Dearest Pietro,

It was very sweet of you to include me in the list of people you wished to consult about your new appointment.

First of all I would like to congratulate you on receiving such a remarkable invitation. What a fantastic opportunity to do something worthwhile and potentially fulfilling. You already have all the resources you need in the schools of design in US but you may also wish to contact my cousin, Alireza Madanipour who teaches town planning at Newcastle University.

You may not like what I am going to tell you next. So I shall keep it very short.

Everything you have sketched out, is what your students and other Afghans with whom you are going to come into contact, are going to teach you. Be prepared to listen and learn. What the students need and the great service you can do for Afghanistan is to produce 10 competent, educated, sensitive, honest and knowledgeable individuals well versed in the art of planning. The plans themselves and the order of priorities are best left to the Afghan students. You may well find much of their work pleasing. A lot, off course, depends on the raw material you will be given. But our prayers are with you that the Great Almighty Planner of the Universe will be with you always and He will guide you in whatever is pleasing to Him.

A Persian proverb says: "Teach your son to ride because riding teaches courage. Without courage there can be no truth and without truth there can be no other virtue."

Please give our warmest love to dear Elizabeth, Sophia Joy and the Bump.

With all our hopes and prayers for your project

As ever

Nasser