Outdoor Kitchens and Trebuchets

    Our Afghan contractors typically have a different workforce organization than the other contractors we work with.  If your contractor shows up introduces you to someone as “the driver”, well, he is pretty much just a driver.  Occasionally that person might have other duties, he might also be the cook.  They usually have drivers, a cook, sometimes a mechanic (to work on the cars or other equipment), various engineers (plumber engineer, door engineer, water engineer, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, etc), laborers, carpenters, etc.  Below is a picture of how a cook was preparing lunch for the crew at one of our off base sites.  They had an outside office area roped off, he threw down a rug, gathered his materials and took his shoes off to prepare the food.  He is making a meat gravy that will be put over rice.

Today I took my ½ day off and a few of us made a trebuchet.  We don’t have the weights attached yet, but we manually swung the arm and were able to throw about 8” diameter snow balls and water bottles 30 – 40 yards.  Maybe we’ll mount it to the hum-vee and have a mobile siege weapon J

Katy wanted to tribute to the Home Front News section so I added her email below (I think it’s her way of making me blog more J).

Sera is still working hard to collect school supplies to send to Afghanistan.  It seems that word is really spreading and this school may end up with enough supplies to last several years! 

     Christian is still spending his days changing clothes and “making costumes.”  His cutest recent one was an “Indian” (as seen in the pic).  The spoon sticking out of the belt wrapped around his head is a feather (or so I am told).

    My treat of the day was a play written by Sera and Christian during their post-dinner, pre-bath play time.  For this to make sense, I need to tell you up front that Sera has been studying Greek mythology in school… “The Baby that Flies in the Sky” began with Christian jumping off the couch into Sera’s arms (keep in mind that Sera is only about 10 lbs. heavier than Christian).   He explains (in baby talk) that “Zeus daddy” and has kicked him out of the sky.  Sera then breaks into an impromptu opera song, “Oh my, Oh my, What Are you?”  Christian follows her act with his own spontaneous song of “One day…when I’m big and strong…I’ll be a king!”  The play concludes with Sera sending “her son” off to train…I think they may have a future in theatre!