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.