RHIP

I was over at Camp Eggers the other day, when I came across this sign on the front of a tent, located just outside the Distinguished Visitor quarters. First, here's the tent:

And now, here's a zoomed in look at the sign.

This tent is for Field Grade Officers only - yeah, that's right, rank has its privileges, even over here.

I suspect the interior of the tent is just as nice as the exterior.

I'd hate to see where we put the junior enlisted guys.

Up On The Roof....

Happened to glance over at the roof of a local building here on the ISAF compound, and noticed something strange. Yes, that's some kind of wheeled vehicle... on the roof... with its front tires propped up along the edge of the roof.

So many questions. So very many questions.

Good News!

I'm an optimist by nature, and I generally think things in Afghanistan (for example) aren't as bad as they sometimes sound (same goes for things in the US, for that matter). The news has a well-known bias towards disaster, with the whole "if if bleeds, it leads" metality.

So, I was pretty happy when I recently heard some encouraging news about progress that's being made for Afghan women. Specifically:

In 2001, there were 50,000 girls in school. That number is now over 3 million.


The life expectency for women in 2012 is 20 years higher than it was in 2001.

Yes, there's a lot of progress still to be made here. There are still plenty of problems with poverty, illiteracy and the like. But some things are better - MUCH better - than they were 10 years ago. And that's a good sign. Now the trick is to keep those trends going...

Dirty Sheets, Done Dirt Cheap

It seems like every time I try to change the sheets on my bed, itI have to make multiple trips to the laundry to get it right.

For example, I recently returned to my cell with what I thought was fresh sheets. But when I unfolded them and tried to put them on my bed, this is what I saw:

EWWW!

Apparently, after the local laundry dude brought these sheets down to the river and rubbed it with a smooth rock, he or she then dropped it in a mud puddle... and then folded it up... and then gave it to me.

After taking a moment to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing (and snapping a photo for posterity), back to the laundry room I went. The guy behind the counter was very apologetic and gave me a new one. Having learned my lesson, I checked it as soon as he gave it to me. Guess what - this sheet had spent some time in that same puddle. Same with Try #3. We eventually found a clean set, which I'm now sleeping on. 

Given the track record, I'm not sure I want to trade these in... ever. Who knows what I'll get next time.

Stuff I'm Looking Forward To

And now, a somewhat random list of odd things I'm looking forward to, once I get back to the states.

1) Using my right front pocket. That's where I used to keep my keys and a pen, but these days that pocket is entirely blocked by the pistol on my belt. Hard to get in there, so I've moved stuff to my left pocket.

2) Paying for a meal. I know, I know, three free meals a day sounds like a good deal, but like they say, he who pays the piper calls the tunes. Since I'm not paying, I don't have much say in what goes on my plate. Yes, they have two or three entrees at a time, but that's different than being able to a) pick a restaurant and b) pick something off a menu.

3) On that note, Variety. Every day out here is pretty much the same. Yes, Sunday is church and Friday is a half-day, but even then those days end up being a lot like Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays... you get the picture.

4) Also on that note, I'm looking forward to saying something other than "See you tomorrow" at the end of the day. Don't get me wrong, my team is great and I love them. But how cool will it be to say "See ya in a couple days" for a change?

5) Barefoot showers. You really don't want to take a shower here without flip flops or some other type of aquatic-friendly footwear on, although some guys do inexplicably leave their flip flops outside the shower stall (seriously?!?). Guess they don't want to get them wet? But it'll be nice to have a shower where I don't need flip flops.

6) Real buildings. Most of the buildings I'm in - both to work and to sleep - are constructed out of these 8 x 18 containers stacked on top of each other. The HQ building has real walls, but its construction is so rough that it doesn't feel like much of a step up.

Of course, there's plenty of other things I'm looking forward to, but that's some of the less obvious stuff.

Medal Parade

On Sunday, 18 March, I stood in a formation with nearly 200 other troops, from 18 different countries, to receive the NATO medal. It was quite an experience, even though the General who pinned it on me called me Dave.

When I first got to ISAF and heard about these medal parades, I thought they sounded kinda corny. Frankly, I've never quite understood the allure of military medals and ribbons. After serving over here for four months, my opinion has done a 180. I was glad to stand in those ranks and will certainly wear that medal with pride.

I have to admit, seeing myself in that photo feels a little weird. It just looks so... military. I guess what I'm saying is it looks more military than I feel. But there's no getting around it - I'm a military dude after all. Not to the same extent as some of the gung-ho Army soldiers or Marines I've known, but certainly enough to be standing there in front of the HQ building, shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters in arms.

Rest In Peace, My Friend

On Friday, a Turkish helicopter crashed in Kabul, killing all 12 aboard. This morning I found out one of those guys was a friend of mine.

