Excerpt from the travel Journal of Barbara Gerten

Don took my picture with my bags as I waited at Gate E7. It is a beautiful - in fact a perfect - day in Minnesota with no clouds, low 80's and low humidity. Don is on his way to Norfolk, Nebraska to adjust a fire loss. The time of 3:00 p.m. is Central Daylight Savings Time.

Until a year and a half ago I gave Afghanistan little thought. The only thing I could have told you was that Marco Polo traveled through Afghanistan on his way east to discover whatever was there to discover. Now I am off to this place ten and a half time zones away sharing the same longitude as Colorado to discover for myself the circumstance of people impacted by war, insecurity and reconstruction. I am setting out to make connections, learn from them what is needed, and learn how things get done.

Talk is easy, being concerned is easy; now I want to roll up my sleeves and do something for people affected by war. I want to work for peace through peaceful means: respectful, caring relationships and humanitarian programs, especially education. I grew up in a rural area of Montana on a ranch yet that didn't keep me from a good education. From the time my ancestors arrived in the Bear's Paw Mountains near the rugged Missouri River breaks, the school sections were taken seriously. A one-room schoolhouse was built and a teacher was recruited and all children came to learn. We valued education.

Both are terribly difficult but of war and peace, I believe that war is the easier - like knocking over toy building blocks; peace is the harder process of stacking them into a meaningful structure. I would rather dedicate my time to the hard work of peace-making.....