Home is Where My Earrings Are

"While you were gone, the Missus," he said twisting around toward me, "put all our names in the computer. If anything goes wrong, we're already in the black box." (On the road to Afghanistan.) -Kalif,/ Muji. Mujahedin, AFGHANISTAN. The banker reached across the carpet, where we sat, placing more goat on my plate. I attempted to decline. "You cannot refuse. You are sitting between two Pathan tribesmen. You know about Pashtunwali? You can never refuse Pashtun hospitality." -Peshawar, Pakistan "We must impluve hour Engrish. We hear, laining cat and dog," Mr. Li started. "What mean this?" Indeed, what does mean this? Someone ventured an answer. Everyone laughed. -Mr. Li of the China Travel Service, Peking Branch "It's bat-meat. Eeeuw." Kimberly always voiced what the rest of us thought while meeting up with Negritos hiking in the forests of Luzon, Philippines.