Must it take a life for hateful eyes to glisten once again

Back to back posts: Completely different thoughts on the world. Today is the first day I have really had enough of Afghanistan. I woke up in a crappy mood, and when I went in it was a rare day. Commander Banana was there, so was Mohammad Ali, they are rarely together and I think from this day on, it's probably a good idea. By the time I had arrived they had already been arguing for about an hour. Basically Banana needed a truck to go downtown to get the food. The religious officer took his truck so he decided he would take the S-6 truck, but that was signed out to Ali. Ali told him you can't have it unless you get the Garrison Commander to sign off on it. For some reason, Banana and the Education officer wouldn't go to the Garrison Commander and proceded to brow beat and intimidate Ali for the next hour. I have to give him credit, he stood his ground. When I arrived, Banana was in a chair sulking, and I had to ask him why he didn't just go get permission and this whole mess could have been avoided. In the fray he took a book that Ali and I have been working on (it's an inventory) and basically shredded it. I told Zak (my terp) to ask him why he was acting like a child and had to destroy this book that didn't belong to him. I also said you are the Major, and have to act like an adult. Zak made me laugh for the only time today when he said "You want me to tell him that?" Sometimes I feel bad for Zak and the things I make him say, but they don't respect anything but firm words, so I press them. He never did respond to either of those questions, he just sat there while the Education officer went to get permission. Turns out they didn't get permission to use the S-6 truck, they got another one entirely. They left the office in a huff with none of the standard Afghan pleasantries. Screw um, I wasn't in the mood anyway. At least the Cardinals won, had they lost to the Cubs I would have had to throw myself off a non-existent bridge.

Gary

My best day.

What a great day. I mean fantastic. Today was the day we took all the great stuff you guys sent, and delivered to the school, and let me tell you, it was just incredible. This is the same village we have been too now three times, and this time we got to actually go into the school and hand out the goodies to all the kids in their classrooms.

We started at about 9am, I loaded up the back of the SUV with all the boxes to head over. We met up with a group of Army folks from Camp Phoenix who brought just a huge pile of regular notebooks (we wanted to ensure each kid got one and didn't know how many we would come across today). We all drove over and as soon as we hit the village kids were following us. We made it over to the school and unloaded the boxes into an empty classroom and sorted as best we could to get started. We started on the girls side of the school and it was unlike any classroom I've ever been in, as they were silent and as obedient as any children I've ever seen. We started by giving each of them a notebook and two pens, and then colored pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners The incredibly shy smiles, followed by the look of joy was so awesome. It was very obvious people don't just show up and start handing them things. A couple even got brave enough to whisper under their breath in Dari the word for thank you (tasha khor). We moved our way through that wing, and even managed to get a good chunk of the girls little stuffed bears and animals and you would have thought they won the lottery.

We moved onto the boys wing and it was a much different story in the boys classrooms. Now, don't get me wrong, the boys are great, but they are so much more aggressive and end up getting so much more than the girls, it was much easier giving things to the girls. They sat quietly and you could see genuine appreciation. The boys are scammers! :) They would get something, hide it and ask for more. Some of them are setting up for lives as used car salesmen. Either way the girls get so much less in this culture, I feel bad not giving them more than the boys. The last class we went to had a ton of kids and we had a whole bunch of little toys. Carnival type stuff....little bendy guys and balls etc. We got MOBBED. It was like the LA Riots with kids up on desks, and the teacher having to push them back to keep us safe. We ended up basically having to toss some of the little bendy guys towards the back of the room to escape. It was fun!

Fortunately, due to your incredible generosity, we gave a pile of stuff to each kid and then some. I think all told, there were probably 300 kids in class today, and as I said, each one got what I would consider standard school supply list of things each. That didn't include the glue or crayons as we gave those to the teachers so the kids didn't eat it or write on the walls.

I want to thank all of you who sent stuff for letting me be your eyes and ears on this project. It was a joy to give out, and I thank you all sincerely for taking the time to send it, and I want you to know that you have made an entire village of little kids happy.

