorter sentences that I wrote, but it brings back more memories. I remember having a bunk bed with my brother, and we always had to make our bed, because scorpions would sometimes fall onto beds. Unmade beds were a great way for poisonous scorpions to hide and surprise us at night. At night my mom would often ask, Did you brush your teeth? Did you check your bed? We all knew that meant check for scorpions. Next week, I will experience a war at age eleven.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Jan -Feb, 1978 Two months before the coup
19 Jan. 1978
The man who helps with the water pump fell down the ladder and cut himself. In the evening my dad and brother came home with fresh fish. Mom baked bread. I fixed Dad's yarn octupus today that I made him. About a week and a half ago we started school again and it started to snow. On Jan. 14th we were going ice skating. When Dad drove the car out it slid side ways because it was so cold. We drove the car in again. Vera, Viken, Sten and Ciri came over later. In the morning we made a snow bear. On Jan. 19th I sewed a little pig and named him Wilbur from the book. On 20 Jan. I sewed a mouse and named him Templeton. The next day I made a bear and named her Nantanall. It is the first bear I have made just for me, I have given all my other ones away. My favorite animal is a bear. When I was seven my family and I owned a real bear cub.
6 Feb. 1978
Today we had Afghan day at school. We all brought Afghan food to class. I brought Kofta.
PERSONAL REFLECTION FROM THE PRESENT 2009
I continue to write from the perspective of a ten year old living in Kabul, Afghanistan. I attended a small, private school called Ahlman Academy, and English speaking school. Our school week commenced on Saturday and ended on Wednesday. Our weekends were Thursday and Friday. Our school week was structured to accommodate the Afghan religious day which was on Fridays. It seemed only normal to me to be in school on Saturdays and Sundays. The reason for my sudden interest in sewing all kinds of animals out of scrap cloth and yarn, was probably due to the availability of time. Afghanistan in 1978 did not have any television stations, and so therefore we did not have t.v. for the year we lived there. This made it possible to be very creative and allowed plenty of time for me to write. As I am reading my first journal from 1978 and transcribing it onto this blog I am translating it from my native language, which was not English. My father was a diplomat working in Kabul at the time. The school I attended provided me with life long friends. The principal of our school was originally from California, on assignment with his wife and two younger children at Ahlman Academy. Little did I know at the time, that this couple was part of a Bible study group and church in U.S.A. that prayed for their continual safety. It was also in this Bible study group that my future in laws were and their twelve year old son that I would one day meet and marry as a young adult. The prayers of this group would become very important as the months would lead up to the coup, that would send us into hiding from machine gun fire and air assaults. More next week about my life...
The man who helps with the water pump fell down the ladder and cut himself. In the evening my dad and brother came home with fresh fish. Mom baked bread. I fixed Dad's yarn octupus today that I made him. About a week and a half ago we started school again and it started to snow. On Jan. 14th we were going ice skating. When Dad drove the car out it slid side ways because it was so cold. We drove the car in again. Vera, Viken, Sten and Ciri came over later. In the morning we made a snow bear. On Jan. 19th I sewed a little pig and named him Wilbur from the book. On 20 Jan. I sewed a mouse and named him Templeton. The next day I made a bear and named her Nantanall. It is the first bear I have made just for me, I have given all my other ones away. My favorite animal is a bear. When I was seven my family and I owned a real bear cub.
6 Feb. 1978
Today we had Afghan day at school. We all brought Afghan food to class. I brought Kofta.
PERSONAL REFLECTION FROM THE PRESENT 2009
I continue to write from the perspective of a ten year old living in Kabul, Afghanistan. I attended a small, private school called Ahlman Academy, and English speaking school. Our school week commenced on Saturday and ended on Wednesday. Our weekends were Thursday and Friday. Our school week was structured to accommodate the Afghan religious day which was on Fridays. It seemed only normal to me to be in school on Saturdays and Sundays. The reason for my sudden interest in sewing all kinds of animals out of scrap cloth and yarn, was probably due to the availability of time. Afghanistan in 1978 did not have any television stations, and so therefore we did not have t.v. for the year we lived there. This made it possible to be very creative and allowed plenty of time for me to write. As I am reading my first journal from 1978 and transcribing it onto this blog I am translating it from my native language, which was not English. My father was a diplomat working in Kabul at the time. The school I attended provided me with life long friends. The principal of our school was originally from California, on assignment with his wife and two younger children at Ahlman Academy. Little did I know at the time, that this couple was part of a Bible study group and church in U.S.A. that prayed for their continual safety. It was also in this Bible study group that my future in laws were and their twelve year old son that I would one day meet and marry as a young adult. The prayers of this group would become very important as the months would lead up to the coup, that would send us into hiding from machine gun fire and air assaults. More next week about my life...
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