5K

My friend Ty decided that I was going to run in a 5k with him. This was determined a little over two weeks before the event. I reluctantly agreed to do it knowing that I had never run that far consecutively in my life, let alone in a 5k race. But, I figured that it would be good exercise, and hey I could say I ran my first 5k in Afghanistan.

I began running almost every day and figured that I should be able to get through the race with a little walking. My goal was simply to finish.

Race day came and went with a few difficulties. First, I had a few “graceful” incidents that took me out of the running train for most of the week leading up to the race and the day of the race was quite hot, (I had been running at night) and it made it more challenging. However, I made it through, I completed the race in a much faster time then I had anticipated and was glad for it. There were several people from my team that ran, and it was fun to see so many people participate. There were all kinds of runners, from the Mongolians who sprinted the entire race, to the slow pokes like me who were just trying to make it through. Apparently my next goal is a 10k in July. Lord help me now!
Myself, Ty, and Daddy Warbucks before the race

And we're off!!

After the race...I squatted down so they wouldnt feel so short!

Just call me Grace

As many of you know, I am a walking disaster. If there is a hole, I will find it, step in it and trip. If there is not a hole, I will still trip and fall…I am just that good.

Saturday

I go out running in the evening as it is cool and I had finished work for the day. So I am running along and low and behold I find something to trip over and fall down. I end up severely bruising my right knee cap and cutting my right hand. Truly, a great way to end the night.

Sunday

I was sore and hurt from the night before and I didn’t sleep well, so I was running late for work. I stopped off at the DFAC to grab breakfast and head to the office. Now, one of my new obsessions has become applesauce. So I was carrying a TOGO carton with a bowl of applesauce on top of it. I walk into the guard shack and put down my food, put my phone on the shelf, pick up my food and turn to enter the combination for the door, as I do so my applesauce falls and I end up with applesauce on my shirt, pants and in my shoes…not a good way to start the day.

Monday

Monday was a seemingly normal day, until dinner that is. We frequently will eat dinner outside on this patio area. So after eating our meal we decided that we needed to have some ice cream for desert, so I go to get up and end up catching my foot between the chair and table and going down. I bruise myself all the way around my ankle, my left knee, hip and shoulder. Luckily, the patio was only half full, so only 20 or so people saw my graceful fall.

After that point I thought it would be a good idea to start taking bets on how many more times I would fall this week. Unfortunely, once the next Saturday rolled around, I again biffed it at the DFAC, I am now keeping a running total on my stay here.

What I miss and how it has changed me

Being away from home and from your known suroundings definately throws a person off.  You are no longer able to walk down the street to the grocery store or head into walmart, you can't go camping in the woods with your friends or do any number of things.  And I am ok with that.  I volunteered to give that up,

What I miss are more simple things;

I miss my family.  My family is going through an extremely exciting time right now as we look forward to the birth of the first grand baby into our family.  I am supper excited for my sister and her husband and cannot wait to meet the little guy.

I miss my electric toothbrush.  I'm not really sure what changed, if it is the food, the environment or the voice of my mother in the back of my head, but I have become obsessed with brushing and flossing my teeth,  It seems as though I can't keep my mouth clean enough. 

I miss my close friends, and the ability to call them up and go visit and hang out when I needed someone to be with.  I got lucky when I got here and was quickly able to pick out my Afghanistan Best friend, Ty, he quickly became my shortkick and we really enjoy hanging out togehter.  I feel lucky to have him in my life as a friend and confidant, However, I miss my old friends too, and communiation is hard with a crazy time different among other things.

I miss the ability to get into my car and just go somewhere, here I walk everywhere I need to go, and if its on base then you can go anywhere, your just very limited on where that is.

I think that one of the biggest things I miss is privacy.  Privacy is at a premium.  Even in my room there is no true privacy as my roommate can hear everything I do, and everywhere you go there are people, sometimes I just crave solitude, and a little time to regroup and regenerate.  I always liked my alone time, but never realized before now just how necessary it truly was.

Missing those things are difficult, but I still feel that the job I am doing qne the experience I am getting more then make up for what I am missing.  Here I found a new family, the people I work with are crazy and great and I have come to love them.  My boss immediately took me under his wing to look after as a daughter, I have recently dubbed him Daddy Warbucks.  My Canadian Baba Rob has grown on me imensely and I am already sad at the idea of him leaving in a few months.  My other co-workers all have their unique quirks and good personalities that make working with them so much fun.  There is not a day that goes buy that we do not laugh until there are tears pouring out from laughing so hard.  It's what happens when you put a bunch of crazy old men togehter in one room...

What has Changed me

I think the biggest thing for me is self confidence in my abiliteis and my skills and my future.  I also have a better sense of myself.  The confidence has allowed me more freedom to explore different areas of myself and be able to search those areas and determine the true me.  A time of reflection was good.  Now I need the strengh to stand behind those lessons learned and do what is best for me.  And it will...it may just take time like anything else.