I posted pictures here on my picasa page, please take a look. I will get more up when I get the ones from Steve, Bob and Andy.

After the school visit, Deb and Babrock (sp?) had us back to their house for a lunch of Afghan ravioli and naan (bread). It was great, and nice to wind down. The are very hospitable people.

We learned today that the pens, pencils, standard notebooks, small erasers, small sharpeners, and ANY small cheapy little toys, plus stuffed animals are HUGE hits. I'd actually like to get a run of just little toys for all of them. If you run across a place that sells little toys in bulk and want to send me some, I'll be happy to play Afghan Santa again. The clothes and shoes we didn't give to the kids, we gave them to Debra so she could ensure the families that needed them most would get them.

That's it! I'm tired and sweaty but it was GREAT. Thank you again for letting me do that!

Gary

3 months down!

Today will be short, although I always go in thinking that I and just keep typing. I guess maybe I will let you know if its short after I am done, but by then you will have read it all and it won't matter. Who cares, I'm an idiot.

Today marks three months (out of twelve) boots on the ground. I guess if I were a baseball game, I would be heading into the bottom of the second (actually thats a lousy example, because that doesnt seem like much!), if I were a person with an average lifepan, it would be my 25th birthday (happy birthday to me), and if I were some Navy idiot in Afghnistan, it would mean that I only have 273 days left.

While we are gone, we get 15 days of leave, and two 4 day passes to Qatar. I found out a couple days ago that Steve and I both got a pass for September, so on the 9th, we will be flying OUT of Afghanistan down to Qatar. It's still the gulf, but there are several key things going on there. 1. Beer. 2. No shooting 3. No blowing up. All things I enjoy. It will nice to be out of the combat zone for a while, it sorta takes a mental toll on you. All told with travel, I will likely be gone for a week. Not a bad break.

Speaking of breaks, today is Afghanistan's Independence day, so I am off! That means for the first time here, I have two days off in a row! A real weekend. Anyway, its more or less absurd becuase they are celebrating independence from the Brits in 1917(I think), but they have been captured and freed like 5 times since then. Weird. I don't care, it allowed me to sleep in.

Ok, that's it, its not as short as I expected, but I got a burst of creativity, you are all welcome!

Oh, school supplies have been coming in at a good pace, thank you all who have sent them, you know who you are!

Take Care.

Gary

The glue trap strikes again

Another week, another creature. Yesterday morning we awoke to the squirmy sounds of a creature trapped on one of our many well placed glue traps. Steve was the first to notice him, and made us all come look. Stuck to the paper was a mouse, no relation to Mickey that I could see, so that meant he had to go. We took him down to the office so we could turn him in and get new traps. I wont post the pictures of him cause he was entirely too cute. The key to remember, he was disease ridden! The good news is I think this was the little bugger that has been in here for a few weeks, I think at this point we are now finally rodent free. We have glue traps to the right and left of our door on the way in, and then several placed all around to catch any that happen to get by the door guards. I actually have one under my bed.....maybe I should check it?

I say it almost every blog, but its been a boring week. They really are all very similar. Only exciting thing this week was that the ANA had a dog and pony show gun shoot. President Karzai was supposed to show up so we all went to watch. Turns out he didn't show so the only fun thing was to watch them lob artillery at the mountain. Its good to see the army that we will be fighting against in about 20 years learning from us.

Oh, I almost forgot! It RAINED here this week. Amazing. Sustained, no kidding rain. First time I had seen it in months. In fact, it hailed a little bit. I had to stand out in it for a little while and I think Steve got video. Yes, we are amused at little things.

That's about it, we are approaching the 275 day mark, that wont be so bad!

