Yes, I'm a horrible blogger...

I guess I've had months long writer's block. Yeah, that sounds like as good of an excuse as any...

Anyway, my absence from the blogsphere (did I just make that up, or is that a word?) by no means is indicative of a lack of material to blog about. The past week I have told countless stories to members of the new PRT (we'll get to that soon enough) that have made me realize how much I've done since I arrived. In the past month or so I've gotten to see Kabul, gone up to Herat for some FET (Female Engagement Team) training, had some interesting and hilariously miserable missions, and, most recently, said goodbye to many, many friends that I've grown to love. So aside from posting pictures (which some people seem to love, while another disdainfully scowl at me while claiming that his blog is "vastly superior" to mine) I will start at the beginning with some female engagement posts.

Back in May...

I went up to Herat for a Female Engagement Team training. The best part about this training was merely interacting with other females (I think I miss girls more than a lot of the men here) and getting to see a few of my dear friends from Leavenworth. The training wasn't anything spectacular or earth-shattering but getting a break from Farah was welcome.

A more influential experience that I had related to Female Engagement soon after the conference occurred on the FOB. The head of the Farah FET team arranged to have a women's meeting and luncheon. The idea behind this meeting was to bring together some influential women in the province to give them a gentle push and a venue to start working together. I hadn't realized it much before I came, but many Afghans seemingly, and not surprisingly after 30 years of war, lack trust in one another. The same is true for women here- instead of working together they push to get their projects done and don't seem to mind hindering the efforts of someone else along the way. I've even heard stories about how when one Afghan would find out that they aren't getting funding or a project, they would go out of their way to be sure that no one else would get one. As the PRT focuses mainly on governance (though development, security, and rule of law are also key to the PRT) we strive to get influential leaders in the area to work together for the good of the province, strengthening governance, and hopefully building capacity. Anyway, we had the Director of Women's Affairs, the Director of Social Affairs (who just happens to be a woman), a female labor union representative, some members of the Provincial Council, and members of a local female shura. Both the meeting and the luncheon were huge successes and a lot of fun to boot. Plus whenever we get to have these lunches we get to have Afghan food which means a few things: amazing Afghan rice, naan (Afghan flat bread, along the lines of a pita but better), and my personal favorite, this salad comprised of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and some kind of amazing seasonings. Before the lunch we had the meeting which provided everyone a chance to talk about what they have been doing lately. One woman described a recent seminar her department had hosted that taught women how to make jellies and jams. Another spoke about a class she had attended for women in politics in Herat and the valuable lessons she had learned and contacts she had made. Each woman spoke about different challenges she faces in her line of work and together we discussed ways she can address and hopefully overcome those challenges- stressing a collaborative approach. As the transition approaches the PRT is shifting from a project (aka. money) providing machine to supporting Afghans working together within their system. Yes! Finally it seems that all of these US and coalition agencies that have been working in Afghanistan for 10 years now are getting the picture that instead of coming in and building schools where there is no security or teachers, providing tractors where the people have no way of getting fuel or maintaining them, etc. (I could go into a long rant, and believe me, I have, about development causing more harm/instability/relative deprivation than good) that we should be supporting Afghan capacity to take care of Afghan needs/problems, ensuring Afghan ownership/local buy-in for sustainable development and increased stability, in turn successfully carrying out COIN (our mission here!), or counterinsurgency operations. Whew!

One more thing about this meeting. One of the women, the Director of Social Affairs, actually said "Here we have an expression- you can't clap with one hand... you have to use both". As this was being translated I couldn't suppress my delight- I whispered to the American Navy Senior Chief sitting next to me- "I love that expression!". I felt the legitimacy of my blog title instantly skyrocket....and this was the perfect example of how important unity of effort is!

The collision of Italy and Afghanistan

Imagine... you find yourself, after a helicopter ride, in the middle of no where, Afghanistan, surrounded by a bunch of Italians. After a few days working in the field, visiting villages, conducting interviews, going to the bazaar, etc. you prepare a briefing, then you head to say goodnight to your new found friends. They are singing karaoke, and 20 of them start chanting your name, with a funny little accent. Christin, Christin.. so there I am, singing karaoke in Italian in Afghanistan. Hilarious.

Unfortunately, I have to tell stories like these, can't talk about specifics. I will say a few things which I found particularly interesting. Not ONE woman did I see. Spoke with plentiful amounts of men, and man alive are there were ton of Afghan children running around... but not one woman, quite a disappointment for me.

Saw lots of poppy growing. But also lots of wheat. It was a lot greener there. Very pretty. And just the most rugged terrain you've ever seen.

The little girls are all made up. It's so funny. They are all covered in dirt, their hair flying about. But the girls have on lipstick, blush, eyeliner, mascara... and pretty glittery clothes. So strange. They were fascinated by me, very sweet, fun to interact with, and you can tell they work well with the local ISAF forces. They come up to you and say either "kalan" which means pen, as in, give me your pen. Or "cheese" which is a take on the dari word for something to eat, they point to their mouth and say cheese, cheese, cheese! So needless to say I gave out some little candies, and tons of pens from Candlewood Suites, haha.

