By Jae-Ha Kim
Tribune Media Services
June 10, 2008
Clay Aiken is in the news a lot these days. Besides getting good reviews for his performance in the Broadway musical “Spamalot,” the former “American Idol” contestant is busy promoting his latest album “On My Way Here.” But the congenial redhead is keeping mum about the juicy tidbit that has the tabloids drooling: becoming a baby daddy with his good friend Jaymes Foster, who also executive produced his CD. Aiken is more vocal about his love of music and traveling.
“There are no plans to tour at this time,” says Aiken, 29. “I’d love to tour but there’s just no time right now with all the other things going on. I think I’ve had just one day off in the past few months. It’s crazy, but in a good way.”
A former teacher, Aiken was appointed UNICEF ambassador in 2004. Between touring and making field visits for UNICEF, Aiken has seen a good chunk of the world. But he says he will never forget the beauty and grace of Afghanistan and its people.
WHY AFGHANISTAN: Honestly, I prefer to go to places where no one else goes that haven’t been ruined by the touristy thing. I don’t know if I would’ve ever gone to Afghanistan if it hadn’t been for my work with UNICEF, but it has been one of my favorite places I’ve ever been in my life. I stayed eight days there in the central highlands of the country in an area that was relatively fortunate when it came to Taliban attacks. Bamyan is in the central part of the mountains and it is just such a beautiful area.
FAVORITE MEMORIES: I remember going to vacation bible school as a kid and reading about how people lived in biblical times with earthen huts and traveling on horses. I remembered that when I walked around Bamyan. You walk around town and all these huts have satellite dishes on top of them and everyone has cell phones, but a lot of people still sleep on their floors. It’s a fascinating combination of new and old. The people there were so nice and welcoming.
ROUGHING IT: We stayed in a bare bones room with no toilet or indoor plumbing. But the view was magnificent. The whole town was sitting in a valley on the side of the mountains. I think maybe one airplane flew in a few times a week to take people to Kabul. There was never any noise. It was so peaceful. The men worked in the fields, the women at home.
SIGHTSEEING: I enjoy seeing real life. I don’t really care so much about going to see all the famous sites. They’re very nice and I appreciate them when I do see them, but I don’t go out of my way to check out all the monuments. I really like to get a feel for what it would be like to live in whatever country I’m in. I was able to do that a little bit in Afghanistan. People were just so real and natural. Nobody cared about who I was. Honestly, I don’t think anyone knew who I was, but they were just so nice to me.
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT AFGHANISTAN:
FULL COUNTRY NAME: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
WHERE IT IS: Slightly smaller in size than Texas, Afghanistan is located east of Iran and west of Pakistan in southern Asia.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Persian.
CURRENCY: Afghani. $1US equals 49.95AFG.
TIME DIFFERENCE: GMT/UTC plus 4.5 (If it’s noon in Chicago, then it’s 9:30 p.m. in Kabul.)
To learn more about Afghanistan, check out the U.S. Department of State’s updates about the country at www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1056.html. To read more about Clay Aiken, check out his Website at www.clayaiken.com.
© 2008 JAE-HA KIM
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
