An Afghan family 'adopts' an American aid worker

Omidian was so close to the Muhajer family that she even disciplined the children. She remembers once when the 10-year-old son played cricket with his older brother without doing his homework first. When he got back and saw Omidian, "He knew he'd been had," she says, "and he burst out crying."

Perhaps the most touching gesture of the friendship between Omidian and the Muhajers came when Yousef moved the entire family, as he earlier had considered, to be with Omidian in Islamabad while she was working there.

She e-mails them daily now, and was even chatting with them when the bombing of Afghanistan started. She's concerned about how their life has changed. Living in such a volatile region, they have stocked up on rice, flour, and kerosene and are ready for an emergency, but they still try to maintain a normal daily life even though the children's school is closed. Gulcheen got up a few nights ago and woke the kids up. She was convinced planes were flying overhead, ready to attack.

It's nothing new for the Muhajers. They lived in Kabul until the early 1990s.

"The oldest three kids remember rockets landing around them, and friends of theirs being killed," Omidian says. "And they're scared. They wrote me [an e-mail] and said every time a plane flies over, they grab their hearts and get nervous. They just don't know what's going to happen."

But for Omidian, this behind-the-curtain look at Afghan family life was spliced together with a more difficult task: working with Afghan refugees and dealing with the Taliban. She has worked with Taliban members whose focus is on working and supporting their families. "I would say actually a very tiny percentage of Taliban [members] really believe Taliban [teachings]," she says. "Most are just trying to survive."

Before Sept. 11, Omidian felt that the anti-American sentiment in Pakistan was small, and she never felt threatened. Now, however, her colleagues tell her nongovernmental organizations have been ransacked and anti-American sentiment has grown.

Riots are also more common. "The mobs are angry at being disenfranchised, and they see this as another example, so it's not safe now for many of my Pakistani and Afghan friends," Omidian says.

Misinterpretation of American culture was widespread even before the war.

"I can't tell you how many people watch 'Baywatch,' and they think that's America," says Omidian, who notes that she and the Muhajers have become closer since the war.

"I feel like I have been ripped out of my home and sent away from them, and they're in danger and I'm not. And I'm worried about that."

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