Hector Vila: Witnessing a journey into exile

As I write this, I’m on my way to Kigali, Rwanda, where I will be among young, exiled Afghans attending the SOLA School (School of Leadership, Afghanistan) for seven weeks, teaching two three-week courses in Writing, first for seniors and then for ninth through eleventh graders. 

As thousands of Afghans desperate to leave the country converged on the airport in Kabul, Middlebury College graduate Shabana Basij-Rasikh stood in front of a furnace at an undisclosed location in the region and fed into its fire a steady diet of paper do … (read more)