I do find myself a bit more..jaded, or something- ... all of the AMAZING things ISAF troops are doing every day get ignored, all of the progress that IS being made... and one bad thing gets blown into this huge thing. I am, of course, referring to the Florida man who burned the Koran that has (rightfully so), angered many people here and spurred demonstrations throughout the country.

Various photos and thanks for care packages!

Venturing out into the districts...

Yesterday I was able to get out to a meeting with local farmers, veterinarians, and some government agriculture representatives. As much as anyone says otherwise, I can't help but truly believe that all people want the same things- a livelihood, access to basic services, security, and to be treated with respect, just to name a few of the key ones that came up yesterday. The meeting went well, as a good introduction for me to some of the leaders and local farmers. I was able to get some good baseline information for research that my team is conducting, but I won't bore you with my nerdy interests....

After the meeting we got to walk around in some local fields- we saw cucumbers growing, wheat, poppy (and poppy fields that had been eradicated by GIRoA), and goats! A ton of locals were gathering around and children swarmed this strange American woman. At one point, I had about 25 of the little ones surrounding me, and I was asking them their names, in Pashto. They replied, and one cute quirky one asked me mine. Proudly, I said, "Zma noom Christine dey" (meaning my name is Christine, in Pashto). The children proceeded to roar with laughter, much to my confusion and delight. I asked an interpreter if I had said it wrong or something. He giggled and said "No, you are correct. In fact your Pashto accent is really good." I asked what had been so hilarious then? He said simply the fact that an American woman had spoken Pashto to them was amusing. We played around, they showed me their goats and pointed at my sunglasses, as to ask if they could take them. This happened with pretty much every single item that I had with me, which as I'm sure you all agree, is heartbreaking to a sucker like me, who loves children, and people in general. It was quite the fun day, and I'm attempting to post some photos from the trip. Life in Farah lately has gotten quite busy, but has been quite the adventure as always. It still seems so surreal sometimes to go for a run around the base and see helicopters right over head, Italian military vehicles almost running me over (kidding), and many, many other small nuances that have occurred here to my amusement.

A little something for everyone

"The foundation of development I can put it in one word. It's education" Provincial Director of Education for Farah Province, Afghanistan.
Abel, notice the back of the light blue shirt. I took that photo just for you!!
Sandro, the Italian barista, who always has a smile on his face and helps me get through the long days with his amazing espresso-making abilities. And of course, the infamous Long, singing us a little rendition of...Nirvana, was it? We did do a nice tribute to Sinatra with a sub-par singing (on my part) of "My Way".
This doesn't even begin to dip into the adventures of the past few weeks- but at least I got some photos up! :)

Many, many poopies

Just a quick funny for now. I'll post something for real later, since Friday is the lighter day here.

I was having a conversation with an Afghan journalist yesterday who works on base with us. He started talking about the plethora of poopies. Curious, I engaged the conversation, until he said that it is poopy season, and there are many poopy growers in the province. We need to work to get rid of the poopies, give people an alternative to poopy.

Obviously I knew he was really talking about poppy. :) Maybe you had to be there.

...and I didn't bring a rain jacket

Soooooo, it's raining in Farah. Well, I didn't expect much rain to begin with, but no big deal. Spent most of the day in the office getting lots of good work done and things organized with my team leader. I went at around 4PM to go do PT (that's what these guys call working out, it is short for physical training). So, I had picked up my laundry, which is great! They are super nice and they do your laundry, fold it up, and get it back to you in 24 hours. I had to go back to my living quarters (aka, the tent) and change, get my iPod, etc. Excellent, I thought. Went back to my room, stepped my foot inside- squish!... other foot- SQUISH! Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the place had flooded, what a pickle! So I scrambled around to get as much as I could up off of the floor...anything that was dry enough I put on my bed. Anything wet, well, I dumped that in the room next door, which seemed to have escaped the flooding situation unscathed- of course. Some papers got wet, clothes, bags, batteries...but nothing too valuable, thank goodness. My team leader stays down the "hall" so he helped me come up with a mop. I spent a good while working up a sweat mopping the floor, to little avail. I was attempting to identify the source of the water... there didn't appear to be any leak in the roof of the tent... what was it? Ah-ha! The "floor" is a thin plastic tarp-type material, pretty much just laid on top of a pile of rocks. Well, the rocks had managed to poke some slits into the "floor" and the water was burping up through it! With each step I was actually making it worse, as the water came bubbling up through the small slits. So, to heck with it! I managed to get all of my stuff relatively secured away from the water between 2 rooms. I used one of my own locks to lock the other room, then went to the "Mayor's office" to ask them if I could utilize the other room (I doubt any flights are getting in soon!). Now, this was my next challenge. Surrounding the Mayor's office was a lot of water, with no path. Anyway, they were nice and seemed to have enough of their own problems, so I quietly left and went on my way. Then I ran into someone else and magically acquired a key to a hard room, a story which I will end there. Below are pictures of the flooding.