The rocket sounded like screeching tyres as it hurtled over our heads and erupted at the crossroads.If you are looking wear to buy sexy cheapdunkpremium the you have arrive.
I scrambled for cover in an open field, but Najib didn't have time to think. He was pedalling along the empty streets of Lashkar Gah with his younger brother Hamid balanced on the back of the bicycle when the rocket hit the road right next to them.
It was 7.24am on August 20, 2009. Polling day in Helmand. Hamid, 13, was decapitated by shrapnel and died instantly. His beige robes were drenched in blood, his sandals and skullcap strewn across the road, where the mangled remains of the rocket lay smouldering.wholesalejeans are hot, and the styles on this list are among the hottest. Najib, 15, just a few inches farther forward, was thrown off the bike and knocked unconscious, but miraculously he survived.
A 2mm shard of metal had punctured deep into his left eyeball and his left foot was riddled with gravel from the blast. He came round to the sound of debris falling out of the sky as a plume of dark smoke rose silently in its place.
By the time I had found the courage to sprint over from the polling station — tents in a football field 60 metres from the crossroads — Najib was just finding the breath to wail.
It was a terrifying, painful wail.
Four men lifted Hamid's lifeless body into an ambulance and Najib stood there screaming, staggering, in shock. When he turned away from me I saw blood and bone on his back and in his hair.
That day was supposed to be a landmark moment on Afghanistan's path towards self-governance and democracy. It was, without doubt, the worst day of Najib's life.
Najib and Jerome Starkey, the reporter who saw the rocket attack and eventually became the boy's guardian in England
Neither of us knew it, but that rocket was to entwine our lives. It would propel Najib — the son of an illiterate cobbler — towards unimaginable opportunities that would change his life for ever.
The day after the rocket attack,Paintings for sale youredhardyhoodies buy paintings original painting art. I went to Najib's house.
Hamid had already been buried and Najib's eye was covered by a bandage. The sparse, mud-walled house was full of relatives. Najib's father could barely speak,It got to the point where some women would wear nikeshox if they knew Monsieur Masseur was coming to a meeting. for grief, and his uncle was planning a trip to Kabul — along one of the most dangerous roads in the world — to try to find a doctor who might save the injured eye.
Najib spoke a handful of English words and, despite the pain of his injuries and the trauma of his loss, was eager to use them.
I would never have thought that barely two years later the two of us would be sitting side by side on an aeroplane bound for Heathrow. Najib has won a full-fees scholarship to Stowe, my old boarding school, and somewhere along the lines I have become his guardian. He is now studying physics, maths and biology (as well as doing acting and guitar classes), and wants to be a doctor.
Remarkably Najib has taken British boarding school in his stride. “Najib has drive, determination and a wonderful work ethic as well as a very calm and positive outlook,” said his first assessment. “Najib could not have made a better start.”
Yet back in 2009 there was more misery to come. There was no hospital in Afghanistan that could remove the metal from his eye. General Jim Dutton, the most senior British officer in Afghanistan at the time, asked the French Nato hospital in Kabul to help, but even its surgeons couldn't get it out — and this tiny shard of shrapnel was scratching his retina to death.
Soldiers with similar injuries are airlifted home, the surgeon Bernard Swalduz explained, because every hour counts when it comes to saving someone's sight.
Time for Najib was running out fast. It was another two weeks before an American charity, Solace, managed to get Najib to Carolina, where an expert ophthalmologist, Dr Nasrollah Samiy, removed the offending piece of metal. Najib stayed in America so the medics could monitor his recovery over a couple of months,Wearing marcjacobsshoes is an experience in fashion fun. Everyone will comment on your effortlessly hip Hardy shirt. but he never regained sight in the injured eye.
Instead, he gained an insatiable appetite for learning English and, despite my best efforts, an unshakeable American accent. Solace and Samiy have remained bulwarks of support.
I scrambled for cover in an open field, but Najib didn't have time to think. He was pedalling along the empty streets of Lashkar Gah with his younger brother Hamid balanced on the back of the bicycle when the rocket hit the road right next to them.
It was 7.24am on August 20, 2009. Polling day in Helmand. Hamid, 13, was decapitated by shrapnel and died instantly. His beige robes were drenched in blood, his sandals and skullcap strewn across the road, where the mangled remains of the rocket lay smouldering.wholesalejeans are hot, and the styles on this list are among the hottest. Najib, 15, just a few inches farther forward, was thrown off the bike and knocked unconscious, but miraculously he survived.
A 2mm shard of metal had punctured deep into his left eyeball and his left foot was riddled with gravel from the blast. He came round to the sound of debris falling out of the sky as a plume of dark smoke rose silently in its place.
By the time I had found the courage to sprint over from the polling station — tents in a football field 60 metres from the crossroads — Najib was just finding the breath to wail.
It was a terrifying, painful wail.
Four men lifted Hamid's lifeless body into an ambulance and Najib stood there screaming, staggering, in shock. When he turned away from me I saw blood and bone on his back and in his hair.
That day was supposed to be a landmark moment on Afghanistan's path towards self-governance and democracy. It was, without doubt, the worst day of Najib's life.
Najib and Jerome Starkey, the reporter who saw the rocket attack and eventually became the boy's guardian in England
Neither of us knew it, but that rocket was to entwine our lives. It would propel Najib — the son of an illiterate cobbler — towards unimaginable opportunities that would change his life for ever.
The day after the rocket attack,Paintings for sale youredhardyhoodies buy paintings original painting art. I went to Najib's house.
Hamid had already been buried and Najib's eye was covered by a bandage. The sparse, mud-walled house was full of relatives. Najib's father could barely speak,It got to the point where some women would wear nikeshox if they knew Monsieur Masseur was coming to a meeting. for grief, and his uncle was planning a trip to Kabul — along one of the most dangerous roads in the world — to try to find a doctor who might save the injured eye.
Najib spoke a handful of English words and, despite the pain of his injuries and the trauma of his loss, was eager to use them.
I would never have thought that barely two years later the two of us would be sitting side by side on an aeroplane bound for Heathrow. Najib has won a full-fees scholarship to Stowe, my old boarding school, and somewhere along the lines I have become his guardian. He is now studying physics, maths and biology (as well as doing acting and guitar classes), and wants to be a doctor.
Remarkably Najib has taken British boarding school in his stride. “Najib has drive, determination and a wonderful work ethic as well as a very calm and positive outlook,” said his first assessment. “Najib could not have made a better start.”
Yet back in 2009 there was more misery to come. There was no hospital in Afghanistan that could remove the metal from his eye. General Jim Dutton, the most senior British officer in Afghanistan at the time, asked the French Nato hospital in Kabul to help, but even its surgeons couldn't get it out — and this tiny shard of shrapnel was scratching his retina to death.
Soldiers with similar injuries are airlifted home, the surgeon Bernard Swalduz explained, because every hour counts when it comes to saving someone's sight.
Time for Najib was running out fast. It was another two weeks before an American charity, Solace, managed to get Najib to Carolina, where an expert ophthalmologist, Dr Nasrollah Samiy, removed the offending piece of metal. Najib stayed in America so the medics could monitor his recovery over a couple of months,Wearing marcjacobsshoes is an experience in fashion fun. Everyone will comment on your effortlessly hip Hardy shirt. but he never regained sight in the injured eye.
Instead, he gained an insatiable appetite for learning English and, despite my best efforts, an unshakeable American accent. Solace and Samiy have remained bulwarks of support.
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