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