26 June

Never even thought of it before-wheelbarrow lounger


Just a neat little car I wanted to take a pic of. Notice the medal chains dangling from the front. This is Afghan car bling. The trucks are called Jingle Trucks b/c they have so much junk attached to them they jingle down the highway. I was going to do a photo essay on just jingles, but have been unable to take the pics. I encourage you all to look up "Jingle Trucks" on google and take in some sights...



This is a pic of a jingle with some elaborate designs and paintings on it. This is typical of what a fuel tanker looks like. Notice the burn barrel in the vicinity of the fuel tanker. This truck was empty. As I rounded the corner of the building, this is what I saw, and decided I had to have this pic. The truckers get these trucks and put them to work right away. They work on them over a period of months, all the while using them to haul fuel....so you are starting to see the problem: Welding on a big tank that is full of fuel or fumes. One of them has blown himself up working on his jingle in town since I have been here. Some of these trucks are real beauties.




Trouble. The one in the light colored man-jamies on the right spotted us coming down the road and took off for us to be the first one to get whatever candy or goodies we had. As he was running towards us, he was focused intently on his feet. I said, "hey everyone, watch this." I took off running toward him at a full sprint. When he looked up and saw me coming, he came to a sliding stop in the gravel and took off in the other direction. I nearly fell over laughing along with all the other kids in the field. He was so flustered he nearly fell in that puddle he is standing in front of. To be honest, I thought he was all the way in it. All I could see was his feet sticking over the top of the edge. He was hangin on to a root or something. All that was wet was his butt.





A used car salesman and the muscle men


Tough guys...the small one is the one that got the wet bottom.

Don't let the C-wire fool you, they were on us in no time. I was taking a picture of the group when the guy next to me tossed a handful of candy into the air. The battle for sugery goodness ensued.

Thumbs up. She is a Tiger Fan.

A new friend.

26 June

Another one down…a week, a book, and a national championship. For those that are concerned, I was able to watch the games. We had the first Arkansas game and the Texas series on ESPN. It required me to get up at 3:30am for first pitch. I’d usually track it on the internet while talking to Murl and then catch the rest either in the gym or in the cafeteria. The National Guard unit in the area right now is from Georgia, so they were pulling for LSU against Texas. Football season should be interesting.

I did a good bit of mentoring this week, and have continued to learn about the language and culture. I can nowhere near carry a conversation, but have made it a point to learn things like “good to see you…I will see you later…how are you.” Of course I have picked up a few other things…I wanted to figure out their equivalent of “What’s up?”...the closest they could give me is “how are you, boy?” So, I started using that with the terps, and then one decided to ask me “what is up little girl?” I had to counter that by finding out how to put him in his place the next time…the best they could do for me was “sit down, dirty one,”…pretty offensive huh? The problem is he thought it was the funniest thing when I told him. I tried using it on a group of about 20 kids (pictured above) and they all just started yelling…not in English, but not in Pashtun either…it couldn’t have been anything coherent. It was like the whitey with sunglasses speaking Pashtun gave them a rush of energy they have never experienced (or maybe it was the fact that they had been begging for candy for 6 hours). So, because I make a concerted effort to learn the language, and enjoy the food so much, a couple of the terps have said, "Lt Person, he is Afghan."

I learned a valuable lesson this week, and I hope the people of Afghanistan did, too. Don't use an open flame to cook underneath your fuel truck. Pretty powerful lesson. So powerful the explosion a mile a way shook the building I was sleeping in. TO BE CLEAR, THIS WAS AN ACCIDENT NOT AN ATTACK. Some local idiot waiting to get his fuel truck to the delivery point was cooking his dinner at about 9pm Wed night when his truck went boom. Of course, we didn't know what was going on, so we hunkered down. We could see the flames were in the distance, and the next day we got the full story. I would like to see the sign they make for the highway warning people of the dangers of cooking over an open flame underneath your fuel truck.

