I'm Back!

It took four long days of travel.  But, I finally made it back to my home away from home.  It has been a bittersweet return.  Everything is the same, yet everything is different.  My students are the same, yet they have changed a bit. The base is the same, yet has had so many changes that I am constantly suprised. My co-workers though most have been replaced, there are still many familiar faces, yet the dynamics are different.  I still know many people on base and am always happy to see a familiar face.  I often get the "I haven't seen you running lately" to which I have to reply, "its pretty hard to be seen running when I'm not here".  

I've been back all of two weeks, and a few things that occured were noteworthy.

#1.  My fourth day back I am walking down the street and happen to look over and see a man that I thought looked familiar.  He too was looking at me with a look of recognition.  I assumed that he was someone I knew from my first tour, so I began flipping through my mental reserves of people I knew, it was not until I glanced at his name tag that I realized it was someone I knew from back home in Sioux Falls.  What are the chances of running into someone you knew from your hometown in Afghanistan?  Apparently pretty high.

#2.  While I was hope I spent a great deal of time finding shoes, clothes, socks, underwear, and toys for the children of my students as well as some special items for my students that do not have kids.  Everything was greatly appreciated and I am certain that the kids loved getting new outfits.  I also was able to make up some boxes of items for some people who are rather poor and in need of a little extra help.  I believe I was able to help an additional five families of people who truly were in need.  There was one man in particular who will forever stand out in my mind.  I gave him a box that contained a few items of clothing for his two year old son and he looked at me with eyes of such appreciation and grattitude that I simply wished I would have been able to give him so much more.  It is a moment I will always remember.

#3.  One of the puppies from my first tour had a little of puppies of her own.  There are 5 cute little bundles of pudge that she is taking care of.  A few fatter then the others.  We have so far named two, one Tigger and one Bubba (the fattest one), we are continuing to search for appropriate names for the rest, suggestions are appreciated.

Other then that I am staying busy settling in, reaquainting myself with old friends and making new friendships.  My new roommate seems quite nice, and I think I got lucky once again. But overall its good to be back, I love the work I have the opportunity to do and the good that I am able to be a part of. Its good for the soul

Life

Time has flown by, I look at my last post and think it was so long ago and so much has happend in such a few short months.  I returned home from Afghanistan in late September and hit the ground running, I attended weddings, spent time with my family, ran a half marathon, spent weeks on the road training to deploy again, and all while trying to catch my breath.  Although I am very excited to be returning to Afghanistan in a few weeks, there are times I wish I had worked a few extra days into my into my down time and there are others where I can't wait to get back. However, at this moment I am back in the "I need more time" mode as I scramble to finish my last minute preparations before I leave in a few weeks while fnishing Christmas preparations.  But, now that I am "home" I feel calm, and life is good.

Engagement

In Afghanistan the interactions between men and women is much different then what we experience in the US. Here women do not interact with men unless they absolutely have too. It's not that they don't want to, but rather if they are seen with a man that is not a relative it looks poorly on the family and they could be punished or worse. As a result most marriages are arranged, with the couple having barely met or even spoken before the marriage actually takes place.

I have two young men in my class, Fawad and Nesar, who as a result of the culture and customs of Afghanistan have absolutely no experience with women/girls. When my friend Boris was helping me out, they took the opportunity to ask him how to talk to girls and what kind of things a man would say to a woman. This progressed to how a man should propose to a woman. Boris took pity on them and told them a few things they could say to girls and also showed them how to propose to a girl. Fawad who always wants to make sure to get it right decided to practice on Baba Rob, for some reason it kinda freaked Rob out.

Fawad then came to me, asked me for my hand, proceeded to get down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. At first I thought he was just practicing on me, as he did this multiple times. I even had both Fawad and Nesar propose to me at the same time! I soon learned that he was quite serious, every day he asked me to marry him, referred to himself as my fiance, told me about the beautiful children he could give me, sent me the lyrics from love songs to my facebook, and continued to ask other "experienced" men what sweet nothing he could murmor in my ear.

On his Birthday I decided to have a special dinner, so we ordered out food, and we got him a Birthday cake, deciding to take advantage of the situation he made sure that we cut the cake together and he then fed me cake. Soon after this I had to break it to Fawad that I would not be able to marry him, I am pretty certain he has since healed from the rejection, but on the other hand he was able to practice his proposal over and over again, so the next time he decides to use it, it should be perfect!

Whatcha Talking 'bout Willis?

