Sofia Javed has the photographs and stories of a Peace Corps volunteer done with her time abroad and, technically, she is.

With the paperwork filled out, Javed, Medill ’01 and former Daily staffer, now has the same benefits and status as a volunteer who served the entire 27-month tour of duty. But Javed was only in her host country of Uzbekistan for six weeks when she and other volunteers were yanked out following the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than 300 volunteers were evacuated in late September from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan because of increasing security concerns in nearby Afghanistan, Peace Corps spokeswoman Ellen Field said. With pressure from the United States being levied on the neighboring country, volunteers’ safety could no longer be guaranteed.

But Javed said she never felt unsafe in Uzbekistan, a fact that sharpened her disappointment at having to leave.

“As long as our (Peace Corps) programs were continuing … it didn’t really affect me,” she said. “The magnitude of it didn’t get to me until I found out we were leaving.”

Ironically, Javed still could have been overseas right now had she chosen the other assignment the Peace Corps offered her: Jordan. Although the Corps does not promise that volunteers can go to a specific geographic region, Javed lucked out when the organization offered her a choice between the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan and a post in central Asia, her top choice.

At first, her friends referred to it as “where-the-hell-is-it-istan,” but Javed had definite reasons for wanting to go to Uzbekistan. She said she was fascinated by central Asia’s historical significance as a cultural crossroads. Travelers from all over the world passed through the area as they traversed the Silk Road between Turkey and China, and left their imprint on the region through language and food.

Being in Uzbekistan also gave Javed an opportunity to learn several languages that interested her, such as Uzbek, Russian and Tajik.

Depending on their post, volunteers in Uzbekistan could use as many as three languages in their daily lives.

And when it came to safety issues, compared with Jordan, “Uzbekistan was the one that made my mother the least worried,” Javed said.

Javed flew to Uzbekistan Aug. 16 and met the 58 other people in her training group. The trainees had to make many cultural adjustments, notably to new food, new languages and pit toilets. There were bucket baths and goats in the street. By the time they were officially evacuated Sept. 27, four had already quit.

“It was tough and going to get tougher,” Javed said.

But no one could have guessed how tough. At about 8:30 p.m. local time on Sept. 11, Javed had just finished dinner at the home of her fellow trainee Tamar’s host family.

Tamar’s host mother was watching television in another room when she called to Javed and Tamar to come watch, saying “America’s on TV!” Javed said she thought it was some celebrity.

The pictures quickly proved otherwise. The images were from CNN, but the feed was in Russian. Tamar’s host family translated from Russian to Uzbek, which Javed and Tamar struggled to understand.

“It honestly felt like we were watching a movie,” she said.

Javed went to get her shortwave radio, and the two Americans listened to the BBC all night. Tamar’s host mother brought them tea.

News was hard to get, and rumors circulated wildly. At one point trainees heard casualty counts of 50,000 to 100,000, Javed said. Most questions revolved around the volunteers’ own status. Would they be going home?

Peace Corps instituted the first stage of evacuation procedures — known as “stand fast” — immediately. Trainees and volunteers within the country received orders to stay in their current locations. Field trips within the country for Javed’s group were canceled.

Then came the order to consolidate at a designated location. Javed had brought two suitcases, but volunteers and trainees were only allowed to take one bag, with vague promises of later shipping.

“I packed under the assumption that I would never see that bag again,” Javed said.

After tearful goodbyes, the volunteers left friends, co-workers and the country.

Javed said she plans to re-apply for the Peace Corps, but the earliest she can hope to be reassigned is next spring. What she is going to do in the immediate future, she said, “is the magic question.”

Given the current state of world affairs, many of the regions Javed said she wants to visit may become off-limits for the Peace Corps. And it will be hard to adjust to a new group of trainees after forming such close bonds with her peers in Uzbekistan, she said.

“It’s going to be difficult to compare everything to the way we once had it,” she said.