September 28, 2005: Headlines: COS - Mozambique: COS - Afghanistan: Carlisle Sentinel: Baktash Ahadi fled Afghanistan with parents - now heading for Mozambique as Peace Corps Volunteer
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September 28, 2005: Headlines: COS - Mozambique: COS - Afghanistan: Carlisle Sentinel: Baktash Ahadi fled Afghanistan with parents - now heading for Mozambique as Peace Corps Volunteer
Baktash Ahadi fled Afghanistan with parents - now heading for Mozambique as Peace Corps Volunteer
Basear and Marzia Ahadi of Carlisle risked their lives to escape Soviet-backed Afghanistan with their two toddler sons in 1984. Now their oldest son, Baktash, is going back overseas as a member of America's Peace Corps.
Baktash Ahadi fled Afghanistan with parents - now heading for Mozambique as Peace Corps Volunteer
Peace Corps tour his ‘calling'
By Jennifer Marrs, September 28, 2005
Basear and Marzia Ahadi of Carlisle risked their lives to escape Soviet-backed Afghanistan with their two toddler sons in 1984.
Now their oldest son, Baktash, is going back overseas as a member of America's Peace Corps.
He is ecstatic about getting the opportunity, he says, because he feels it's his calling after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Watching bombs fall
When Basear Ahadi was jailed for resisting communism, then forced to join the Afghan army, the family fled Kabul.
As they were passing through a mountain village, it was bombed by Russian aircraft. Five in their caravan were killed.
"Baktash was screaming and pointing at the bombs in the sky," Marzia Ahadi recalls of her then 2-year-old son.
The caravan reached Pakistan, where the family lived in a refugee camp and applied to come to America as refugees. In 1986 they arrived in Carlisle, where they put down roots.
Nearly 20 years later, Baktash Ahadi, now 23, is heading to Mozambique in southeast Africa for 27 months. He will teach English and HIV/AIDS awareness.
"The Peace Corps definitely fits into the mold of what I wanted to do one day," says Ahadi, who graduated from Susquehanna University in May with a bachelor's degree in social sciences.
But, he says, it was hard saying good-bye to his parents on Friday. "I've never heard Mom cry like that before." He leaves today from Philadelphia. Marzia Ahadi now understands how her own mother felt when she left Afghanistan at age 20.
She adds that Baktash's younger brother, Elia, is studying at Penn State to become an electrical engineer and may try to volunteer with the Peace Corps if he can teach in that field.
The youngest brother, Masheed, born in Carlisle, is a senior at Carlisle High School.
Seeing the world
Eager to see the world and learn about new cultures, Baktash Ahadi studied in Prague, Czechoslovakia, after his freshman year and then in Jaipur, India, as a junior.
After graduation, he worked at the World Affairs Councils of America headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a "middleman" to get prominent figures such as Condoleeza Rice to address groups of professionals such as authors and teachers on foreign policy.
Ahadi, who had applied to the Peace Corps last October, says he was "ecstatic" when he received his invitation last month for his assignment.
"I get to learn Portuguese," the official language of Mozambique, which is "a great window to the Romantic languages."
Reasons for joining
He adds the assignment will be a "great segway into graduate school" where he eventually plans to study business or law for a career in international relations or politics.
Why the Peace Corps? Ahadi says "given his background and 9/11," joining that effort became important.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Ahadi found himself "unintentionally" informing people about Afghanistan and the Afghan people.
"I feel it's important to have dialogue between countries. I feel like it's my calling... after 9/11."
He says he wants people overseas to understand there are all kinds of Americans — that they are not all like "Britney Spears or Brad Pitt."
Ahadi is also looking forward to teaching English and the "implications of decisions" that lead to HIV/AIDS, which he says many there don't understand. Forty percent of Mozambique's population has contracted AIDS, he says.
He will teach teens ages 13-15.
"And get this: The classroom sizes will be 60 to 100 kids," he says.
With just a chalkboard and a room full of kids, Ahadi says he will "have to be creative."
Training first
Before getting started, Ahadi will live with a host family for three months to "adapt to the culture" then will be assigned.
After one year, family members can visit the volunteers.
And, Marzia Ahadi already is planning the trip. The flight will cost in the vicinity of $2,000, so Marzia, who works three part-time jobs to support her sons' college educations, is trying to set aside extra money.
She is a waitress at California Cafe, a teller at PNC bank and a hairstylist.
Her husband, Basear Ahadi, is a computer operator in the Mechanicsburg office of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
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Story Source: Carlisle Sentinel
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mozambique; COS - Afghanistan
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