In a school gymnasium in Kabul, though, I’m sitting with a group of children, imagining a different world. Girls in brightly colored tunics and headscarves are eyeing a 30 foot high climbing wall with considerable doubt. “When I come back in 10 years,” I say, “Who will be my mountain guide? Who will take me climbing?”  A teenager raises her hand. She lives in Kabul, but has a family home in the countryside nearby, and she tells me she’ll be the first female to stand on top of the mountains around her village.