Day 242: Hot Chocolate

Every where you go in Afghanistan, no matter who it is you meet, you will be offered a cup of chai or tea at some point during the encounter. Actually, you will probably be offered multiple cups of tea. Afghans live off this stuff. They have chai for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everywhere in between.

So what do you do if you don’t drink tea? As most of you probably know, in my religion we have a health code called “the word of wisdom” in which we avoid alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee and illegal drugs. Consequently, every time I meet someone for the first time I have to quickly tell them that I don’t drink chai. It actually is usually well received by my Afghan counterparts. It almost always leads into a discussion about some of the shared beliefs between my faith and Islam--avoiding alcohol, abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards, giving contributions to the poor, dressing modestly, fasting, etc. The Afghans always seem to be impressed that many of our beliefs are similar.

Well, today I had a few of my Border Police colleagues over for a meeting at Camp Stone. After explaining to them that I didn’t drink chai, I asked them if they wanted to try some hot chocolate. Most of the Afghans have never tried hot chocolate before. I have introduced several Afghans, including my interpreter Shafiq, to hot chocolate. Most seem to like it--I mean really how could you not like hot cocoa? These guys unfortunately were a little more wary of this new hot beverage and didn’t want to try it. They were like kids who don’t want to try a new food, just because it is new. So during our meeting I sipped hot chocolate while they had chai.

If only they knew what they were missing...I’m sure they probably thought the same thing about me.