You frequently see dogs all over in Afghanistan.  However, they are not well liked.  They scavange for food and avoid humans at all costs as they are usually kicked or have things thrown at them by most that they encounter.  There are a few puppies that I feed on a regular basis, they will eat out of my hand, but they will not allow me to touch them.  I named them Lucy and Ricky.

The other morning as I left camp and was headed to AGCHO I looked over onto the street and saw this dog running along the side of the barrier and he was doing this happy bark.  A few of the soldiers were trying to shoo him away and I yelled at the soldier to knock it off as he was throwing things at him.  The dog soon found his way over to the sidewalk where we were walking, he came right up to me and I rubbed his head and his ears.  I thought right away, this dog is different, he is too friendly, he let me touch him without even knowing me. We continued walking, and he just walked right along with us.

He kept walking with us all the way to AGCHO, we had to go through several gaurds, all of whom tried to shoo him away, but I told them that he was my friend and they let him in.  Once we arrived at the GTC he just hung around the building all day while we were inside.  We stepped out every so often to give him a little love or a treat, but he just stayed right there all day.

I thought he might get bored waiting for us all, and decide to move on, so I made sure to take some pictures of him because he was such a sweet dog.  So I grabbed him close and he began to lick my face, soon he had moved behind me, put both of his paws on my shoulders and lowered his head to the side of my neck as if to give me a hug.  It was very sweet.

Once we were finished for the day we headed back to camp and he came with us, but this time we had decided to call him Willis. He walked all the way back to camp and I said good bye to him at the gate.  I had to tell the gaurds to be nice to him because he wanted to follow us in.  We walked in to the gate and past a second set of guards.  I look back and the guards at the first gate had opened it up wide and here came Willis charging down the alley way towards us.  I knew right away that this wasn't going to be good.  There are cats on the base and a few military dogs, but you didn't see stray dogs in camp.  We still had a third set of guards to go through and I was certain they were going to stop him, but they just laughed and let him walk right on through. 

He followed us back to our work area and promptly passed out in a planter.  He spent a few more hours with us and then moved on his merry way.  I haven't seen him again, however, I still have a day full of memories.

Running Addiction

I never considered myself to be a runner, when I was younger I would struggle to get through the mile run at school, I was the big, slow girl in class.  This trend continued throughout much of my life.  There were periods of time when I would do small amounts of running, maybe a mile or so, but never consistently and never truly with a passion.  I never in my life thought I would be able to run a 5k, it just didn't seem to be in me.

Enter Ty into my life.  My friend Ty challenged me to run in a 5k with him here in Kabul, I had never run that far in one instance in my life.  But, one of my goals while I was here was to get into better shape, and I thought that running would definately help,  Besides, how many people can say that they ran their first 5k in Afghanistan?  So I started running, it was pretty slow going, maybe a mile or two a day, but I was running.  I managed to run 5k before the actual race, so I knew that I could do it, however when race day arrived, I was still recovering from a few "graceful moments" and in the heat of the day I struggled more then I thought that I would.  But, the important part is that I finished the race.  My time was nothing spectacular, but I enjoyed the experience.

After the 5k I continued to run, Ty mentioned running in a 10k on the 4th of July and with that as my goal I kicked up my training a notch.  In the weeks that followed I found days where I just felt like running and I ran 5 miles, and I was so suprised at my ability to complete it.  Unfortunately, it did not work out in my schedule to run in the 10k, but the night before I ran my 10k...actually I ran 11k, but I did it!  Again I was suprised at my ability to do this, I have never in my life been a runner.

A few weeks later I was running, and when I started I thought I might do a couple miles, but as I started getting into it I think to myself, no, I want to run farther, I'll do a 10k tonight, only I didnt' feel like stopping after the 10k, I kept going and ran ten miles that night.  I was tired, but I felt as though I could have kept going.  I ran for two straight hours without stopping. Who was I turning into? Because I was not someone who would ever, or had ever run ten miles straight before!

By this time running had become many things for me.  It was a stress relief, exercise, a mental relief, and many other things. After awhile I started to enjoy the feeling I got when I ran, the mindless obliviation that I seemed to settle into as I ran circles around base.  If I didn't get to run for a few days I started to crave it.  I can't help it, running has became an addiction!

