Busy Week

Whew, it’s been a busy week.  We had a dinner with the KTR building the Brigade HQ.  Those Turks treated us to an excellent meal.  We had chicken and Adana kabobs, vegetable salad, onions seasoned with a Turkish spice (sumac??), nan and an eggplant/mincemeat/yogurt dish.  If moving to Turkey involved eating like that, count me in.  The translator that works for this company spent 12 years in America as a driver, mostly in NY City.  He had some stories!!  I think my favorite was about how when he first moved there he had to find a night job while he was going to school.  He worked at a gas station in a bad part of town and quickly figured out that if you gave the cops free food, they would hang out there.  After a few weeks the manager told him that their nightly intake dropped from around $1000/night to about $40/night because all the cops were scaring the customers away.

The weather has been beautiful the last few days.  Unfortunately, the nice weather has brought the Taliban out of hiding.  I had the unfortunate privilege of witnessing the first rocket of the spring.  I think our forces must have discovered them because the next day we felt the joy of an hour long artillery barrage.

Operation Ranch COK was carried off with great success.  Our DFAC has been running short of various supplies.   One being OJ and the other ranch dressing.  After calling in some favors I was able to get both items imported from Kabul via a heavy backpack and helo mission (they said that they were already heading this way).

Fat Tuesday brought a surprise parade.  No King Cake was to be found, but there were beads and cheering.  We had a farewell dinner that night for our Area Engineer and Office Engineer.  It’s about that time when we start having a major turnover in the office.  Since I extended I get to see most of my friends off and handle the turn-over.  Lucky me.

Today we had a ribbon cutting for the FARP.  The project consisted of a C-17 runway, turn-around, and a Helo refueling point.  It was a beautiful day to hang out with the office, KTR and all the military in charge of flying and refueling the helicopters.

HOMEFRONT NEWS:

I was talking to Lily on the phone a couple of mornings ago.  During the conversation she said, “Daddy, let’s go up to my room.”  So she walked up to her room jabbering the whole time.   Once “we” were up there she put the phone on the floor (it was on speaker):  “Oh, Daddy, here’s my Daddy doll.  See there you are.  And look, here is my puppy, isn’t he pretty….” And so on.  It’s almost like I never left J

To set this story up, you have to realize that Katy is deathly afraid of reptiles.  A frog once blocked her from entering our house for 30 minutes until I heard her screams and got rid of it.-------- Christian came in the house a couple of days ago excited to tell Katy about his new pet lizard named Sammy.  He caught him in the backyard and he is the best lizard ever.  All he needed was something to keep him in.  Katy asked him where Sammy was at that point, Christian said he was right here and reached into his pocket.  He pulled out his empty hand and started to cry that Sammy was gone.  Did he get out his pocket in the backyard or in the house???  Nobody knew (that was a restless night for Katy).  I was talking to Christian on the phone the next day and he was telling me about Sammy.  In the background I heard Sera calmly say, “Umm, Mommy, I think I found Sammy.”  What I heard next could have come from a horror movie.  There was screaming, chairs being moved/knocked down, ushering of kids out of the room (Christian wanted to chase and capture Sammy) and the frantic search for a bowl or pot to cover Sammy.  Eventually  a neighbor was called in to capture Sammy and take him outside.  Did Christian learn his lesson, only time will tell.

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!!”

Site Visits

We have a lot of work starting this summer so we have had a lot of contractors on the FOB for site visits.  So far we in my work at this base we have only had American, Turkish and Afghan contractors.  The American contractors usually aren’t all that fun to deal with.  They usually want us to help arrange their transportation, find them a place to stay and help them get established.  It’s a shock to some when they realize they can’t just hop on a plane and fly into the local village, rent a hotel and car, and stroll onto the base.  The Turks I have dealt with are already established in the country and are usually fairly self sufficient.  The Afghan contractors are a mixed bag.  We get some that haven’t been a company very long and others that have done major projects with the corps.  Some companies are run by engineers, some by a Dr. Somebody in Kabul and others by Afghan nationals and their Afghan-American cousins that have come back over Afghanistan to help manage the company.  One of my favorites was from a site visit we held the other day.  This guy was attending Kabul University Engineering School when the Russians invaded Afghanistan.  He decided that at the time it was better to fight than go to school.  So he quit, moved north and “spent the next few years killing Russians”.  Now the company he’s with is building roads and buildings throughout Afghanistan.  Most people you deal with over here have either spent a good part of their life fighting, moving to wherever the safest part of Afghanistan is or moving between countries.

I have been starting to get boxes of school supplies to take to a local school.  Thanks to everyone that is helping out!!!

HOMEFRONT NEWS:  I guess Katy has taken a break from sending me stories so here is one she told be about a few weeks ago.

On the way back from Wal-Mart Lily had managed to get partly out of her seat belt.  In the past I had told Christian that the cops don’t like it when kids get out of their seat belts, and….maybe…..I said something about having to go to jail.  So Christian tells Lily to get back in her seat belt or she’ll have to go to jail.  She wasn’t able to squirm back in so Christian started getting frantic.  He looked at her, with tears in his eyes and said “Lily, you’re going to have to go to jail” and started crying.  Lily got all worked up, as kids do, and started crying as well.  She looked to her left at Sera and between tears said, “Sera, I’m going to miss you.”. 

