Love and War 149-253

The first story of Nikolai Mironenko, I thought was very hard to understand. It was very bizzare to me that he was ok with converting to Islam and living with the mujahedeen. He didn't see his family for years and he didn't write to them out of fear, but it seemed that he didn't want to tell his family because they would have been disapointed. I wish that it had talked about more of his reasoning for converting to Islam and remaining in Afghanistan. I understand that he addressed the point of being a traitor in the eyes of a Soviet, but it still confuses me. It makes sense that he did not want to anger the commander but, he so willingly converted, making it difficult for me to wrap my head around it. It just seems that he would have perferd to return to his family and homeland of the Ukrane, instead of starting a whole new life in Afghanistan. This story also affected me because it protrayed Afghanistan as bruital and horrible. When he speaks of the women and her sheep that they stole and his caravan being bombed it was so graphic and terrifying. why did he want to stay in such an area with great poverty and the dangerous conditions.
The story of Bibi Maryam really effected me. Her life seemed very "normal" at the start. The only thing that was hard to comprehend was the fact the she was one of three wives, but that is understandable in Afghan culture. Things seemed to be going well for her until her husband joined the mujahedeen. Thene verything just seemd to go down hill although her and her children weren't really involved with the fighting between the Soviets and the mujahedeen. However in the middle fo the situacion two of her children were killed. It then amazed me that her last surviving son was imprisoned because of drug trafficing, and he was framed. Conditions in Afghanistan were really brought to my attention in this story because they didn't have anywhere to live and when they finally did they did not even have windows or doors to protect them from the elements.
I really enjoy reading these stories in Love and War but they just put me in such a sad mood and bring me down because life is so much different than lives here in the US or even Western Europe. Its just crazy to think that such horrible things are going over there and people are so unaware and ignorant. It really intereasts me and I really enjoy learning and reading these stories. It puts everything in "true" perspective for me.