042: Life at Footpace

walking in cities + Rory Stewart's "The Places In Between" as something good you can read about Afghanistan

Finally a soldier marched in and, holding his right hand to his chest, said, Salaam aleikum. Chetor hastid? Jan-e-shoma jur ast? Khub hastid? Sahat-e-shoma khub ast? Be khair hastid? Jur hastid? Khane kheirat ast? Zinde bashi.

Which in Dari, the Afghan dialect of Persian, means, Peace be with you. How are you? Is your soul healthy? Are you well? Are you well? Are you healthy? Are you fine? Is your household flourishing? Long life to you.

Or: Hello. We

–Rory Stewart, from The Places In Between

A couple of nights ago, I added Philadelphia to the list of cities that I have walked across.

I have a standard for this pastime that is based on the relative size of the city, whatever is generally agreed upon as the city center, and a mileage adjustment based on whether or not I’m wearing sensible shoes. I did Philadelphia in two sessions.

The first half of the trek was a month ago on a blazing hot day when I thought it would be fun to walk from my lodgings in northeast part of the city down to the …