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...