Editor's note: Finbarr O'Reilly is a Reuters photographer based in Africa. He has made three trips to Afghanistan over the past three years, embedding each time with the Canadian army and their Afghan counterparts operating in Kandahar Province's Panjwaii and Zhari districts, from where the Taliban originated. This audio slideshow captures some of the chaos and confusion of a worsening conflict.

The root of the challenge is bitter, but the fruit tastes sweet. Some of the Idahoan-Bhutanese have been in Idaho for almost two years. For every individual, at first life was full of challenges. People were worried about finding jobs and getting adjusted to change in the environment and culture. At that time, the economy of the U.S. was moving south and for the ESL people it was tough time to find a good job. All the Bhutanese were full of fear of how to keep their lives on track.

But slowly the people started feeling more comfortable with ongoing social and environmental changes. Some of them got jobs and proceeded ahead in building their careers. By now almost all the early immigrant have a job, a car and good access to technology. Some of us even have a brand new laptop, etc. Some of us are studying in college and are supported by government financial aid. No one had ever thought about all these things while back in the refugee camp. By now some of us know how to do banking and use debit and credit cards and even to pay utility bills online.

More than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees spent almost 17 years of their lives in refugee camps. Their houses were made out of bamboo and thatch. Camps were situated in the eastern lowlands of Nepal. Huts were arranged in a rows and columns with a maximum of 10 to 15 feet gap between them. These clusters of huts look amazing from the sky. The huts were numbered and grouped from units to sectors to entire camps. Even a single hut was separated into rooms for individual people living in one family. There was no electricity in the camp. The people used to use kerosene lamps for light. Though there was a school, the teaching and learning process was very poor. Think about it ... there was no electricity in the school. Still some of the students of these schools became doctors and engineers in Nepal. Isn't this amazing?

These camps were protected by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). For living, the people were given rations every 15 days with a maximum of 5 kg rice per person. Moreover they were given cereals, sugar, salt and vegetables every week and the people used to use domestic coal to cook food. For water, these people used tap water, for which they were supposed to wait on a long queue for a liter of water.

Bhutanese always make comparisons between their living standard while in the refugee camp and and in the USA. And some of them don't mind doing any kind of job because of their past life experience. Now Idahoan Bhutanese are hoping that sooner or later they will have a beautiful house and a good job where their family lives together and enjoys their American life.

Though the start was hard, slowly the people are getting on track and all Idahoan-Bhutanese are waiting for that fine day to come in their life.

When this week's High Country News arrived I was psyched to see a cover story on "The Newest Westerners" under the striking picture of a Somali woman in a classic Western American town. But as I flipped through the stories, I couldn't believe they didn't have anything from Boise refugees.

Then I read Jonathan Thompson's Editor's Note, and recalled our chat at Leku Ona a year ago. Thompson, who has been reading The Grip (and quotes Fidel!), did what HCN does best; take a nugget of an idea and explore how it plays out in the wider Western states.

The package contains stories from an African market in Greeley, a Sudanese orphan going to college in Tucson and an Iraqi journalist remaking his life in Berkeley, among other tales [some of these links may be behind a not-for-profit paywall].

The vignettes in HCN provide snapshots into refugee lives in several Western states, much as this blog attempts to do for Boise. And they also provide a recognition that immigrants from around the world are helping to shape the future of the Intermountain West. Give them a read.

Muslim law professor and Fulbright Scholar Fikret Karcic, a professor of law at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will deliver a lecture on Islam and modernity tonight at Boise State.

Karcic has been on campus this month as a visiting specialist through the Fulbright Program’s “Direct Access to the Muslim World” initiative. Karcic is a legal historian with a particular interest in Islamic law in non-Muslim countries and Muslim institutions and modernization.

From a 2007 Radio Free Europe interview: "I disagree with this theory, for I do not think that what we are seeing today is indeed a clash of civilizations — Western and Islamic — but rather a clash of divergent interests, which are being disguised as cultural or religious and then presented as such. But I am afraid that if we keep endlessly addressing this notion of the clash of civilization, we might well end up in just such a clash."