Caulk Gun

This morning one of our Afghan contractors showed up to the job site with a caulk gun to seal some flashing.  In the afternoon the QA checked in on them and saw them spinning the steel rod.  He figured that the gun was broken, so he took the gun and squeezed the trigger a couple of times.  The rod moved forward a couple of positions, all is well.  At this time the two painters, helper and superintendent started yelling at him to stop.  They told him that they had been twisting the rod for about an hour and couldn’ t get it to back out so they could put the tube in.  Now he had triggered the rod in even further.  The QA hit the thumb release, pulled the rod out and gave it to them.  He said that the look of joyous surprise was priceless.   The little things in life.

The family finally got their Valentine’s gifts.  I sent Christian a bunch of Batman cartoons and he was inspired to create a new batman costume.

Katy’s Korner:

     I have implemented a new rule; it states that nothing is allowed to live inside unless it knows how to use the toilet.  Since Sera’s cat, Pebbles, hasn’t mastered the trick of that yet, she has been banished to the backyard.  This decision cost me $35 at PetSmart today, buying her an engraved nametag, pink/black zebra print collar and matching leash (Sera wants to take her for “walks”) and some new toys so she knows that we still love her (Sera’s request, of course).   I’m fairly sure that the cat is way too lazy to ever climb the fence and try to go anywhere, but….neighbors, if you do see a gray cat with a pink/black zebra print collar wandering  the neighborhood, PLEASE return her to us.  If anything happens to that cat, my first born may never forgive me….

Carseat Conversations:

“Sera, what are pilgrims?”  Christian asked.  Sera responded, “ I’ll tell you if you’ll get your nasty, stinking feet off me!”

Christian to self:  “I can’t decide which one of my sisters to marry when I grow up.  They’re both so pretty!!”

Lily refused to allow Christian and Cayden into the car to come home from preschool.  She insisted that “Boys are nasty and they stink too much!!”

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!

Snow!!

This area finally got some significant snow, not that I'm excited, but all the local people are.  Except for the mountains, most of the snow has melted, creating a muddy FOB.  What a mess.

Not too much going on here.  Projects are continuing, new projects are in the works and most of the people in the office are getting to redeploy in a month or so. 

Our office is gathering supplies to give to a local school.  Any school supplies, PE equipment, jackets or cold weather clothing would be appreciated.  Sera is gathering from the neighborhood and whoever she runs into :)  See flyer below.

Home Front News:  Christian had Donuts for Dads the other week.  Katy went in my place and had a great time.  His class filled out questions about their Dads, Katy said that when Christian was asked what his Daddy liked to do for fun, he said "Work".  And, according to Christian I love him because I like him :)

At Christmas I talked to his class regarding the conditions over here and about the children I've seen.  His class organized a drive in their school to send me candy to give out to the children when we do site visits.  I now have 3 huge boxes of candy to give out.  I'm bound to get mobbed for sure :)

Local site visits with the Czech PRT

Today we visited a couple of projects in one of the local towns.  The Czech PRT team occasionally will take the project engineer out to the sites since they usually have projects in the area as well.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the project engineer speaks Czech.  After a quick roll call (we had a briefing the night before so I sort of knew where to be from the pictures in the presentation) we loaded up and headed out the gate.  I was lucky enough to get a civil affairs guy in my truck that spoke great English.  If it wasn’t for him I probably would have been pretty bored.  After we got down the road a ways we actually crossed a river and I saw some green stuff in the field for the first time.  At first I thought I was seeing things, but a double take confirmed that green plants were actually growing.  Along, the road little kids that were outside playing would run up to see the trucks and give a thumbs up sign.  I think that was the only time I saw any little girls while we were out.  Our first stop was a big Afghan National Army compound that we’re building.  Everything looked pretty good, the only issue is finding water.  They are at 150m on their second well and not having much luck.   Below is a picture of a cement mixer with all the latest accessories; a wood fired block heater, a hand crank starter, an elevated gravity fed fuel tank and a barrel radiator. 

After we left the compound we stopped to look at a site where a possible road and bridge might be built.  After jumping out of the “Dingo” we were attacked by children seeking candy and pens.  Unfortunately they had a mob mentality so it was hard to get the little ones any candy and pens.  I had to wrestle one of the pens back to give to someone that hadn’t been given anything.  The boys that had little brothers were very protective of them and would turn their stuff over to them.  I had to convince one older brother to keep some for himself. 

After that we stopped at the Ministry of Education building for the province.  The Czechs were helping with some small education projects and stopped to tell them that the supplies had arrived at Shank and to arrange a delivery time.  The civil affairs guy that was in my truck (pictured below) is working this project.  He said that they typically identify humanitarian and quick impact projects that are needed in the area and work with the local government to complete them.

Next we walked to an ANP project that we are building.  There were supposed to be some demonstrations in the area today so the Czechs figured it was better if we walked the 2 ½ blocks to the next site rather than drive.  Other than staying away from the cars on the road and the firefight that was taking place some distance away, it was a pretty nice walk.  I enjoyed seeing a little bit of the everyday life outside the FOB.  We walked passed some little stores and café/diners, gave out some candy and took a few pictures.  Pretty uneventful. 

On a different note, we are gathering supplies to take to one of the local school in about 6 weeks.  Anything from pencils, pens, paper, new/used coats, winter caps, gloves, shoes, soccer balls etc would be great.  If anyone is interested in sending anything you can send it to me and I’ll post some pictures when we deliver the items.