A solo trek across Afghanistan

I am working my way through books left by departing children. This book ‘The Places In Between’ by Rory Stewart about a solo trek across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul 2002 was probably left by J1 who has spent considerable time there.

 

What do I want to say first about it? Apart from the fact that it is beautifully written it is joy inducing and inspiring to come across a prominent politician (he is now MP for Penrith and the Border) with a long history of service who so patently has both integrity and humanity.  I found it touching and very human that he spent periods of his lonely trek going over in his head all the things he had done wrong in his life.  He was 31 at the time.

Stand proud Rory Stewart OBE. You are awesome.

The list of his achievements in Wikipedia is endless and shameful to us ordinary mortals who achieve so little with our lives – defence select committee, minister for the environment, minister of state for international development, for Africa. Since January 2018 he is now Minister for Prisons.

What did I learn from the book? No wonder we failed in Afghanistan!  The tribal differences are huge and if they are not fighting against an invader, they are fighting against each other.

On the plus side, the tradition of hospitality to a guest is something we can all learn from.

OK, he could speak Dari and is obviously super human intelligent, but we can do things outside our comfort zone, we can believe in the goodness of strangers and one person can have an impact.