Another interesting experience I had this week started with a coworker losing his gvt issued 9mm pistol. He was carrying some heavy cables for a generator on the ANA base when he shifted the cables on his shoulder, the pistol hit the ground, and he didn't realize. A nearby ANA officer watched the pistol for 2 to 3 minutes and picked it up and put it in his waistband. We searched for hours and started checking all ANA/civilians leaving the base. We restricted certain groups of people to the base. I was doing a final back track of his steps when a boy in civilian clothes motioned me over. He was squatting in the shadows of some trees with his face half covered. He muttered some broken English about some cables and a pistol. That is all I needed to hear, so I took him with me to find a terp. He told us he saw the whole thing go down and wanted to help get the pistol back. The problem was, he just wanted to tell us what he saw, but didn't know who he saw. We told the base commander one of his officers took the pistol, and he wanted to talk to the boy. The kid was deathly affraid that he would lose his job or worse. So I set out to start my own little witness protection plan. It took a lot of convincing to get the kid to talk to the base commander. After a few minutes with the base commander, he went from I don't want to talk to any ANA officers to "Take me to them, I will show you which one did it." We put him in a U.S. Army uniform (that is what our terps wear), sunglasses, a full head cover, and a different pair of flipflops. The group of officers that work in the area the pistol was dropped were put in a room. As he walked in calmly, a silence fell over the room. About 10 men...one knowing he is in big trouble and 9 others scared that they are going to get blamed for something they have nothing to do with. He walked up to one guy and stuck his finger in his chest and barked something in Pashtu. I was speechless. The pistol was returned within an hour. I don't know what they did to recover it from him, I don't know what his punishment is, and I haven't seen him since. I have seen the boy on base a few times. What he did was very brave and honorable. Often times in this country, bravery is confused with stupidity or carelessness. Honor is hard to come by in a war torn country where the average yearly income is about the same as the average minimum wage two week income in the U.S. He could have easily approached the officer and told him to pay up or he would report him. He could have gotten $1000 dollars from that guy, but he chose to do the right thing when he didn't have to, when no one was watching him. Afghanistan and the world needs more Azims.

Take care, God bless, and have a good weekend. And of course, GEAUX TIGERS!

BMP

19 June 2009

View from my position in the Village

Part of a growing crowd. They are sitting on the roof of a mud hut that is situated right next to the road. You can see my commander and our medic below in the village talking to the elders before going into a house for a meeting and tea.

A guy from my team and I at the HA site survey

Just another ANA dude getting his picture taken. This was his third pose.

Really dull week.

The highlight of my week was going out last Saturday for a humanitarian assistance site survey. We do the survey to get the lay of the land and see what the people need. We order the stuff and make a plan to go back and hand out things and administer minor medical care. The site is a small village (about 300 families) on a river. The village is perched on a flat piece of land at the base of the mountains overlooking the river. It is neat little place and the people were glad to have us.
My job for the mission was to provide security for my commander while he went into a meeting with the village elder to discuss some of the problems the village has and what the ANA/Americans can do to help. Throughout this and all of our trips (other than weekly mail runs), the ANA is right next to us providing security as well. They had an officer in the meeting doing the talking, we are there as advisers. The children would flock around us and just stare. These kids are young enough that they don’t know an Afghanistan without faceless American men with fancy sunglasses and big black guns. I brought along a bag of candy and gave it to my interpreter to pass out to the kids. When the crowd of kids around me would get too big, I didn’t have to worry about it, an ANA soldier would be along shortly to shoo them away like a stray animals. The kids would run a few meters and laugh and slowly creep back to a sitting position close enough to be shooed away minutes later…sounds like a fun game, right?The meeting lasted for about 45min and we left the area without incident.
While I was there, I did get to enjoy an Afghan Capri Sun (although, it probably was made in Pakistan). While we were there, a man approached me and asked if I could help his daughter…he was grabbing his hand. Our medic was in the meeting, so I said that I would take a look. He said that she had burned her hand and there was a problem with the healing. As he walked away to get her, I asked how long ago (I figured days), he responded “2 years.” Well about that time, I knew that Neosporin wasn’t going to help. He brought her out, and this is what we saw:

(her last three fingers on her right hand are pretty much webbed together. Her fingers healed in a curled position, so she'll need some physical therapy to straighten that out)

I don’t have any follow up on her. I forwarded the pictures to our lead medic and he did some research. Her father can bring her to an Egyptian run hospital about 3hrs away, and she can get the surgery done there. We are going to advise them on how to do this and make the arrangements for them. I will try to keep up with this and let y’all know anything that I find out. The best I can figure is that she spilled a pot or kettle on her hand and it was wrapped in a cloth to heal.The rest of the week has been really slow.