It was after running the 10 miles that I realized that I am capable of doing so much more then I had ever given myself credit for.  I decided that I wanted to train for something (I need goals), I thought about a half marathon, but I believed that I could do that now and that it wouldn't really be a challenge for me to achieve it.  So instead I decided it would have to be a full marathon.  I thought long and hard about which race to enter and what the time frame should be.  I decided to enter the Denver Marathon on October 17, a few weeks after I returned to the US.  This would give me 13 weeks to train and as an added bonus, and I was already training at altitude.  Plus, I needed to go to Denver to pick up my cat : )

I am nervous about my new goal, but excited as well.  I know that I will be able to achieve it, I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead of me, and to seeing myself acomplishing goals that I previously never thought possible.  The upcoming months will be yet another adventure and full of many 1st's!

Strawberry Cigars

Generally Speaking my philosophy about smoking is that it is absolutely disgusting, cigarettes are nasty cancer sticks waiting to kill anyone stuipd enough to smoke them and cigars and pipes really arn;t that much better.  However some how, for some reason, I have become a cigar smoker.

It all started out innocently enough.  Every Thursday the men from my department get together and smoke cigars.  It is their way of celebrating "Man Love Thursday".  Generally, I would not be allowed at this party as I am a woman, but ocassionally they let one of us join in for comic relief.  So on one of these days that they so kindly allowed me to say one of my co-workers showed up with a strawberry cigar to smoke.  I got to smell it, and boy did it smell good!  Once it was lit I had to give it a try, and I was suprised by the sweet taste it left in my mouth.  That night I ended up pretty much smoking that whole cigar by myself as the co-worker who brought it left the party and never came back.  And that was the begining of my cigar smoking.

After my first time I figured that I wouldn't mind smoking the flavored cigars as they were light and didn't leave me feeling sick in the morning.  Also, it just so happens that the head dudes of our department all took part in this cigar smoking, so I figured it couldn't hurt to get in good with them...you never know when they might be of some assistance in the future! 

But, that is not where the cigar smoking ended, several of my friends enjoy smoking cigars and one decided that he was going to smoke a cigar every night of the last month he was in country, well for him this turned into some where between one and three cigars a night, for me it was just one, but still...its alot of smoking.  Atleast the company is good!  Once he leaves I will probably be back to the one night a week "Man Love Thursday" cigar party with the boys.

Above is a picture of me squished between two of my favorite seamen on a cigar/pipe night.  I think they want to be like Popeye!

Winning Hearts and Minds One Child at a Time

One of the big campaign strategies for the US military is often called the COIN strategy.  It refers to the winning of the hearts and minds of the Afghan people towards the US and its coalition.  Although this is a good strategy, I and many of my friends feel that the focus of this should be on the children as they are the future of Afghanistan and essentially the most important part.

As a result of our belief in the need to do good for the children and a desire to make a difference my friend Boris and I took on a major project of reconstructing a daycare facility.  The project began as a desire to create a playground for the kids to play in and has evolved as we saw the condition of the facility and the needs that were so obviously there.

It is a two story facility tucked back a ways behind a few other buildings, upon entering you can go straight back to a "Turkish" style bathroon or up two flights of stairs to the second floor where there are two classrooms for the over fifty children that attend the day care, an office, and a kitchen.  In many places the plaster on the wall is falling off, and the paint chipping.  The glass in the windows were broken and cracked, there was exposed live electrical wiring, the walls are covered in soot and ash (a wood burning heater is used in the winter).  The carpets are dirty, the small beds the children nap in are old and worn and there are more children in the small space then probably should be there.  Essentially this place is one that most of us would refuse to live in let, alone allow your child to be cared for in on a daily basis.

After observing these things and many others we decided to do what we could to help.  We wanted to repaint the facility and give it a clean and cheery feeling for the children.  We also wanted to improve what we could.  We started by having a painting party with volunteers.  We were able to paint the classrooms and get a good start on the hallways.  We continued with the improvements and installed ceiling fans in both classrooms, new glass in the broken windows, and the sanding and repainting of the beds.  Once the painting is complete we will be installing new carpets in all of the daycare.  We would also like to install air conditioners and heating units so that they no longer have to rely on burning for their heat and are able to keep and soot and ash out of the facility. 

The play ground area was literally a dumping grounds before we started. We had all of the trash and rubble removed from it and had a new wall built and fresh masonry work done to clean it up.  We intend to put in a small playground, cement the area, and add rubber mats.

It is a huge project that has consumed much of my time over the last several weeks.  However, to see the children happy, the progress that is being made, and the difference we are making has been incredibly rewarding.  I am looking forward to seeing the completion of this project, seeing the difference it has made in the childrens lives and the impact we were able to make in the simple act of trying to make a difference one child at a time.

If you would like to follow the progress of our group please check us out at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31358287&id=1005810794#!/group.php?gid=141531235863844