Max tells me he’s saving up enough money to go to Europe. He’ll go undocumented, but he’ll be fine. He’ll purchase fake papers and get a good smuggler.
I tell him that’s a phenomenally dangerous plan, and try to scare him with stories of Afghans beaten by Greek cops and imprisoned in terrible Italian jails.
Max stares at his cup of tea and tells me a story about danger.
His brother Habib, a 27 year old lawyer, moved to Kabul and began to drink the water there. Habib didn’t get sick, but the minerals in the tap water built up in his kidneys. Eventually, he developed a terrible kidney stone and needed to have it treated at the hospital. On his way, a suicide bomber crossed his path.
“If only he didn’t drink the water.”
To that, I have no response.
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