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

4th of July Celebrations and Adventures

"Special" Food

My friend Boris has been helping me out at AGCHO while my Canadian is home on R&R.  He has been a great help with the students and getting things done.  However, he isn't the biggest fan of our $7 a month lunches.  So since it was a holiday I decided to send my boys out to get lunch for everyone.  Since there were twelve of us I told the guys to get 11 kabobs, a thing of rice for me, chips, drinks, and whatever else they wanted.  So when the got back and we all start to eat I notice that some of the kabobs seem to be made of a lighter meat then the others.  I ask them about it and I am told it is a another kind of kabob, a "special" kabob.  When I ask them what kind of special kabob they didn't want to tell me.  It was Dave who said, "you have heard of Rocky Mountain Oysters right?"  It was then I understood why they didn't want to tell me.  But they did say that since it was a special day they thought special food was in order.


Accidents Happen


So it being a holiday and all I decided that I was going to dress up and look something like a female for a few hours. So I put on this long dress that I had brought along, and since it was a summer dress I had to wear a shrug so I was "Decent".  I was walking down the street with Boris and this local Afghan was riding by on his bicycle. Like always they tend to stare at me, so being the brilliant man that he was, he was riding his bike and staring at the woman on the side of the road. He then proceeded to do that little eyebrow thing that guys tend to do that says "hey, your looking good, wanna go get busy". I was pretty much disgusted by this, so I looked directly at him and gave him a dirty look. He proceeded to run his bicycle into a cement block. I did a side fist pump and exclaimed "yes" while Boris and I laughed the rest of the way down the street. Seriously, I know that I am an accident waiting to happen, but it is even more fun to be the cause of an accident!
 
 
International Relations
 
I am at a 4th of July BBQ, after standing in line for half an hour to get food my only options are lettuce, meat, meat, meat, and meat. Finally I settle on some meat with lettuce. My friend Boris and I snag the end of a picnic table with a tag along. We were waiting for my stalker and his friend to join us, so we were trying to find a table big enough for all of us. When we first sat down there were a couple of Brits on the other end of the table. But about halfway through they got up, so we decided to move down and take up the rest of the table to make sure we had enough room.
 
Less then a minute goes by and another Brit comes over and asks if he can join, Feeling bad that we had the whole table we said sure. Well it turned out it wasn't just 2 or 3 Brits, but like 12. I had gotten up to use the bathroom and came back to find our table had been commendeered by the British Royal Navy. However, there were still a few chairs we had pulled up left, so I said, ok you all can have our table, but I get the chairs (we were going to move them to a smaller table). One of the Brits response was, thats ok, you took our country. I just laughed and asked them if they had had any Tea Parties that day?  I returned a minute later with a festive Patriotic Decoration to put on their table and proceeded to give them instructions to "Celebrate America's Independence" They were afterall at our 4th of July BBQ!

Hugs!

This first part is for all the non-government people:  The government structures the majority of its employees on a GS scale of 1 - 15, I am a lowly peon GS-12, my site lead is a GS-15.  The people higher then the GS-15's are referred to as SES's.  Essentially senior executies. 

Now the group I work with here was run by a US Army Colonel, but is now being co-run by a civilian SES, who I will refer to as Mr. T.  Now, Mr. T is a very nice guy and his office happens to be right next to where my group sits so we always say hello and exchange pleasantries. I have even smoked a few cigars with him!  (Strawberry and Grape flavored of course)

So one night I was hanging out with my stalker and I walked him back to his room.  He gave me a hug goodnight and as we are pulling apart this random guy walks by and asks where his hug is, as I turn in the other direction here comes Mr. T asking for his hug as well.  Since I knew Mr. T I figured why not, so I give him a hug, explain to the other guy why he didn't get a hug but Mr. T did, and continue on my way.

Fast forward 24 hours, I am hanging out with my friend Bruce and I told him what happened with Mr. T the night before and he says, "I would have given him a hug" I just laughed.  Well as we are walking back to our rooms, who do we run into but Mr. T, and I proceed to ask him if he is ready for his hug.  I give him a hug and then Bruce moves in to give him a hug as well.  He turns to me and says "I told you I would give him a hug".  He certainly did.

The next day I run into Mr. T in the guard shack, we both just look at each other and I bust out laughing, he says to me "I know what your thinking" but to be honest, I was just trying to decide if I should ask him if he wanted his nightly hug a few hours early.