Start of the Week (17 April)

Well my week starts on Saturday. Friday (JUMA) is our weekend. Our Afghan counterparts have JUMA, their day of prayer, so we take time to catch up on personal stuff and relax. There is also a Bazzare every Friday with local vendors. They sell rugs, different silks, jewelry, and a bunch of other stuff that is usually junk. I bought a shemagh to keep the dust/sun off of my face and two rugs for my cubicle...(pics to come of my cube and our FOB). We reserve JUMA as our day of peace and happiness. We try to eradicate cursing and any kind of hate amongst each other to include friendly fun poking. If you think you deserve it, JUMA is the day for cookies and ice cream after lunch and dinner. Today was my first interaction with the local kids. We prepared for our outing by arming ourselves: Semi-automatic weapons for the Taliban and play-do and a frisbee for the kids. Luckily all we had to use was the frisbee and the play-do. we gave the kids the play-do and did our best to tell them not to eat it because they run up asking for chocolate "mista" and we gave them play-do. Then on our way back i see empy play-do cans and a kid trying to sell me gum...wonder what that was. There was one little girl that would just walk in front of me backwards staring up at me making faces (squinching her lips and nose). She was cute...until on our way back we had one piece of candy left and there were three of them, so like any responsible group of 20 somethings, we threw it among the two little girls and one boy...hair pulling and fist flinging ensued. My little friend came up victoriously. Those kids run around barefooted through fields, "roads," ditches...you name it. There is coiled razor wire along the roads to sperate us from the fields, but those kids run straight through it without even looking down...their feet just know where to go. Many of you may have read/heard about some deadly earthquakes in the region Friday morning...I didn't feel a thing. Have a good weekend. Take care. BMP