American International School of Kabul
February 2002 (Archive)
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American International School of Kabul
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Home > Multimedia Library > Past Issues > February 2002 
Kirk Haws and Peg Podlich share their photos with us in this issue:
Thanks Kirk and Peg! AFGHANISTAN - A COUNTRY STUDY Peter Blood brought my attention to "AFGHANISTAN - A Country Study" in a recent email. I have added this link to the Related Links section of this site. Peter writes that Tom Gouttierre was a co-author (together with the incomparable Nancy Hatch Dupree) of the "The Society and Its Environment" chapter of this study which Peter edited. Here's the rest of Peter's email: "I recently visited your great web site and was interested to see two familiar names mentioned in the Guest Book discussion -- Bob Neff and Tom Gouttierre. In 1970, after graduating from high school in Athens, Greece, I traveled to Islamabad to join a small group that was organized by Bob Neff for the purpose of visiting the Soviet Union. We went all over Russia, across Siberia, and eventually ended up in Outer Mongolia.
During that trip, Neff showed himself to be a person of great exuberance, wit, curiosity, and personal warmth ... Although I never had him as a teacher at AISK, my sisters said he was the very best. He will be greatly missed." Mr. Neff passed away in September 2001. |
MYSTERY SCORPIONS Can you guess who these Scorpions are? Enter your guesses in the Guest Book.
The mystery Scorpions in last month's issue were Danny Hilario, Victor Rutherford and Kirk Haws - also shown as the young man riding the camel in Kabul.
BETSY NOORZAY WRITES... I taught 7th & 8th grade English and Social Studies and Jr. & Sr. High Drama. In Fall of 65, I went back to the States to have daughter Tamima (Tami) and returned to take over the Librarian's (Mrs. Hendrickson's) job the next year. My husband Nasim (an Afghan) taught Jr. High Math and Science for a couple of years somewhere in that period. I remember he had Peter Alexander in Science. I helped design the new Instructional Media Center which was to take the place of the old Library. I never got to use it though because we left before it was in use. I was there for the champagne evening opening dedication. But on the day the books were going to be moved in, Nasim, Tami and I were on a plane out of Kabul. We had been warned by Afghan friends that things were going to get worse and our situation would be compromised. Already, since the first coup, we had been warned by people that our Afghan servants were supposed to report our visits to foreigners' homes. We lived a kind of self-enforced curfew after work hours. Twice we were threatened by servants, so we decided not to tempt fate. When the chance came to leave, we did. But, I'll never forget our ten years there or AISK, which is the best school I ever experienced. I have since worked at a K-to-12 Alternative school, as the Librarian, but I think that AISK offered a much higher quality education. It was more innovative -- possibly because it did not have to answer to a school system. Now we are both retired and I spend part of my time painting -- have done several paintings of Afghans. Occasionally, I show my work and sell it. From 1988-94 I did a rather large series of mixed media pieces dealing with breast cancer based on my own experience. Some of that work has been published. Nasim spends a lot of his day gardening. He also helped convert and restore a church nearby into a Mosque. Two years ago he was able to go on the Haj. Our daughter Tami (who was in Ann Mitchell's kindergarten class, Joyce Walters 1st grade, Betty Wiedenkopf's 2nd grade and I've forgotten the name of her third grade teacher) lives in Vista, CA. She is a mother with three kids and volunteers teaching art in the classroom. Someday if she stops having kids, she wants to get her teaching credential. She graduated in Art from UC San Diego. That's enough about us.
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