This blog is solely meant to capture perceptions of my time spent in Afghanistan, and does not reflect the views, opinions or policy of the United States Government.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
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.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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! :)
Thursday, March 3, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
...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.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Arrival and first impressions
I suppose in order to have a blog you have to write something on it at some point in time- here goes! Now that I have finally arrived in Farah, I have a little better connectivity and have had time to organize my things and my thoughts. Getting here wasn't all too easy- it required a week of pre-deployment stuff in Georgia, a flight out to Kuwait, some shuffling around there, a flight into Kandahar, a couple days spent there at the base on the airfield, a flight to Herat and a few days spent there, and finally my arrival yesterday in Farah. I will start with my experiences in Kandahar, although I had plenty before then en route!
Kandahar air field (KAF)- what an interesting place! There is a big boardwalk on the base there, I have included a picture of the TGIFridays for those of you who didn't believe it. There is also a KFC and Nathan's hotdogs, much to my amusement. I was quite lucky when I arrived, because after 30-some hours of traveling and running around in Kuwait at midnight, I had a member of the HTAT pick me up at the airport in Kandahar. He helped me with my bags, and took me to "billeting", as they say, which is whatever sort of housing you stay in. As I was just set to stay in Kandahar for a few days, I got placed in the "transient tent" with 150 of my new best friends (sarcasm, with a smile). Luckily I had a sleeping bag and a bike lock to loop through my bags to lock them up the best I could, which served the purpose. I was able to buy a Roshan cell phone and SIM card (although I later had a fellow MIIS MPA alum who is on the team down there unlock my iPhone and slip the SIM in there, for which I am very grateful to him.)
Overall it was quite interesting to go through Kandahar- there are about 30,000 people living on that base, from all around the world. It's this strange little international city in the middle of a war zone, dusty, stinky, (I can verify that the "poo ponds" really exist, unfortunately...), crowded (it is true what they say, you have chalky teeth!)... but very friendly people and lots to do. I met French, Canadians, Australians, Slovakians, Lithuanians, etc. The whole lot! I was quite fortunate to be with the HTAT there, and even went to a FET (Female Engagement Team) working group- which is quite relevant all over the country and got me some great contacts as soon as I get set up on the network here. I have nothing but glowing things to say about everyone I have met so far- very very bright, intelligent, hard-working people- all working on very daunting tasks. It definitely took me a bit to get used to all of the different sounds, sights, all of the planes taking off and landing right next to me. I also have been getting into the flow of eating at the various DFACs (dining facilities). I could talk about Kandahar all day, but for now, I'll move on to Herat.
Herat is great, that's for sure. When I left Kandahar it was actually raining... I arrived in Herat after a very funny flight where I played checkers and tic-tac-toe on an iPad of a Captain who commands an engineering company in Herat. Instead of sitting facing the front of the plane you sit on the sides and in the middle facing eachother... or in some cases, as in my flight to Farah, on top of eachother (imagine 50 brute Italian men with me smushed in between them all, cracking up as the plane wooshes around- this isn't exactly United Airlines here people). Anyway, I called a friend who is on the team in Herat and he came and picked me up. They took me to their offices- very nice. They are on a base with the Italians and the Spanish forces- split into 2 sides. The Italian side has their own DFAC, right on the piazza. The Spanish side has a DFAC on their plaza, and are the proud owners of the Spanish Cantina, but we'll get to that later.
I got put up in a great room, an actual hard building, which actually may have spoiled me a bit too much! The Italian women were all extremely nice, and my Italian, after a day or so, came flooding back, much to the delight of many. The city had had a lot of rain lately, so the base had lots of standing water and city suffered some flooding as well. The team had been working on some assessments of damage, so I heard some briefings on that as I filled out endless mountains of paperwork (will it ever end?). I was fortunate enough to get out into the city of Herat, seeing the Citadel, originally built by Alexander the Great (which, the pseudo- tour guide who took us up says has been restored thanks to a $1 million USAID grant that seemed to employ quite few people), the Friday Mosque (a blue mosque, intricate mosaics, beautiful), the colors of the town, some rug shops, enjoyed a local meal- insanely good food, locally made pop (soda, for you non-midwesterners), etc.
We were lucky to have a Dari speaker with us, who knew the city quite well. We bought a box of amazing pastries, that, thank goodness, remain in the office in Herat. I had a chance to interact with some women, who were quite intrigued by me- I think Western men are around fairly regularly but I got the impression that not many females are out and about in Herat. I took about a billion pictures- quite delicately of course- and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The next few days were spent doing some research, working out at the nice Spanish gym, eating copious amounts of yummy food from the Italian DFAC, fish, pasta, and gelato, and hanging out with various people passing through, members of the HTAT, and some Italians working with the fusion center. Such a great time and very good connections to maintain.
Finally- I arrived in Farah yesterday. Another eventful flight, and... like drinking through a fire house as soon as I arrived- meeting so many new people, figuring out what's what, where I am staying, etc. I have included a picture of my "room" for now, until some of the billeting gets finished, hopefully! I have yet to form many conclusions about Farah- it's quite small- but insanely gorgeous surrounding the base- the mountains have this serene beauty to them, something incredible that I've never seen before. At night, because of the lack of ambient light, the stars are visible as I haven't seen them since a camping trip in Big Sur. The people have been quite nice, although the base is over capacity- so more people means less room for work and living which doesn't always go over well with folks.