I have done a ton of office work and little mentoring. My main mentee was gone most of the week. We met Monday and Thursday. I had lunch in his office off of the vinyl table cloth both days. I had lady fingers (smothered okra cut in about 2” pieces) for the first time here. It is one of my favorites back home, and they did an excellent job on it. They bring so much food, and as most of you know I’ll sit and eat for a while. I have to make them take it away. Both days this week, they brought watermelon for dessert. Thursday, I had somewhere to be, so I tried to excuse myself after only a few pieces, and my mentee told me, “No, you have to eat.” So, I ate. He was probably joking, but he doesn’t laugh when he jokes. He laughs at other times, mainly when I joke or try to speak Pashtun.
He is a very interesting man. I have been reading a lot since I got to this mysterious land. I have read two books about Afghanistan. One was from Alexander the Great to present times, with very little about the country since 2001. The other talked very little about before 2001, and focused mainly on Sept 2001 to Jan 2002. Both went into great detail about their respective time periods and both heavily praised a man known as “The Lion.” Massoud was his last name and he was killed on 9 Sept 2001. Bin Laden had him killed, because he knew that the Americans would be coming and Massoud and his men would help the U.S. Well, obviously we did fine without him, but he was a great man for the country and people of Afghanistan. People bow their heads at the sound of his name. People have his face plastered to the front windshield of cars or in the common room of their homes. Well, I decided to ask about the military history of my mentee. He fought next to the Lion against the Russians and the Taliban. He helped the U.S. beat the Taliban in the winter months of 2001. He has seen a lot. He walks with a limp; his right ankle looks like it is permanently rolled. He has huge scars up and down his arms. He stands about 5’5” tall but thinks he is as big as his afternoon shadow. It is unique to have had hours and hours of conversation with this man, but the only words we have exchanged between the two of us directly are “How are you , God be upon you.”

I hope you are all enjoying my tales. I write so you know that I am enjoying my time here. I write so you can try to understand how someone could enjoy this. I especially write so you know that there is a lot more good going on in this country than bad.

Take care and God Bless.

BMP

12 June

Just a little manlove...not that there is anything wrong with that. (It is nothing to see Afghan men and boys holding hands. They will take breaks from work and lean and lay on each other...just imagine pulling up to a construction site at lunch time and seeing a group of workers just lounging around in the shade with their heads on each other's chests. A few of the Afghan officers have tried to hold my hand while talking or walking...I am just not ready to take our relationship to that level yet...my best technique is to break out into a coughing fit.)


Afghan traffic. No driver's license required here...just a set of wheels. This is the most patient culture I have seen in every facet of life except the roads. When traffic slows or stops, they will go three wide with the quickness. This is wall, car, truck, truck, curb, 1000' drop. As far as the guy wandering around in the road, unexplainable.



Flat tire...we couldn't secure the road for 45min b/c that pisses off the people and pissed off Afghans blow stuff up, so we had to set security and hurry up.


Moral of this story: Poppy (Opium) Kills and Wheat makes delicious bread. Because of the low literacy rates (about 30% across the country; higher in the city and much lower in the mountains), the make signs that tell the story with pictures.


Traffic on the switchbacks...all the cars on this road are jam packed with people. It is common to see a 4door sedan with 6 or 8 people in it. Most of the trucks have people on top of the cargo. Notice the curb that keeps you from plunging 1000'.


Typical view from an eastern Afghan valley floor.


Flood plain of Kabul River. There are people in some spots fishing from large inner tubes and the roads near the lakes are dotted with fishermen selling their catch.


