EDITOR'S NOTE: Bill Wright is a self-employed businessman turned photographer. He travels exotic locales and captures in photographs the lives, emotions and cultures of people for his love of art, and because it helps him make better business decisions. He was recently named one of Abilene's 10 Most Influential by the Abilene Reporter-News. Following is an e-mailed journal entry to family and friends about his newest adventure - a trip to Kabul, Afghanistan.

Fardeen was about fifteen minutes late today. He was very apologetic. The traffic clotted all the roads into a slow moving viscous stream and all you could do was go with the flow, he said. This day my plan was to interview all of the students about their home and family and other issues that might come to mind during the discussion.

While the students downloaded their files from the previous day’s shooting, I scouted the building with Sarah to find a quiet corner that could be used for the interviews. I planned to use Fardeen to translate my questions and the answers so that there would be less chance for misunderstanding. We finally settled on the big gallery room and brought in three chairs to pull to the small table in one corner of the room.

The system worked pretty well. My little Sony digital recorder picked up the voices pretty good and Fardeen’s voice was strong and clear. I knew the spelling and unfamiliarity with the names would be a problem for my assistant, Kimberly, when she began to transcribe the files in Abilene, but we would just have to do the best we could.

I developed a short format for the questions beginning with the date and time and the name of the respondent. Then I began asking questions about the family---how many children, what the parents did, where they lived--- etc. I found that the students had many similarities.

They all came from large families and all had at least one parent living with them. Often that parent was not able to work. Many were disabled from gunshot wounds or illness. One from mental illness. Income from other family members was all the kept them afloat. Most of my students were in school now that they had been “rescued” by ASCHIANA and were progressing through the system. When asked about their vocational plans, most wanted to be doctors or other higher income professionals, one dreamed of being a pilot for an airline, and of course, all wanted photography to be a part of their life. Public service---helping others---seemed important to each of them.

Since one of my hoped for personal outcomes from the trip was to learn more about what was actually happening in Afghanistan, I always threw in a couple of questions about the war and its impact on their lives. Their answers were reasonably uniform. Life was more settled under the Taliban. That they liked. There was less uncertainity. Life was stable. That was the end of the plusses. The Taliban’s harsh religious hand made life for those with knowledge of the outside world, difficult to understand. However, most of the students were very young during the times of the Taliban so they remembered little of what it was really like.

The oldest student, now attending Kabul University, grew up in a village near the Iranian border. During the war with Russia, his family moved to Iran and stayed there till it was over. They moved back to their old village where the brothers all had small businesses and the father was a farmer. [I didn’t ask what he raised…] Mohammed announced after graduating from public school there that he wanted to go to college but his father said he didn’t need that and wanted him to begin work. He left for Kabul anyway and supported himself on the street while attending the university.

Mohammed says that his family has accepted his decision now and that he receives a small amount of money from them for assistance. When he returns to the village to visit, he has to grow a full beard because the Taliban have re-occupied the territory.

My final question was to ask the students to tell me what they would like to say to America.

They all were pleased that I had come a long way to work with them and wanted to express their appreciation for the many donors that had made the acquisition of the digital cameras for ASCHIANA possible. Most of them were aware of and grateful for the aid and support America had provided their country and wanted to say thank you on behalf of their country. Finally, as they got up to leave, their eyes met mine and they said, “don’t leave us.” They dreaded the instability that they knew would follow until their government grew strong enough to protect the people.

It was a sobering thought to know that one of these days we WILL be leaving Afghanistan.

I was thinking about these issues as I undressed for bed. In just a few short minutes later, my thoughts turned to pain relief. It had been a hot, tiring, but focused day. I showered, and sat down a bit too hard on the firm mattress and immediately I felt a shooting pain in my back, hip and leg. My old tennis injury had come back with a vengeance. It didn’t take a physical exam to tell me something was seriously wrong. I tried every position to relieve the burning, throbbing leg and back. Nothing worked although standing seemed to be the best position so I was up and down the rest of the night and taking as much Advil and I thought my stomach could stand. It seemed the morning and the chance to get some stronger medicine, would never come.

While I was tossing and turning, another thought burst into my consciousness. How was I going to get home on Sunday. It was obvious to me that I could not tolerate the pain of squeezing my 6’3” frame into the tiny coach seats for over 23 hours of flying plus the waiting time between flights.

Tomorrow: The solution