On the Other

Somewhere in Afghanistan …

"Is he talking to America?" asks a long, thin man wearing a turban, tunic, and sandals. He looks like the leader. Tajmir nods. The soldiers keep on watching Bob. Tajmir makes small talk with them; they are interested only in the phone and how it works. They have hardly seen a telephone before. One of them exclaims in a sad voice, "Do you know what our problem is? We know everything about our weapons, but we know nothing about how to use a telephone?"

Source: Seierstad, Asne. The Bookseller of Kabul. Little, Brown & Company, 2002.