About him: Mystery man was very unassuming: a standard tall american white male; quiet and North Face clad. Once we started talking, I quickly realized that I had stumbled upon a truly fascinating man. Mystery man was originally from the States, but had been residing in Dubai for the last ten years. He had lived in Afghanistan working with military contracts, smuggled medicines into Northern Thailand and Mexico under government assignment and picked up Farsi somewhere along the way. Although he agreed to answer my questions, he didn’t want to share his identity and wouldn’t give a first name. I respect that, because if I were a CIA agent, I wouldn’t share that either.
How we met: This past weekend in Switzerland, my friend Katie and I took a train from the mountain town of Martigny to Geneva and sat across from mystery man. After some time, he timidly struck up a conversation with us. You could tell that he has lived quite an adventurous life. Nevertheless, he had an air of sadness about him, and you could sense how incredibly lonely he must be.
Coolest experience: One of his most memorable experiences was riding on the back of afghan supply trucks in the middle of the night while he was working with the military in Afghanistan. He described how there were no lights, no airplanes overhead and no noise. “The stars looked like chalk on a blackboard above, and it was so cold that you could see your breath like a ghost in front of you.” We can all agree that when mystery man is not busy doing secret undercover stuff for the government, he is a poet.
Life dream: I didn’t have enough time to ask. We reached mystery man’s stop and he quickly grabbed his backpack, said goodbye and left me sitting there, dumbfounded. He was one of those people who I desperately wanted to know more about, and I wish that train hadn’t stopped.