Karcic delivers a public talk on Islam and Modernity tonight, 7-8:30 p.m., in the Student Union Building Jordan Ballroom. The talk is sponsored by the Boise State Writing Project, and is free and open to the public.

Despite the fact that some first born loiter around, forgetting their responsibilities, it still common in Congo for the first born to fill his father’s shoes when he turns 18.

It’s a responsibility that no one would ever accept if proposed, but you can’t choose when to be born. The first male child has to set rules and order in the family in the absence of the father. And after he grows, he has to provide and help his younger siblings to achieve their goals.

Being the first born in the Congo means you can never screw up, never misbehave or be anything less than your father was. After you’ve grown, you’ll be involved in every decision that the parents ought to make in the family. You’ll be the one looked at whenever your younger sibling misbehave, and your parent will turn the disciplinary duties to you. Making sure everything around the family functions well and everybody represents the family values.

Now, if you decide to move from the family or start a family of your own, you’ll be looked at for financial assistance whenever it’s needed, get weekly reports of what is happening back in the family and be called in for family meetings whenever necessary.

You’ll have to live your life as an example; you are obliged to do these things by your birth placement.
Your younger siblings and girls in the family are free to live their lives the way they feel. If never want to help the family, no one will blame them.

That’s the reason why people that are in my position as the first male born, far away from home, have a much bigger challenge than anticipated. They have to make sure their families back in Africa still live up to expectations and values. They have to step into their father's shoes and become the providers, and even advisers from miles away, By phone or mail, we make sure the younger ones do not go astray in our absence.

They have the obligation to not fail, give up or relent their pursuit. You have to discipline yourself, doing only that which is useful and necessary for you and above all, considering your family in every decision you are making before you finalize it.

It’s part of our culture for the elders to seat kids around them under a tree and narrate a old time wise story. It may be funny or entertaining, but above all, it has to carry a message that will last for generations and generations.

Some of these stories will have been told by their great-grandfathers, and repeated thereafter. My grandfather was a very talented mimic and always had funny stories, but he had one puzzle on his mind.
Being disappointed by his elders after they died and never got back to him, he decided to share his pain and disappointments with us.

“Kids, your elders had promised to return to me from the dead and tell me how it is where they are. But since I’ve been waiting, no one has ever even appeared in my sleep to wake me up. And that’s why I gather you here today, to ensure you that after I am gone, it won’t be longer than a week before I come back to tell you where people go after they are dead.”

This theory stunned us all, being a bunch of 7-year-olds, we could not wait to hear from him after he was gone. The children of the village begged that he be buried in the school yard where we played soccer so we could see him fulfill the promise. We believed in him and started spending hours in that yard playing and paying attention. Weeks went by, months and a year until the kids started lamenting that grandfather lied just like he was lied too by his elders.

Later when we were 10 years old, his wife seated us under the same tree and narrated a story about death. She supported her story with the Bible proving to us that, once someone is dead, he has no part in the world of the living anymore, he can never feel, hear or understand. It took us a while before we could believe her, but this remains one of the more complicated stories of my generation.

In recent years, Afghanistan has been constantly in the public eye, yet there are many who don’t know the difference between Afghani and Afghan. (Hint: one is a national currency and the other is a nationality.) The Library! at Hillcrest hopes to change that with Afghanistan: The Face of Islam, a panel discussion featuring refugees from Afghanistan who now call Boise home. Led by moderator Jasmin Aguilar of the refugee resettlement agency Agency for New Americans, panelists will speak about their experiences in their war-torn home country, as well as provide insight into their culture.

Aguilar, an Afghan refugee herself, will start things off with a basic overview of the country and then she’ll turn the reins over to the panelists. Topics include religion, food, art and many other relevant areas of discussion. The panel will then be followed by a question and answer session, which will provide audience members with a chance to ask questions and clear up any lingering misconceptions. This program is one of a series put on by The Library! at Hillcrest and, while open to all, it is primarily aimed at adults.

Thursday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m., FREE, The Library! at Hillcrest, 5246 W. Overland Road, 208-562-4996, boisepubliclibrary.org.

-Jeff Lake