If you made it to the end of the Stock Class piece, you may have noticed a reference to change in Bob Tunnell鈥檚 priorities.听 Gone are the days of constant top-level Solo competition.听 Instead, Bob had redirected his focus in a new direction that is possibly best explained in a love letter to Patty. May 4, 2009 Dear Patty, Her name is Latefa and she's 8 years old (I think). 听I love her and she loves me. 听I know she loves me because she told me so. 听In English. I met her this morning at the new Sozo School for street kids that Wakil opened about a month ago. 听She was a student in my coloring class. 听She drew me a self portrait in purple crayon and gave it to me to remember her by. 听It's going on the fridge whether you like it or not. Yes, I know teachers shouldn't fall in love with their students, but, well... deal with it. I won't divorce you just to be with her, but you need to know that听if -- God forbid -- you should pass before I do, I'll be on a plane back to Kabul before your flowers have wilted. 听(Wait... you'll be gone... I'll take the flowers with me to give to Latefa.) Anyway...听I feel better now that it's all out in the open...听I thought you should know. Your current husband, --Bob PS.听 You might as well warn the friends and spouses of the other Team members that I am not alone -- we all pretty much melted around those kids. 鈥︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�︹�� Yep鈥� it all started innocently enough鈥� Wakil wanted us to see the school Sozo recently opened in partnership with Hopeful Hearts that鈥檚 designed to help street kids in Kabul learn a new way of life.听 You may remember that I mentioned the school in an update from my last trip in March. 听Well, the school opened a few days after the March Team left Kabul and there are currently 78 kids enrolled. Wakil led us to believe we were going there this morning to teach a class, pass out some school supplies, and serve them lunch.听 But in hindsight I now can see that it was his plan all along for all of us to fall head over heels in love with all 78 of them鈥� and that鈥檚 exactly what happened.听 Sorry for the graphic metaphor, but it was like leading lambs to the slaughter鈥� we didn鈥檛 stand a chance with those kids.听 He divided us up one or two Team members for every 8-10 kids and we were supposed to just sit and color with them, but armed with only crayons and paper every single one of them charmed their way right straight into our hearts. After coloring for an hour -- that flew by like 10 or 15 minutes -- we cleaned up the debris (paper, crayons, coronary matter) and met in what will soon be a computer room while the kids went back to their classes.听 We heard from Dr. Sima, the school鈥檚 director, and Wakil about the motivation and vision for starting the school and Wakil鈥檚 never ending passion to help 鈥渉is babies鈥� throughout the country. We then got to serve a wholesome hot lunch of pilau, beans, and naan to each of the kids one by one as they sat patiently waiting for their plates to arrive.听 Wakil told us how the school works hard to break the cycle of greed these kids have adopted because of the constant starvation conditions they鈥檝e endured most of their lives.听 The school helps them by providing more than enough food for every child every day鈥� something most of them have never experienced.听 And it seems to be working because these kids sat quietly and patiently for their food until everyone was served and even then never tried to take anyone else鈥檚 food, all without the usual threats of bodily harm so prevalent elsewhere.听 It was an amazing sight. After lunch it was time to say our goodbyes to the kids (I will never get used that part!) and head back to the guesthouse where we spent a quiet afternoon recuperating from an emotionally charged morning and week. For dinner we joined up with a family that recently moved to Kabul to work with Sozo for the next few years.听 I met this family a couple months ago in Colorado when they were in town for some final language training and was captivated by their desire to serve the people of Afghanistan on a long term basis鈥� something obviously very close to my heart.听 To meet up with them over here and fellowship together was a real blessing.听 (I鈥檝e withheld their names for security reasons.) Well, that鈥檚 it for tonight.听 It鈥檚 hard to believe we only have one more full day here in Afghanistan and we intend to use it to the fullest.听 I think we鈥檝e all emailed our cardiologists back home to schedule heart transplants after we return because we鈥檙e all leaving big chunks of coronary tissue here with the street kids at the Sozo school and out at Barek Aub.听 They are the future of Afghanistan and we love them dearly. This may be getting old for you, but I never tire of writing it 鈥� thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and unending support! --Bob For more information on the Tunnell's work in Afgainistan, please visit- 听