Camp Life

Remember what it was like to live in the dorm at college?  Where you and a roomate share this tiny space and there is a floor full of rooms just like it filled with even more people?  That is pretty much exactly what it is like here.  I live in a connex, which is a building made out of shipping containers, basicually each room is one container and is shared by 2-3 people. They named it the SWAMP, which I love since I am a huge Mash Fan.  I am lucky in that I only have one roommate, her name is Doll, she is pretty cool and tolerates my wicked ways well enough, so I can't complain.  We partitioned off the room to have a litle added privacy but is still a shared room and you can always hear what the other person is doing.  I am also lucky in that the bathroon is just across the hall.  There are three shower stalls, two toilets and two sinks.  Im not exactly sure how many woman are on my floor and share it, but i would say 10-15.  Some mornings it can get a little hairy, but so far it has worked out.  The only problem comes when there isn;t any water and you cant take a shower, wash your hands, or flush the toilet.  That has only happened a few times in the month I have been here, so I guess it could be alot worse. 

Heading outside there are several  more buildings that look just like mine.  Many are housing buildings and some are workspaces.  Across the street is one of the chow halls...it has the longest lines, but in my opinion the best food.  Not too much further down is a gathering place for many, there is a fun patio with a tree and flowers, a video shop, the green bean coffee shop, mwr where you can rent movies and games, they also have pool tables and fooshball tables as well.  Next to that is one of the gyms, and inside the gym is the movie room with couches and a big screen tv.  My friend Ty and I frequently enjoy relaxing on the cumfy couches and watching movies...sometimes we even get to choose what we watch! (We are in the midst of the Star Wars Saga as I had never seen them.)  Outside of the gym is the clam shell, this is where all of the big activities take place.  Any group training is done here, church services, and the fun stuff like bands, salsa night, karokee night etc.  Througout the area there are many places to shit and chat and relax.  It is nice to have so much so close.  My office is a bit further away...it probably takes 2-3 minutes to walk there. and from there it is another minute or two to the other DFAC. 

DFAC's are very important places.  Firstly because I love to eat.  Food is GOOD!  So I always make sure to get in there for dinner and then I stock up on snacks and necessities that i might need for later in the day like cookies, cereal, beef jerky (for the dogs) fruit, and beverages.  I have to say that even though I enjoy and appreciate having someone else cook for me, I would much rather cook for myself.  And for some reason no one has thought up Veggie burgers or morning star products.  Might make things easier.  But I guess there is always salad.

Overall its a pretty small camp. I have found that once I become aware of a person I see them everywhere and because it is the same people over and over again it tends to begin to feel like stalking...just ask my stalker he'll tell you.  I like the closeness of the community though.  It seems like you cannot go some where and not know anyone, kind of makes me feel like I'm on cheers or something.

There are some luxeries there though, there is a pizza place that should stay open for another few months, there are several haji shops where you can get rugs, scarves, various knick nacks, and a custom made suit for $60.  There is a nice courtyard filled with gazeebos and roses where lovers go to cuddle up and where the rest of the guys just go to hang out because it is so pretty! There is also the lovely Green Spa that I told you about previously as well as the PX.  The PX i have a love hate relationship with.  This is for a few reasons.  Ihe first is that the flooring and stair structure of the building are really odd and being the klutz that I am I frequently trip over the floor or invisible stairs.  However they have things that I like a need, a little secion on skin care and personal hygiene, a large section of growth hormones for guys trying to get ripped, a small secion of various household goods you might want.  as well as a junk food sction an electronics area, and military supply area.  I have found that my favorite area is the junk food section....i try not to eat too much junk food, but i have a hard time resisting sour cream and onion ruffles and as i was waiting in line i spied a microwave bake brownie, so I had to get two.  Bake that bad boy up, throw on some ice cream and hot fudge I scored from the DFAC, We were in heaven.  I mean you can almost have it like you were back home.  Love it! 

Cheese Whiz

I had intended to bring some treats to AGCHO for my birthday, but withit being salsa night the night before I just didn't make it to the PX tobuy anything. But I did go to the PX on my Birthday and bought some snacks (think elementary school). It just so happened that the Easy Cheese had been talking to me for the last four weeks and I decided to indulge. I told myself it was my substitute Birthday Cake. I ended up bringing the Easy Cheese and Crackers to AGCHO with me and since I had to have a few for myself I set it out for everyone. Rob and I were enjoying it and Mariam our interpreter came up and grabbed a cracker and took a bite, I told her,you have to put some cheese on it, she looked at me a little questioningly and I took the can and showed her how to put it on her cracker. She duplicated my efforts and then popped the cheesy cracker into her mouth, it was then that her eyes lit up, after she finished eating she said "that is really good!" eventually the rest of the students came around and Rob taught them how to put the cheese on the crackers. And they all were soon addicted. Apparently they had never had cheese whiz before! It was a lot of fun to be the one to introduce them to something new, especially since they all liked it so much.

