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