Donkeys


Cow


Middle Aged-Middle-Eastern Camel Heardin' Man


Smoke in the Cab


This is an Afghan Police Sub Station


Entering a Tunnel

Another week in the books. I started my work week early Saturday morning by driving in a convoy to Kabul. It is only about 91 miles, but it takes about 3.5 to 5hrs to get there. We drove there, dropped off the ANA trucks that made the trip with us, refueled, and drove about 40miles north to Bagram Airfield (1.5 to 2hrs). At Bagram, we dropped off some U.S. guys for various reasons, did some shopping, picked up some U.S. guys, and a truckload of supplies. The FOB I live on has a small store(approx 150 square feet). We pick up supplies to restock it from Bagram once a month. Then it was back on the road to Kabul for the night.Sunday morning I went for a run (6,000 feet elevation and the air quality of your garage with the car running) and attended a two hour class on how to stay out of federal prison (learned how to properly spend your tax dollars to help the Afghan Army where there supply system is lacking). Sunday afternoon, it was back to Jalalabad.
This was my first extensive ground travel in the country, and mileage wise, it is not that extensive. I saw some of the most beautiful terrain God has created. During that short trip, we drove through tunnels built by the Russians, saw gutted out Russian tanks, drove through mountain passes where Afghans have defeated their enemies for thousands of years. I saw goats, sheep, cattle, and camels. Almost hit one of each at some point in the drive. Our speed varied from dead stop up to 55mph. We went through an area we call "The Switch Backs." It is a few miles where the road climbs over 1,000 feet. You drive one direction up the mountain,then you do a U-turn and drive up the mountain the other direction. The only thing keeping you from going to the bottom is commonsense and a 1foot concrete curb.The route took us through several towns and many small villages. The streets were lined with small children constantly giving us a thumbs up and yelling. They would stop giving the thumbs up only long enough to make a drinking gesture in an effort to get us to come off a few bottles of water. We cannot give them water for several reasons (a. 30mph bottle of water is hard to catch and if you catch it with your face, your face is broken...not good for winning hearts and minds. b. if it bounces in the road, they will go after it, they will fight over it, and they don't care what else is coming in the road.)

Other than a suicidal cow that was only being kept off the highway by a young boy with all his strength, the craziest thing I saw was ...well,there were a few of them.

1. ANA Fire Drill: while driving down the highway (my truck was the last in the convoy that stretched several kilometers), the ANA cargo truck in front of me stopped dead in the road. At that exact moment, an oncoming ANA Ford Ranger stopped next to it. One soldier from each truck jumped out, they exchanged a weapon, and the one from my convoy got in the other truck headed back to JBAD, and vice-versa. This all lasted about a minute. My gunner was yelling at them to hurry the hell up, we were getting left. My truck commander was trying frantically on the radio to inform our convoy commander (over a mile away now) what we were seeing.I was just honking the horn and looking on in amazement. It took us over 5minutes and several miles to catch up on some of the curviest roads I have ever traveled.


2. U.S. Fire Drill: While driving from Kabul to Bagram (no ANA at this point) down a very bumpy road destroyed from IED attacks and vehicle wrecks, the U.S. truck in front of me radios in that there is smoke in the cab of their truck and they must stop. I immediately stopped and positioned my truck to block the rest of the convoy ahead of me from any traffic coming behind us and watched as they all bailed out of the truck with a puff of white smoke. We were there for about 15 minutes while they inspected everything and slowly started up equipment until they had enough equipment to safely drive and communicate. It wasn't until the next day that someone found that the turn signal module by the driver's left leg had melted.

3. The same truck got a flat tire on the way back from Bagram that night that we had to stop for about 45min to change.

Nothing too exciting by war zone standards, but it was an interesting trip, nonetheless.
The rest of the week went pretty fast. My Officer in Charge (OIC) is on leave back in Ohio. We are doing a ton of construction work here on the FOB, so I had to adjust some security measures for the Afghans that will be working here. There is a Catholic chaplain in town, so we had mass last night and will have it today and Saturday. Out of the 4 of us that showed up, I had been most recently for Easter, so naturally, the priest wanted to perform Easter mass...at least he didn't want to do vigil. Today, we are doing last Sunday's, and Saturday, we are doing this coming Sunday's. This guy obviously doesn't prescribe to the "Once you show up to mass, you are all caught up theory." He did make it abundantly clear that Saturday's mass would count for Sunday...that is nice of him.

