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Wilkes County Human Library: Laura Gentry - Afghanistan in the 60s

The Human Library is very much like a regular library where people go to check out books. The only difference is that the books are all human volunteers that can be 'borrowed' for conversation.

Laura (second from right) and her twin sister, the 'dancing queen' of Afghanistan

at the Jeslyn Festival 1968

Laura with brother and twin sister at a reunion for the American International School of Kabul. 

Laura and Jack McLarney

AISK classmates

Afghanistan in the 1960s

Afghanistan in the 60's was vastly different when traditional and western values coexisted peacefully.  By the late 1960s Kabul Afghanistan was once known as the Paris of Central Asia.  I was in the 5th and 6th grades at the American International School of Kabul while my father worked with the US AID ministry of education helping develop a curriculum for primary education.  USAID was created under federal legislation in 1961, bringing together several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs for foreign economic development. 

The book Caravans, by James Michener, was just written and is about the nomad tribes that adopted an American teenager as part of their tribe and her adventures.  The AISK school students formed incredible bonds of friendship and memories of a time of peace and adventure similar to Michener's book.