Breakfast in the basement of our Mazar i Sharif guesthouse felt like a celebratory reunion. I hugged Robyn and Matt, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year, and Nicole, who I’d never met in person but felt like I’d known for a long time. We sat down to a table spread with fresh bread, honey, cheese and jam. There were seven of us, although Robyn would be going her own way in a couple of days. “How do you all know each other?” Eric asked. Eric, a traveler from Bermuda, was saving me from being the only person over 40 in the group. This was his first trip with Inertia. “I met Robyn and Matt on a Yemen trip in 2019,” I explained, “and then we had an aborted trip in 2020 when Covid lockdown stranded us on the way to Central African Republic.” “And we’ve just talked a…