Everyone have a great weekend. Take care and God Bless.

BMP

5 June

Farmer and kids in the field (I was on top of the wall installing security cameras. All of the water in the field is put there one shovel scoop at a time out of an irrigation ditch.)


BBQ Prep


The spread


BBQ Pits with coworkers


Some sort of cupcake...wrapped in newspaper



What I brought to the table


Had to take a picture of it


Little girls playing hide and seek from me at the HA mission


Happy little girls with their new goods from the HA mission


Caught her slippin'



Little boys in their "Man 'Jammies"

Happy Juma to All!

The weeks are starting to go by pretty fast. I had planned on adding pics to last weeks blog, but this week went so fast I didn't get to it.Not going to complain about that. I went to the bazarr last Friday to do some "shopping." The shop owners are overly aggressive...none of that Mexican "Hola, my friend, I make you good deal." These crazy A'holesgrab an armed man by the arm and put things in his hands saying "You like? You like? I get you bag. How many you want." I tell them over and over, "I am not interested, thank you." I a few things, nothing too interesting. There is a lot of junk. They make some crappy jewelry, bury it for a week in the dirt and then try to sell it as "old necklace, handmake." They have some coins that they do the same thing to. They have Alexander The Great on them...no way these things are real.

They have rifles for sale, too. I read up on these things on how to tell if they are truly antiques, or rip off replicas. All of the ones I have encountered are rip off replicas by a long shot.
As far as specific goods at this soccer field covered in trees with shops all over it. There are DVDs for $2, Oakleys, any kind of pocketknife you can think of, watches, pipes, hookahs, rugs, head wraps, and many more items that go in the junk category. All of the stuff is either made in China or Pakistan. The DVDs range from TV shows or the latest movies. The movies are the black market stuff where you see the guy in front of the camera get up to go to the bathroom. I have only bought textile products from these yahoos.

The only other significant thing I did in the past week was do a cookout for some ANA officers. We bought two small bbq pits and some charcoal.We got one of our terps to get some meat from town. I supplied the marinade and spices from a carepackage my dad sent me. I believe the ANA officers really doubted our cooking ability. They watched intently as we assembled the shiny metal tables (bbq pits), poured black rocks on them, and set them ablaze. After I started the pits, I went up to checkout the meat. I found three plastic trays of room temp meats (beef,lamb, and chicken). We had to finish cutting up the beef and lamb to goon skewers that were borrowed from a local hotel. The skewers were really nice. The were metal, 18" long, and were flat, so when you grabbed it and turned it, all the meat turned, too. The chicken was just regular ole chicken legs. We also attempted "baked" potatoes and grilled corn on the cob. The potatoes turned out ok. The corn was somewhat of a disaster. We had corn on the cob in the husk. We peeled back the husk and took out the silk. We didn't have butter, so we made some oil and Slough Daddy concoction to put on the corn before putting it in tinfoil...plan doesn't sound too bad does it? Well, when it comes to taste,just imagine picking up some corn off the table out of a Thanksgiving decoration and biting into it. We called it "Indian Corn." All we were familiar with was sweet corn. Apparently, you are supposed to soak this corn before cooking it. The ANA provided rice (different than the rice we are used to. They took my meat scraps and bones and added it to the rice with some onions and tomatoes. It turned out pretty much like jambalaya. They use a pressure cooker pot to boil the water faster in the altitude.), watermelon, nan (like pita bread), mountain dew, salad,and cookies.

We went through a half a bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce in one meal. I had the ANA putting it on everything. They loved it on bbq chicken, they tried it on potatoes, they filled a pepper with hot sauce and ate it,they put it on a cookie, and I made a spread by mixing hot sauce and butter (we eventually had butter) and put that on bread...it was great.I had a blast cooking and eating with these guys. We had a terp there,but we rarely spoke with them. We mainly just laughed at each other and enjoyed the food.

Have a great weekend everyone. Take care and God Bless.

BMP