LEWISTON — Marine veteran Jared Golden, who recently was awarded an outstanding student award by College for ME-Androscoggin, has been to Afghanistan three times.

He plans to soon go back a fourth time. “There’s still work I can do, experiences I can have.”

Golden grew up in Leeds, graduated from Leavitt Area High School and is a senior at Bates College.

Golden first went to Afghanistan as a Marine after 9/11 and was struck by the beauty of the mountainous country. After he got out of the Marines, he went to Bates. Two summers ago he returned to Afghanistan as a volunteer teacher. He learned it was tough to help people without money.

He went back last summer as an intern for Paxton International, a shipping company based in Virginia. The company established a business in Kabul run by Afghans. Golden’s job was to help workers establish relations with Americans, especially the state department, with which the company does business.

He noticed among some Afghans last summer a growing disappointment with the U.S.’s failure to attain security goals.

“But they weren’t holding me accountable, nor were they anxious to strike up political debate with me. That’s something to be respected.”

The people and country don’t match up to media reports or stereotypes, Golden said. There is danger and violence in Kabul, but not on a daily basis. It’s sporadic. Meanwhile “life goes on,” he said. People work to provide for their families.

Some Americans think of Afghans “as people who live in the stone age,” or are violent. Neither is true, he said. One of his friends is in his 50s and fought the Soviets. “Now he’s guarding the school without a weapon because he doesn’t think there should be weapons in schools.”

In the cities “kids are into Facebook like kids here. They love cell phones. They send e-mails to me.” Afghans “are no different than Americans in many ways.”

They pay attention to politics and follow what President Obama says. “They do read the news and get the international media. They’re aware.”

bwashuk@sunjournal.com