I know there are likely to be weightier matters to blog about this evening but I've just returned from a fascinating talk given by a Lexington dentist on her trip to Afghanistan and it's fresh on my mind.
Teresa Dawahare Lyon is a dentist who lives in Lexington. As part of a mission to Afghanistan, Teresa provided badly needed dental services (and female role-modeling) to the people of Kabul, Afghanistan recently.
She gave a very interesting talk about the people and the situation there and presented us with some terrific slides of her trip. The thing that struck me most about the pictures she presented is that, for the first time ever, she told us the ages of the people in the pictures. Folks, you would not believe how YOUNG some of these Afghanis are that look like they're 70ish! The average life expectancy of an Afghani male is 45 years. The Afghani men I've been seeing in pictures all over magazines, newpapers, the internet, and elsewhere that I had previously assumed to be elderly are in their early to late 40s!! The women had the same elderly look in their 40s as well. I was utterly astonished at this bit of news. These people have lived very hard lives; we all knew that, I suppose. The interesting thing is that it never occurred to me that they could be MY AGE and look 70 years old!
Teresa spoke of the good work being done over there. Some of which is being done by Christian missions. This, in part, may explain why the mainstream press is not covering all of the good work being done in Afghanistan by Americans and others in the world community. Isn't it a shame?
I wish I had a website to link you to but, unfortunately, Teresa hasn't put any of the pictures of her story online.
Teresa Dawahare Lyon is a dentist who lives in Lexington. As part of a mission to Afghanistan, Teresa provided badly needed dental services (and female role-modeling) to the people of Kabul, Afghanistan recently.
She gave a very interesting talk about the people and the situation there and presented us with some terrific slides of her trip. The thing that struck me most about the pictures she presented is that, for the first time ever, she told us the ages of the people in the pictures. Folks, you would not believe how YOUNG some of these Afghanis are that look like they're 70ish! The average life expectancy of an Afghani male is 45 years. The Afghani men I've been seeing in pictures all over magazines, newpapers, the internet, and elsewhere that I had previously assumed to be elderly are in their early to late 40s!! The women had the same elderly look in their 40s as well. I was utterly astonished at this bit of news. These people have lived very hard lives; we all knew that, I suppose. The interesting thing is that it never occurred to me that they could be MY AGE and look 70 years old!
Teresa spoke of the good work being done over there. Some of which is being done by Christian missions. This, in part, may explain why the mainstream press is not covering all of the good work being done in Afghanistan by Americans and others in the world community. Isn't it a shame?
I wish I had a website to link you to but, unfortunately, Teresa hasn't put any of the pictures of her story online.
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