We worry about what a child will become tomorrow,  yet we forget that he is someone today.      Tauscher


       The other day we drove into town to drop our Corps of Engineers friends off at the airport; they were on their way to so much needed R and R. After we dropped off the engineers, we decided to stop into the hospital to see one of our soldiers. The soldier was having some pains in his abdomen, and the doctors were thinking he may have either an appendix issue or maybe kidney stones, but we wanted to make sure he was feeling alright. Once we got back into the ICU we saw our soldier, and he seemed to be resting quite peacefully. However; next to his bed, a little off to the side was another patient, a child. He had a ventilator responsible for his breathing, and various other assorted tubes leaving his body, all of which were obviously providing him life. He did not look well. The child appeared to be about twelve years old. I asked the surgeon what had happened to him, and I was told that the child had somehow come into contact with a landmine. The mine had robbed him of his hands, and shrapnel had ripped through his abdomen. When I asked the doctor how he was doing, he replied; “he has a long road of hope ahead of him.” I assumed that meant that the outlook for this child is bleak. It was incredibly distressing to see such a young child lying there damn near lifeless. I think for what … so adults can have fundamental disagreements on religion, fight for political power, or fight for wealth. Whatever the hell the fight is over, it doesn’t make sense sometimes. I am sure whatever the reasons, the child didn’t care all that much. It forces me to hope that we make an impact here.

       Enough of the melancholy; let me tell you about some of impact that we have made. A couple of days ago we were able to go on our humanitarian mission, finally after a couple of cancellations. It was a mix of emotions. It was fantastic to see the children, and bring a little something for them to smile about. It was also heartbreaking to see what conditions these children had to endure. The good certainly outweighed the bad in this case, and once again Afghanistan has amazed me. The facility was more than just an orphanage; it was a traditional school, with the addition of a care facility for those children without parents. During the day children from the local village attend the school, and in most respects it is treated like a normal Afghan school, with the exception of the classrooms. The classrooms are mixed sex; girls and boys are taught in the same classroom. Far more progressive than the last school we visited. The boys sit on one side of the room, while the girls sit on the other, but still in the same classroom with the same kind of desks. It was as if the children were kind of like equals, amazing.

Then after the school day is done the village kids go home, and the children who have been orphaned live in another part of the building that has a dormitory for them. The school had a separate cafeteria building, which sits on top of a hill. The view from there was beautiful. We happened to stop by right about lunch time, and the children were dinning on a meal of flavored rice mixed with beans. I sat down at a table of boys and tried some, it wasn’t too bad. That was it though; there was not enough money coming into the school to provide them much more to eat.

       As we toured the school it was great to see that the children who have been orphaned get to intermingle with children who are not. At least the orphaned children are not all isolated together, all sharing the same sadness, they have an opportunity for some sort of normalcy. All of the kids were so excited to see us, and mostly because they knew we brought stuff. When I produced the large bag of fruit snacks, thank you for your donation Angie W, I was darn near mugged. They loved them. The Navy soldiers here took all the donations that we had received and created gift sacks for each child, which included much of the donated stuff that you all have sent me. They made the children line up, and they came up one or two at a time to receive their gift sacks. If we didn’t do it this way it would have been mass chaos. It was priceless. I thank you, and the smiles of the children who received the stuff also proved that they appreciated it. We also brought some donated backpacks, clothes, and shoes for the children who may need some of that stuff. These donations were given to the school headmaster on the sly to be given out later to the children who may need them, simply to avoid embarrassing the children in front of their peers. Great idea.

One other thing we found out on our tour of the school was that the electrical generator provided was not operational, and the inhabitants had been living in darkness. We’ll fix that. Overall the trip was brilliant, and I wish we could have stayed longer. We only stick around for an hour or so, we would hate to include the children if we became an impromptu target for the enemy. We will certainly go back in the future, and I also look forward to visiting other schools as well. We want to make sure all the schools get equal treatment. Once again thank you all for donating items for our visits, especially Angie H for organizing such a huge donation and continued support.

       Since being in this country for as long as we have, we almost consider ourselves locals. One of the big local customs here is drinking the Chi. Chi is basically green tea, and the Afghans drink it throughout the day. It is a huge custom here, and it is considered quite rude to decline an invitation to drink chi when asked. Anytime we visit our Afghan National Army counterparts, I know that sometime during the visit we will stop talking shop, and sit down and enjoy some chi. They also usually offer some sort of snack along with the chi. We have snacked on everything from fresh raisins, almonds, Afghan candy, and other food stuffs that I did not recognize. All of it pretty good of course. Well; the other day we decided that the Comm. Section (Kyle and myself) needed to be a little more neighborly to the folks we work with. We asked a local Afghan national, Jaleel who works on our post, to go to town and get us all the fixin’s to make chi. He brought us a propane stove, chi, glass teacups, and an aluminum teapot. All that was required to make chi, and as you can see in the picture below, we had our first ever morning chi party. Every morning, when it’s possible, we make chi. We invite all of our neighbors to join, it’s a good time to sit together and talk about stuff. I guess that’s why it is such a popular custom here.

       The last thing I wanted to tell you more about was the nomadic tribes people we have seeing lately. I was curious when I first saw them, and I thought everyone else may be interested to know more about them. They are called the Koochi tribe, and they raise mostly goats, sheep, and sometimes camels. They live and herd their animals in the mountains during most part of the warm parts of the year. Then as it starts to get cold in the mountains they move their families and herds down out of the mountains to the warmer parts of the country. They used to have migration paths that they used, but because of the massive amount of landmines left by the Russians, they now mostly use the main road, which annoys the drivers, making them an unpopular people here. The Koochis are Muslim for the most part, but they also add in some folklore type teachings from their history. This adds to there unpopularity, as conservative Muslim religion doesn’t really allow for additions to the tenants. Another reason they are not real well liked by the others in Afghanistan is that that they do not have traditional tribal boundaries. Boundaries are really important to most of the tribes here in Afghanistan, as this determines cast, wealth, and power, and they do not follow this traditional thinking. I think they are pretty cool, simply because they don’t follow the social norms set by the populous. They are kind of like the hippies of Afghanistan. The pic below is a little fuzzy, I’ll have to see if I can get better ones next time we go out, but that’s how they live.

      Once again thank you to everyone who has sent stuff for humanitarian missions, and the stuff you have sent to me. Each and every item is greatly appreciated, a little bit of home here makes the time a little easier to tolerate. If you would like a CD of pics from our mission, please remember to send me your mailing address in an email. Mom; those razors are perfect, just the kind I like. Matt; thanks for the OS X, I can’t wait to experiment.

Until Next Time,
Mark