Thoughts from Talmage in Afghanistan

Today I met a boy, maybe 10. He talks the language of an angry soldier and clearly hates Americans (I wonder if he knows I am one). With a grunt and exaggerated hand shake he agreed to sit down and then would not look at me. It took several minutes before he began to lay out some of his art work proudly displaying his drawings and attempts at writing - some violent, some silly and mostly just boy stuff. I made a purple airplane and wrote his name on the wing and said he was now a pilot. He did my portrait in stick figures.

Behind the bravado is a boy hiding the shame of years of sexual abuse by the militants that kidnapped him from home. He’s taken on the profiles of his abusers but is really just a boy seeking attachment and caring relationships he can trust.

I am getting boring and his lunch is waiting. Just like that, he waves goodbye and takes off with a fistful of watermelon slices.

Talmage