Maj Sukur Bagdatli was my counterpart over at Camp Warehouse. He ran one of the many regional Joint Visitor's Bureaus that I work with on a daily & weekly basis, and was one of the sweetest, friendliest guys I've met over here. All the Turks I've known have been remarkably generous and full of hospitality. Sukur stood out even among that crowd.

He'd recently come back from an R&R trip to France with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. He brought me back some Turkish coffee, a copper coffee pot and a set of two elegant coffee cups. A month previous to that, he'd brought a big box of baklava to my office, which I think my team devoured in about 30 minutes.

Since we were based out of two different camps in the Kabul area, I'd only met Sukur face to face three or four times. Most of our discussions were on VTC or email. But he'd invited me and my office to go to his camp for a Turkish dinner this evening. I couldn't believe it when I saw his name on the list of the crash victims.

Sukur was due to finish his deployment in early April.

Been there, run that, got the t-shirt

I've spent a lot of time in the gym since I got here, for reasons of mental and physical health. Fortunately, my work hours are flexible enough that I'm able to get there just about every day.

I'm quite happy with the results so far. Aside from losing a few pounds, I've also shaved 5 minutes off my 10K run time, just since New Years. In fact, when I did the 10K run on New Years Eve, I have to admit I felt a little apprehensive about the distance. Now most days I whip through a 10K run no problem.

And I finally finished the "Tour of Afghanistan" gym challenge - thus the t-shirt in this photo. This challenge involved running, biking or rowing 1730 km, which is apparently the total distance of a loop connecting several key Afghan cities..

In order to provide some balance between the three types of locomotion, running and rowing distances are multiplied by three, while biking one kilometer just counts as one kilometer. So really I just ran and rowed (mostly ran) 567K.

And I know it's just a t-shirt, but I have to say that as much as I enjoy running, knowing that I was working towards this goal definitely helped keep me going to the gym... and got me running farther than I might have otherwise. And now that it's done, I'm going to celebrate by taking a few days off. My next challenge is to decrease my 1.5 mile time and increase my push ups & sit ups, since I'll have to take a PT test when I get back to the states.

New Friends

I had breakfast the other day with Tahir, a LtCol from the Pakistan Army. It was a real pleasure to meet him, compliments of my Croatian buddy Srecko (turns out Tahir speaks Croatian and he'd met Srecko a while ago)

I have to admit I was a little surprised the first time I saw Pakistan soldiers in the ISAF camp, given the tensions between our countries (not least of which is the current border situation). But sharing a meal with him was just a very natural thing to do.

As we ate and talked, he mentioned that his family sees the news and gets worried about his safety. He reassures them with the fact that ISAF HQ is a very safe posting. That scenario sounded so familiar to my own situation - the universality of our experience was a real bonding event.

So I've invited him to come to the juggling class. He sent me an email with some beautiful photos of Pakistan's mountains and landscapes. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know him more. I've said it before, but building these international relationships is one of the coolest (and maybe even most important) things about being over here.

Standards

One of the interesting things about working in this international environment is all the different grooming and appearance standards - even among the US troops.

There are more than a few American military types running around with beards, which is always interesting to see (I'll try to grab some photos). They're generally in jobs that involve directly interacting with Afghans, and so for cultural reasons they get to skip shaving.

But this ponytail is something you never see accompanying an American uniform. It belongs to a soldier from the Czech Republic. Her name is Lucy - I met her when she came to juggling class. Some of the female Swedish troops have blonde versions of the same coiffure, and there's even a German troop with pink streaks in her hair.

It's always a little startling to see stuff like that accompanying a military uniform, but I think it's cool to have a little variety and personal expression.

I'm Back!

I've always made a point of not apologizing for infrequent blog posts. I mean, it's bad enough I haven't posted recently, but then I'm going to subject my readers to some lame excuse on top of that? I figure people want to read interesting stuff, not apologies.

So... let me just say it's actually kind of a good sign that I haven't posted much lately. It means I've been pretty busy, which is a good thing. Not being busy would be a drag (tho tonight I was busy with computer problems at work, so that was the wrong kind of busy).

But time is moving along nicely and picking up speed. With a little over two months left, I've come to realize I will leave Afghanistan before I finish reading all the books I brought with me. And I probably won't even get to watch all the movies I wanted to watch. That's ok - I wouldn't be interested in staying here a little longer just so I could catch up with some films. But I will finish the "run around Afghanistan" gym challenge in just three more workouts. Then I'll get a t-shirt (watch this space for photos!).

I hope your days haven't been too bereft or empty in the absence of new posts here at AfghanDanistan. Just know that I've been keeping busy. And that's a good thing.

Ok, just in case you really want to hear it, I apologize for not writing more often. I'll try to do better. ;)

Tasty!

One of the guys went out and bought 10 loaves of this flat Afghan bread. It's kinda like Indian naan, but a little tougher. Quite tasty - some of us put Nutella on it, others went with jam or peanut butter or just ate it straight up.

A nice change of pace and a nice taste of the local area.

Naturally, I had to pose with a couple big pieces.