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