Schooled by the Taliban

BOSTON — Ever since that crystal clear fall morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Sally Goodrich has been on a journey.

It led her to Afghanistan, where she has spent the last several years reaching out to the very country where the hijackers who took the life of her son, Peter, were trained, funded and inspired. Hers was a long journey toward healing and then hope.

But last week it took a dramatic turn that reveals much about Afghanistan and how dramatically the situation there is deteriorating these days. It shows how aggressively and successfully the Taliban is reasserting control of life in every corner of the country.

It’s a turn that would leave a less hardy traveler on the road of life completely disillusioned, perhaps even bitter. But that’s not Sally.

Let’s start at the beginning of her journey.

On Sept. 11, Sally’s tall, handsome, fun-loving son, Peter, 33, was on board the second plane that went into the twin towers. He was traveling for his work as a software engineer.

After many months in the valley of despair that comes with losing a child, Sally caught a glimpse of sunlight that led her out of the darkness. She was pointed there by her late son’s best friend, a Marine, who was serving in Afghanistan.

From the war zone the Marine wrote to Sally, a reading teacher in the western Massachusetts town of North Adams, that Afghanistan needed her help as an educator. The students in the war-ravaged country, he informed her, desperately needed school supplies.

Sally answered the call. She began collecting school supplies everywhere she could and delivered them to Afghanistan. Her story touched many hearts. Eventually, she raised $250,000 and decided in 2006 to use the funds to build a girls' school in Afghanistan's Logar Province.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/afghanistan/090416/schooled-the-taliban