roughly about 10 years ago, this was the time that i arrived in central asia: tajikistan. vaguely recall that during this exact days, i was on a mission to tashkent. there was a kidnapping incident happened in dushanbe. two of my colleagues (Silas, a very nice African guy and his driver) were taken by a renegade islamic militant group. they were kept for some 14 days. the office and the other agencies were evacuated for almost a month. I went back durign the hostage period at my request. i was afraid that my long absence may cost my post there.