You know, my friends,
few foreigners in history have been mourned in Afghanistan
the way that Dr. Tetsu Nakamura was.
When news of his death on December 4th, 2019, were reported,
vigils were then held in Kabul, as well as other cities.
And this is something that, again, if you are not familiar with the story,
sounds absolutely baffling, but it gets even crazier.
The president of Afghanistan would go and help carry his coffin,
and an airline painted his face on one of its aircraft.
Ordinary Afghans did not call this man by his Japanese title.
Instead, they called him Kaka Murad, "Uncle Murad."
This was the affectionate name of a relative
rather than a visiting benefactor, or anything like that.
And honestly, there's a very key reason.
You see, Nakamura spent roughly 35 years
working in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.
He began by treating leprosy and caring for refugees
fleeing the Soviet-Afghan War, one patient at a time.
And so from there, over the course of that time,
he ended up bringing generational change to farmland