can't you put her in a BURQA!?!!?!

These were the words of a girl who was desperate to see me in Afghanistan. She was the daughter of a worker that we employed for some time in the past. A wonderful family who lives in a pretty conservative part of the capital city. Her life is lived behind a blue burqa that hides her comings and her goings...everyday, everywhere. Bringing a foreigner to her house would be dangerous for her and her family. So when she found out that I was in the same city again as her, when I visited last fall, she flipped out and begged her father to disguise me in a burqa just so I could visit and see her. Her father, like a second father to me, sadly denied and said that it was too dangerous for them.

But this would not hold her back. The night before I was to leave...she called me on my cell phone. At first with the flurry of excitement from her, I didn't recognize her. As she calmed down...I could hear her voice. OH so excited that she even got to talk to me and full of apologies that they couldn't bring me over to their house and prepare the most wonderful meal for me. I was actually glad to not be brought over, never wanting to put my local friends and family at risk.

So as we chatted, I just smiled. I pictured her in her world of which I have been able to visit in much earlier, safer years. Her world, her house, her yard. I prayed that somehow just knowing me that she would sense a window open up to another world. Making her world a bit bigger than the yard her physical body was held captive to most often.

One day, I'll go back...and get to see her giddy happiness not only to talk to me, but see each other in person. Just even thinking about that makes me smile.