We kicked off our New Year by delivering toys donated by several people, including my colleagues at Powell Tate/WeberShandwick Public Affairs in Washington, DC, to children in the Indira Ghandi Childrens Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Little could prepare me for the conditions in the hospital, which I was assured were better than before. The building was almost destroyed during the war and the need to treat patients has competed with the ability to put the hospital back together. There is no heat and the building is pretty much a shell. The staff is to be commended for doing what they can with the little they have. And each child we visited graced us with a big smile and bright eyes that broke my heart 50 times as I moved from bed to bed handing out toys. It was a sober way to begin 2005.