Hopefully as things settle down and we get into the flow of things that will all work itself out. We are expecting 2 more members to arrive to get us at least a full team, which will be great! I am going to start drawing up some research here now- and hope to get out into the city soon. This has just only been a small picture of the past 2 weeks, and I have a billion more pictures that I will try to post soon too! Thanks to everyone for all of the support and I'm definitely open to any questions or comments.
Kandahar air field (KAF)- what an interesting place! There is a big boardwalk on the base there, I have included a picture of the TGIFridays for those of you who didn't believe it. There is also a KFC and Nathan's hotdogs, much to my amusement. I was quite lucky when I arrived, because after 30-some hours of traveling and running around in Kuwait at midnight, I had a member of the HTAT pick me up at the airport in Kandahar. He helped me with my bags, and took me to "billeting", as they say, which is whatever sort of housing you stay in. As I was just set to stay in Kandahar for a few days, I got placed in the "transient tent" with 150 of my new best friends (sarcasm, with a smile). Luckily I had a sleeping bag and a bike lock to loop through my bags to lock them up the best I could, which served the purpose. I was able to buy a Roshan cell phone and SIM card (although I later had a fellow MIIS MPA alum who is on the team down there unlock my iPhone and slip the SIM in there, for which I am very grateful to him.)
Overall it was quite interesting to go through Kandahar- there are about 30,000 people living on that base, from all around the world. It's this strange little international city in the middle of a war zone, dusty, stinky, (I can verify that the "poo ponds" really exist, unfortunately...), crowded (it is true what they say, you have chalky teeth!)... but very friendly people and lots to do. I met French, Canadians, Australians, Slovakians, Lithuanians, etc. The whole lot! I was quite fortunate to be with the HTAT there, and even went to a FET (Female Engagement Team) working group- which is quite relevant all over the country and got me some great contacts as soon as I get set up on the network here. I have nothing but glowing things to say about everyone I have met so far- very very bright, intelligent, hard-working people- all working on very daunting tasks. It definitely took me a bit to get used to all of the different sounds, sights, all of the planes taking off and landing right next to me. I also have been getting into the flow of eating at the various DFACs (dining facilities). I could talk about Kandahar all day, but for now, I'll move on to Herat.
Herat is great, that's for sure. When I left Kandahar it was actually raining... I arrived in Herat after a very funny flight where I played checkers and tic-tac-toe on an iPad of a Captain who commands an engineering company in Herat. Instead of sitting facing the front of the plane you sit on the sides and in the middle facing eachother... or in some cases, as in my flight to Farah, on top of eachother (imagine 50 brute Italian men with me smushed in between them all, cracking up as the plane wooshes around- this isn't exactly United Airlines here people). Anyway, I called a friend who is on the team in Herat and he came and picked me up. They took me to their offices- very nice. They are on a base with the Italians and the Spanish forces- split into 2 sides. The Italian side has their own DFAC, right on the piazza. The Spanish side has a DFAC on their plaza, and are the proud owners of the Spanish Cantina, but we'll get to that later.
I got put up in a great room, an actual hard building, which actually may have spoiled me a bit too much! The Italian women were all extremely nice, and my Italian, after a day or so, came flooding back, much to the delight of many. The city had had a lot of rain lately, so the base had lots of standing water and city suffered some flooding as well. The team had been working on some assessments of damage, so I heard some briefings on that as I filled out endless mountains of paperwork (will it ever end?). I was fortunate enough to get out into the city of Herat, seeing the Citadel, originally built by Alexander the Great (which, the pseudo- tour guide who took us up says has been restored thanks to a $1 million USAID grant that seemed to employ quite few people), the Friday Mosque (a blue mosque, intricate mosaics, beautiful), the colors of the town, some rug shops, enjoyed a local meal- insanely good food, locally made pop (soda, for you non-midwesterners), etc.
We were lucky to have a Dari speaker with us, who knew the city quite well. We bought a box of amazing pastries, that, thank goodness, remain in the office in Herat. I had a chance to interact with some women, who were quite intrigued by me- I think Western men are around fairly regularly but I got the impression that not many females are out and about in Herat. I took about a billion pictures- quite delicately of course- and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The next few days were spent doing some research, working out at the nice Spanish gym, eating copious amounts of yummy food from the Italian DFAC, fish, pasta, and gelato, and hanging out with various people passing through, members of the HTAT, and some Italians working with the fusion center. Such a great time and very good connections to maintain.
Finally- I arrived in Farah yesterday. Another eventful flight, and... like drinking through a fire house as soon as I arrived- meeting so many new people, figuring out what's what, where I am staying, etc. I have included a picture of my "room" for now, until some of the billeting gets finished, hopefully! I have yet to form many conclusions about Farah- it's quite small- but insanely gorgeous surrounding the base- the mountains have this serene beauty to them, something incredible that I've never seen before. At night, because of the lack of ambient light, the stars are visible as I haven't seen them since a camping trip in Big Sur. The people have been quite nice, although the base is over capacity- so more people means less room for work and living which doesn't always go over well with folks.
Hopefully as things settle down and we get into the flow of things that will all work itself out. We are expecting 2 more members to arrive to get us at least a full team, which will be great! I am going to start drawing up some research here now- and hope to get out into the city soon. This has just only been a small picture of the past 2 weeks, and I have a billion more pictures that I will try to post soon too! Thanks to everyone for all of the support and I'm definitely open to any questions or comments.
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