Kabul in Winter

Just finished reading Ann Jones' Kabul in Winter, published in 2006. Tough book to read, not because she doesn't write well because she does. There are several other books I have started but not finished because they were so negative, but this one I couldn't let go of because Ann is so much like me - same age, many of the same passions. There are three sections, In the Streets, In the Prisons and In the Schools. Having spent so many years working in jails and prisons here in the US, I found the Prisons sections fascinating but frightening. And the section on Schools was downright discouraging.

I've read quite a few books by American women living in the Afghan culture. This is the first one that made me question my ability to have any useful function in Afghanistan. Not that I'm getting cold feet yet. But if I thought that going there would enable me to get away from the materialistic culture of the US, it seems that so many of the worst sort of Americans are over there now, milking the aid environment in the worst possible ways.