By Kate Reardon
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Substitute teacher John Pearson wanted to learn more about Afghanistan.
So on Sunday, he joined about 70 others at the Everett Public Library for a program on the land, people and culture of Afghanistan.
Former Peace Corps volunteers Stephanie Woerfel, Chad Kinzel and Tom Peebles presented two hours of slides, clothing and personal stories to the group.
The trio led the audience through dozens of slides that showed Afghanistan and its people in the 1970s, the various years each spent time there.
Several people stayed after and gathered in a circle where an impromptu discussion focused on U.S. foreign policy and war.
Others left with what they came for.
"I’m leaving this with some wonderful images of what Afghanistan was like at a time of relative peace," Pearson said. "We all need to learn more about people in other cultures. (The country) is a mosaic of amazing cultures."
Pearson said it’s important to try to learn more about people in Afghanistan because the U.S. is at war on their soil.
The country looks a lot different now, Peebles said, explaining that many of the images during Sunday’ presentation show villages and towns that now are nothing more than rubble.
But, even these 30-year-old pictures show modest living arrangements of mud brick homes. No electricity. No running water.
Kinzel said unfortunately, many in the country didn’t understand that you shouldn’t go to the bathroom in the same river water that you wash your fruits and vegetables.
"The first year we were there, you name it, we got it," he said of worms and Giardia, intestinal infections.
Woerfel recalls a humbling experience of riding on a bus that was overloaded with not only people, but animals as well.
"I rode for four hours with a 100-pound sheep on my lap," she said.
Showing his slides, Kinzel pointed out how mountainous the country is. There villages are built on hillsides. And it’s very cold there in the winter, he said.
It’s a country with an incredible landscape including snow-topped mountains and dusty deserts.
"It looks like the moon," he said.
But the people were the nicest Kinzel had ever met. Everyone would invite you in even if you had never met them, he said.
Woerfel said that while she was in the country, she had befriended a family that later gave her a beautiful rug.
"They presented us with a carpet that would take a year’s salary to buy," she said.
You can call Herald Writer Kate Reardon at 425-339-3455 or send e-mail to
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