Salaam Melaykem and Welcome!

Salaam! Hello, as they say in Dari.

Welcome to my Afghanistan blog. This is the first time I have put one of these together, so it will look a bit amateurish (thanks to the folks at blogger.com for making it so easy to get up and running). I hope you will find it interesting, and encourage your input, after I get my e-feet wet. Like any blog, this will be a living document, especially in as dynamic a place as Afghanistan.

First a bit of background on me. My name is Aaron. I am an officer with the U.S. Department of State, a diplomat. I am a Louisiana native, coming from a medium-sized town, Lake Charles, Louisiana, sort of the far western boundary of Acadiana, or Cajun land. I worked for a few years as an attorney in New Orleans, enjoying myself thoroughly, but when the opportunity arose to travel the world on someone else's nickel, I took it. I have been doing this now for almost eight years. Like everything else, this will get fleshed out with subsequent entries.

A quick blurb about where I am. I live and work in Bamyan (Bamiyan, Bamian, there are lots of spellings, but the pronunciation is BAM-EE-YAN), the capital of Bamyan Province, Afghanistan. It is also the unofficial capital of the Hazarajat region, that part of Afghanistan that is populated predominately by the Hazara minority. Bamyan is different from many other parts of the country, but as I am coming to realize, each province, each region has its own distinct flavor and essence, which comes as no surprise to long-time Afghanistan hands, but is news to many of us (like me) new to this region and this country.

The next few blurbs will be some background on my travails actually getting here, and from there we will focus on the meat and potatoes of blogging. Tasha kor, as they say here -- thanks for stopping by!