My favorite part though came when Fawad took the cheese and three crackers and spelled out WWE (He is a WWE fanatic). It reminded me of how my mother used to spell out our names and varous things on crackers with cheese when I was young. I can't help it, I am always smiling!

Afghanistan Women

Many people are aware that Afghanistan women wear burkas and keep themselves covered.  For some there is a religious reason, for others it is a safety measure.  Covered here would be always wearing pants or a long dress, wearing long sleeves, and a covering for their head.  Most of the women that I have seen simply wear a scarf wrapped around their head and shoulders and show their face.

Being American and coming from a different culture and religion, I have a very different opinion of what is proper and acceptable to be shown in public.  Coming here to work I was ill prepared to be a woman working among the Afghan population.  By that I mean that I did not have the proper wardrobe.  Even though it is summer I cannot wear short sleeves, and my polo shirts that are long sleeved, well, they have a womans cut to them and therefore are not designed to be tucked in and as a result, my back will often show when I sit down etc.  This is not a good thing and as a result I have needed to be creative to make sure that I am covered from the neck down with nothing peaking out where it is not supposed to be. 

I also make the choice to not cover my head.  I believe that I am being respectful to the culture by covering my body, I will not cover my head.  This is not a problem with the people that I work with, but rather it has garnered me a great deal of unwanted attention.  Esentially, I am an oddity here, I have pale skin, and I do not cover my head which shows hair that is a rather unique color for the region.  Walking to work the men all stop to look, the gaurds all want to shake my hand and touch me, but the funniest part, is that they all want to take a picture with me.

A camera is an expense that not many Afghan's can afford, however, they all love having their picture taken, so when they see American's they know that we have cameras and ask to have their picture taken, and this is how it goes down.  Dave, Rob and I are walking to AGCHO, we get stopped by soldiers or guards and asked to take a picture, Dave ALWAYS goes for his camera, and the guards/soldiers immediately move to stand near me.  They don't just want their picture taken, they want their picture taken with ME!  I find this to be rather humerous, and have decided to start a collection of pictures with me and random guys...I'm not sure how many have been taken so far, but there will certainly be many more taken in the future!

After we took this picture the guard on the right asked for it every day. Now, first off, I didn't even want to take the picture with him let alone make the effort to print it out, Second, I had no desire to give a picture of me "uncovered" to a guy that I didn't know. However, the insistent peppering for the picture was starting to get irritating. So Rob being the smart man that he is came up with a solution. He said, lets give him the picture but put a burka on you. I said, you know that might just do it, this way my picture was not in the hands of a random guy, and the guard still gets his picture. So we had our new guy Peter photo shop a burka onto me and we will be giving it to the guard on Saturday, Rob is going to be armed with his camera to document the guards reaction when he sees the photo. I am pretty excited myself. Now if I can only get the head guard to stop asking me for my picture I will be good!

The Green Spa

Regardless of what many people think military bases in a war zone are civilized places, and at the one I am on there is a spa. It is run by a bunch of women from Kyrgyzstan. Needless to say they do not speak a great deal of English.

For my birthday I decided that I wanted to spoil myself a bit and get a pedicure, since I was there I decided to get some waxing done as well. My eyebrows needed some shaping and according to my sister Emily I need to do my lip and neck as well (damn Arnold genes!). So I figured that since I was there I might as well get it taken care of.

The Pedicure was done in what was previously some kind of bathing facility/corner of the spa, in place of a massage chair there was a padded office chair straped up on a pedestal, and a plastic foot bath placed in front of it, there was also a padded wooden stand that my feet were placed on when she worked on them. The lady did a nice job getting callouses off and shaping my nails, she painted them and did a nice design.

Next, I was scheduled to do my waxing, the lady seemed to be in a rush as she kept coming over to the gal doing my pedicure asking her if she was done yet etc. (this was all done in a different language so I assume that is what she was saying, but, I am not 100% certain) So as soon as my pedicure was done I was wisked behind the waxing curtin. I was instructed to lay down on the table and then the woman asked me what I wanted done she said eyebrow and lip, I said yes, but do my neck and anywhere you saw long hairs. Her response was "Oh my God!" and she ran out of the room. I was thinking to myself, really? It didn't seem like that strange of a request to me, but maybe she had someone else waiting and she thought it would take too long. She returned a minute or two later and proceeded with my waxing. She waxed nearly my entire face! From cheek bones all the way down my neck! Now I guarantee you I did not have hair in all of those places, so I assumed that there was some serious miscommunicationthat had occurred as my entire face is now completely fuzz free. She then moved on to my eyebrows and (sorry Emily) gave me the most intense eyebrow shaping experience of my life. I don't think I have ever had anyone pay so much attention to the shaping of my brows, but they did turn out good.

Now I am sure you all are wondering the cost of such extravagance in Afghanistan, well, let me tell you, the Pedicure was $18 and the Face Waxing was $12...all in all I thought it was a pretty good deal especially since the whole time I was getting waxed I was thinking about how much fun it was going to be to blog about. Tomorrow I am going for my $20 - hour long massage....I am excited!