Contractor Lunch

The Afghan contractor building our Sea-hut is finally finishing up and decided to bring us lunch to celebrate.  They had plans to bring the food down here to cook, but with the snow we got throughout the night they decided to cook it in Kabul and bring it down.  They brought palow (a rice dish with raisins and lamb), grilled sheep freshly killed that morning, yogurt, nan, a flat cornbread and oranges.  It was delicious.  While stuffing ourselves the contractor talked about how different it was working for the Corps as compared to the Air Force CE (we are a lot stricter), how much we all learned from each other and life in general in Afghanistan.  His family is from the same province that we are in, but they can’t travel down here too often because of the violence from the Taliban that is in this area and the provinces to the south.  He said that many of the people support us being here but that they are pressured by the Taliban to not cooperate.    Besides MILCON projects, the Corps is coming into it’s large ANA and ANP push.  The owner of the company talked about how it is nice that we are building schools, roads, etc but that we should have been building the ANA and ANP facilities 5 years ago to help bring more security and stability to the country.  The people that are building private buildings are building mostly near the ANA and ANP stations.  While we were all agreeing, our Area Engineer said that “in America we have a saying, Better Late Than Never”.  The owner quickly chimed in that “in Afghanistan we also have a saying, The Fish is Always Fresher Right Out of the Water”.  I guess you can’t argue with that.

KATY’S KORNER

I generally received notices that Sera’s school lunch account is overdue by about 50 cents or $1 and I will send a check for $20 to pay the past-due bill and give her credit to use until I get the next notice.  I guess I failed to notice that I haven’t received a notice or sent a check in quite a while.  Recently, I received a phone message from Lake Carolina Elementary reporting that I was being “turned over to collections” because Sera’s lunch account is delinquent in the amount of $67.00.  Apparently, they have sent me several notices, all of which were crumpled up in the bottom of Sera’s backpack.  Upon inquiring with Sera I learned that she has recently been offered an “alternative lunch” every day   (cheese sandwiches) due to our non-payment.  She hadn’t mentioned this to me because….well….she likes cheese sandwiches….

Sera’s cat, Pebbles, living outside is working out better that I expected.   She stays in the greenhouse most of the time, lounging and soaking up the sun.  On the weekends and after school, however, Sera will put her on her leash and take her in the front yard to play.  If Sera is busy riding bikes with friends, she ties Pebbles’ leash to a tree or mailbox and Pebs lies down and catches a quick nap.  Sera is hoping to get a basket for her bike so she can take Pebs along for some rides, however.  I don’t know if the cat is quite that mellow, but I guess we’ll probably find out…

Christian and his BFF, Cayden, usually chatter excitedly on the way to preschool.  During a recent conversation, Christian giggled and commented, “I like you, Cayden.  You’re the funnest kid ever!!”