Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Philosophical Discussions at the Kandahar Auto-Shop

"People are the same wherever you go" is a line from Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's "Ebony and Ivory". Observe:
As ridiculous as that video may be, I've found that one line to hold true in most cases. The best example of this I encountered at the Al Hadi Auto Repair shop on KAF. A quick word about Al Hadi - it's a group of Afghans and TCNs (Third Country Nationals) who are incredible workers. Most efficient group on KAF as far as I'm concerned.

Last time I went to bring the Ed. Center's vehicle for maintenance I was greeted warmly (as is always the case) with many handshakes and small pleasantries, but this time I was going to be in there for a while - needed an oil chance, rotating the tires, radiator needed replacing etc. I really got down to talking with one of the interpreters for the Al Hadi workers.

His name is Mahmoud and he's from Eastern India. He's a few years older than me, has many sisters (although a few more than the number of sisters I have, which is three) all of them married, all living all over this side of the world. There the similarities start, my sisters each live in a different city and are all each in a wide variety of fields and situations. He is single, albeit waiting for a semi-arranged marriage by his parents (there's a difference, but if my parents had there way it probably wouldn't be), and says he's unencumbered by the responsibilities of having a family and so he is free to seek out an adventurous opportunity like coming to Afghanistan - now I'm reeling and break down and tell him, "we are the same".

Without my beard, I suspect we'd even look alike. The similarities just kept on coming. His parents wanted him first to be a doctor of some kind followed by a lawyer or some other profession requiring lots of extra schooling, which he still may pursue some day. I'm practically speechless.

Neither of us breach the topic of religion (I'm fairly certain based on several things that he comes from a Muslim family), but I'm sure we'd find further similarities there as well. The song Ebony and Ivory gets stuck in my head when he starts talking about how hard it is to get his whole family together at a given point when this one lives there and that one lives there. I'd try to rewrite the lyrics but I guess I would just replace the title words to "Mahogany and Cherryyyyyyyy" continuing on the theme of nice furniture building materials and skin colors...

People really are the same wherever you go.

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