Gary

One degree of separation from Osama

Made another trip today, back to Tangee Kalay, and this time we were meeting the American woman that lives there. Turns out last trip I missed a ton of key details. The man we met last time, who I think I equated to the mayor, is actually the Khan, as in Genghis. Khan is a word used to describe important leaders in this here part of the world. Anyway, this guy we met, is the head honcho of pretty much any land I can see. His grandfather was a land barron, and owned pretty much the east side of Afghanistan. This guy now owns most of it, and fortunately for us is very generous, and is making a very concerted effort to improve his country. His wife, an American who I guess was a journalist of some sort back in the early 80's is now a huge advocate of getting women in Afghanistan their rights back. She has been with him for 20 years or so and they have been fighting back against the Soviets first, and then the Taliban in the early 90's. When it got real bad here, they tossed her husband in jail and threatened to kill her, but they ended up getting out, and moved back to the States for a few years in California. He wanted to come back and help his people, she agreed basically telling him the US doesn't have a word for Khan, and his status was greatly enhanced being here, rather than being a mall security guard in Escondido. She is that sorta woman who you can tell always has a cause and is the energizer bunny on steroids. We were there for 2 hours and she literally didn't stop talking once. Fortunately it was fascinating. So, that leads me to the most interesting part of the time she was talking which was when they were fighting with the Mujahadeen, and came across Osama. He was known in these parts as "the Arab", and if you didn't know, Afghans are not Arabs. They have their own culture and nationalities and are definitely not Arab. Anyway, he lived probably 20 miles from where I am typing, and her husband had met with him and had dealings with him on several occasions. In the few words he was able to get in edgewise today, he described him as "moody". Understatement I think. If any of you have read "The Bear went over the Mountain" and "The Other Side of the Mountain" about the Soviets invasion and then the Mujahadeen's response, he is written about in one of them. He was also a camera man for CBS during the Taliban time here and used to sneak female reporters in from Pakistan. They were just fascinating people and ones whom you only read about.

We did talk about the school with her, she is still very interested in getting "stuff", unfortunately Crayons, are out, AGAIN! It's no big deal if you have them, or have sent them, she said her kids will handle them just fine, the kids in the other villages write on walls with them. She also said no clay, they will eat it, but did recommend two things. 1 - golf pencils, the little kids love them cause they fit their fingers so well, and 2 - shoes and sandals, especially shoes with winter coming. I also found out I may be able to get into the schools at some point and help teach some computer classes as they don't have anyone to do it!

It's hard to encapsulate all of today in a paragraph, but it was fun, and very interesting.

On my regular job front, its been pretty boring actually. We have just been going through equipment and trying to get it repaired and filling out paperwork. Not fun, but necessary. I have taken to amusing myself though and thought I would share it. I think I've mentioned before that I have at times messed with the guy I work with by talking to him and continuing to talk to him while he looks at me in panic because my interpreter is either busy or cant keep up. I have extended that game and now make it part of my daily routine. I get many questions about things and when they ask, always in Dari, I used to wait for my interpreter to tell me what they said. Instead, now, I stare at them, attempt to say exactly what they said back to me, although usually it comes out gibberish, and then I will start up in English, usually about nothing. Yesterday the Sgt asked me something and at the same time, pointed to his ears. I looked over at his ears and told him they looked fine to me. At which point he said something again and pointed to his forehead. I told him you don't listen with your forehead, you do it with your ears, but they looked okay, so I don't know why you are complaining. Then I told him he needed a hair cut and some other mundane stuff. All the while, he was talking in Dari. We had NO idea what the other one was saying, but Zak my interpreter and the civilian that works in the office thought it was hilarious. It really was. It may not sound like much, but holding two very separate conversations face to face with someone in two languages is entertaining.

Long one this week...thanks for hanging in there.

Take care!

Gary

Moved....again

I was told a day or so ago, you are moving. Good thing I had anything to say about it. The back story is that the Air Force is bringing in about 30 people, and 12 are women. See, we don't have women here at Blackhorse, so why are they bringing them? Who knows. Anyway, they have to have their own facilities, and of course, of the 90 rooms here, I was in one of them chosen to move to make room for the females. Oh well. I hate moving but it was over fast. I now live with Steve and Bob in the infamous scorpion room. I actually am in the area where it was found, but I have strategically placed glue traps to protect my domain. So now I have a bit less living space, and an extra roommate, but I guess all in all it doesn't matter. It all counts towards the 365.

Gary