Marcus’s knowledge of Dari is limited. The only phrase he can teach me is "Oon-ja Nah-shah-sheen!!! Por-eh meen-eh!! Travelling north by bus, he tells me, he had to urinate, and his opportunity came at prayer time. While other passengers went to pray, Marcus went to relieve himself and started walking to the side of the road. A fellow passenger saw him. Laughing but gesticulating wildly at Marcus, he shouted over and over: "Oon-ja Nah-shah-sheen!!! Por-eh meen-eh!!", "Oon-ja Nah-shah-sheen!!! Por-eh meen-eh!! "The red and white painted stones on the ground were clear indication but Marcus was not yet attuned to the visual display- red and white can mean many things. The passenger gestured again to Marcus, then exaggeratedly walked one step forward and pantomimed - only like one who has experience of such things can -the utter agony of losing a limb by threading on a landmine. Perhaps there were no landmines there. Perhaps there were. Whichever, Marcus felt a fear, visceral and proximate and decided to return to the bus, unrelieved, muttering over and over to himself in half-whispers, ‘Don’t go pissing in a field-full of landmines! ‘Don’t go pissing in a field-full of landmines! Don’t go pissing in a field-full of landmines! "Oon-ja Nah-shah-sheen!!! Por-eh meen-eh!!"

-KW, June 2006