In the 80’s (I was in my 20’s and had just gotten out of military) a local Hospital in Southern Maine had sponsored a bunch of young Afghani children giving them free surgeries and Orthopedic care. My buddy’s wife was a nurse there & told me as I had shown interest in the Russian/Afghani war etc. So I visited a bunch of times and befriended a few teens who had lost their legs from landmines & general crossfire. They had one Pashtun speaking woman as interpreter. So here’s the crazy part...I brought a stack of Soldier of Fortune magazines that had Afghan war articles & pictures and we cut out the pics together. The teens LOVED the pics of their homeland and of course they looked up to the mujahideen fighters. One day a boy was going through the dozens of pics we cut out and held one up exclaiming something and the interpreter lady said he says that’s his Uncle?!! The kids taped the pics by their beds...man makes me tear up today.
In the 80’s (I was in my 20’s and had just gotten out of military) a local Hospital in Southern Maine had sponsored a bunch of young Afghani children giving them free surgeries and Orthopedic care. My buddy’s wife was a nurse there & told me as I had shown interest in the Russian/Afghani war etc. So I visited a bunch of times and befriended a few teens who had lost their legs from landmines & general crossfire. They had one Pashtun speaking woman as interpreter. So here’s the crazy part...I brought a stack of Soldier of Fortune magazines that had Afghan war articles & pictures and we cut out the pics together. The teens LOVED the pics of their homeland and of course they looked up to the mujahideen fighters. One day a boy was going through the dozens of pics we cut out and held one up exclaiming something and the interpreter lady said he says that’s his Uncle?!! The kids taped the pics by their beds...man makes me tear up today.