The Landing

Jon and I stood waiting in baggage claim with a welcome sign. As we scrutinized every face that appeared at the top of the escalator, we both acknowledged that we were nervous. And then there he was, our "son."

His journey to the US had taken 3 days. It started with a 13 hour bus ride from the American Councils orientation camp in Punjab, India, to the Delhi airport. Flights and layovers from Delhi to Dubai to Washington DC to LA took another 33 hours.

As we made our introductions, I was relieved to discover that his English is quite proficient and his accent did not get in the way much. 

My friend, Robin, passed on some great advice that she got before traveling to Tibet: "If you want to understand someone with an accent, don't listen to the accent." I'm taking that on.

We drove straight to Pasadena, then stopped for an early dinner. Shakib wanted pizza, so Calfornia Pizza Kitchen it was. It turned out that he hadn't eaten for 13 hours and was ravenous. He liked the pizza and the pasta that we ordered. We started to serve him some of our chopped salad then realized that it contained salami, i.e. pork. Oops!

Shakib is charming, confident, polite and very bright, and chatted easily with us over dinner. Upon arriving at our home, he presented us with gifts: Afghan and Indian jewelry for me and traditional Afghan clothing -  a perahan tunban and matching pants for Jon. It fit perfectly.

He met his first American girls - the granddaughters of our neighbor who are visiting from Vegas. Then he and Jon went to an outdoor concert in the park where Jon is manning the United Nations Association booth.

All day, I've been thinking about his parents in Afghanistan. It takes courage to send your teenage child (the youngest of 7) to the other side of the planet and trust that others will care and provide for him. It also takes great love to give him such an opportunity. They haven't seen Shakib since he left for the orientation camp a month ago and must be missing him terribly. I am sure that an empty nest feels the same all over the world. Kabul time is 11 1/2 hours ahead of us so I'll have him Skype them before bed.

We have learned other things about his background, but I'll save that for another day. He might be wide awake, but I'm exhausted.