Sunday, August 20, 2006
This past weekend on Saturday, August 19th, Afghanistan celebrated their independence from England. In 1919, Afghanistan became the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. This was the second independence from England that has been celebrated since I have been here. The other, of course, was July 4th. Everyone was wondering what would happen since there are so many British soldiers in this country. The British are the international leader of the Southern regions of Afghanistan. We were wondering if any would get shot since the locals might think the Brits were trying to take over the country again. Of course nothing happened over the weekend to that effect. On Friday and Saturday nights the Government of Afghanistan had a huge fireworks celebration. The fireworks were spectacular though they did not compare to that of a major city back in the states. They fired the works from the tallest hilltop in Kabul called TV Hill. TV Hill is host to hundreds of television and radio antennas. Since the Afghans only have a handful of radio channels and even fewer TV channels, Lord only knows what other systems they feed. That made for a fun couple of evenings sitting out on the front porch of our house watching the display.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Today we had a Health and Comfort Inspection at our house. The Army Military Police went to every room looking for alcohol, drugs, and pornographic material. All of which are banned from this theater. I haven’t heard of anyone getting busted yet for having illegal items in their possession, but it is only a matter of time. We have heard numerous times of mail being confiscated in Kandahar and Bagram because the X-ray machines identified alcohol bottles in the care packages. Never a good thing when the General has your mail and you have to explain why friends and family have sent banned substances into the country. But tonight was a routine inspection and it got us out of the office before 1800. So we were able to play a couple of extra games of Hearts, which is always nice. We call it our nightly staff meeting where we can discuss the idiocy of the Army, construction worksite problems and of course tell well-fabricated stories of our past.
Steve Blanton and I have ten weeks until our four-day pass to Qatar. Hard to imagine that time has gone by this quickly that I have earned a four-day vacation. Actually as it turns out, the pass usually take anywhere between seven to ten days after all the stopovers awaiting transportation. When I get back from pass I should only have about three weeks remaining in country. About the only good thing in Qatar is getting three beers each day we are there, but we might get to head out for a round of golf which would be nice too.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tonight I played my first ever game of street hockey. The Coalition Forces camp has a basketball court that is enclosed with fences and it is transformed into a hockey rink. There were Canadians, British and U.S. personnel that played in the game. It was quite an experience and I’m lucky I only got hit once with the ball. It hit right on the inner right thigh and a good-sized bruise has already taken shape. We played for an hour and a half and I found myself sprinting all over the court without much of a clue as to what position I was supposed to be playing. The wooden fence hurts to get checked into but not nearly as much as the chain link fence on the opposite side. I did manage a couple of goals but every once in awhile a blind squirrel finds a nut. Anyway I had no idea that we would be running nearly as hard as we did. It reminded me of the first few days of basketball practice when you leave the court and it feels like your feet are on fire because of the newly forming blisters on the balls of your feet. It was a great time and I hope I didn’t high stick too many people and they allow me to come back next week. The Coalition Forces popped open a few cans of beer after the game to refresh themselves. Unfortunately we headed back to the house with only a bottle of Gatorade to play a few hands of Hearts.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
This is Mike Kenney’s last night in Kabul. He begins his journey home tomorrow heading back to Hawaii. His wife is pregnant and is within a couple of weeks of delivery. The command let him go about 2 weeks earlier than he would have normally left so he could try and make it home for the birth. Mike being a USC graduate is more focused on trying to make it back before the first kickoff between USC and Arkansas. This of course is information he won’t be sharing with his wife. We celebrated his deployment end at the Thai restaurant on the ISAF compound. The food is fantastic. I had the Green Curry Chicken and the Cashew Chicken dinners. The spices were just right and I even got a slight sheen of sweat on my bald noggin. The guys thought it was pretty funny that I could tolerate such a spicy platter. I just told them it’s a Pipkin/Echols thing.
Tomorrow we’re heading out to some refugee camps to hand out bags of supplies to the children. It should be a fun couple of hours and I hope to come back with some fun stories to tell.
Friday, August 25, 2006
The Chaplain Corps at Camp Eggers has established a Volunteer Community Relations (VCR) program to interact and support the local people in the Kabul area. Food, clothing and school supplies typically are passed out for the children and families. I went with three others in the engineering department for the trip this week. There were approximately 40 people that volunteered to go on this particular outing. We departed the parking lot in a twelve-car convoy through the city. The refugee camp where we were heading was right across the street from the former King and Queen palaces. We arrived at the compound and were immediately greeted by at least a hundred children ranging from the age of three to sixteen.
As always the soccer and footballs were passed out so we could play games with the children. We played for less than five minutes before the balls somehow disappeared. I don’t know where they all went but the kids took them and hid them in their homes. After those disappeared someone brought out a box of jump ropes and Frisbees and five minutes later those disappeared. Ten minutes into the trip and we immediately had nothing to do with the kids except run around with them.
The coordinators needed a few extra bodies to help pass out food, so I headed over to the trucks hoping to pass out sugar packets or saltine crackers. By the time they got to me the only thing remaining was to carry 100-pound bags of flour and large containers of oil. So that was my job. It started off well. The first few groups had wheelbarrows so I loaded them with the flour and oil. However there weren’t many wheelbarrows so the task turned into humping these sacks of flour and containers of oil about 50 yards to their homes. The sacks of flour weren’t heavy the first, second or even the tenth trip. But after an hour and a half of carrying this I was exhausted. By the end of the day I was covered in sweat, flour, and oil. Also I was getting a nice tan as the day heated up. I was afraid someone might confuse me for a piece of fried chicken if I stayed in the sun any longer. I definitely looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
The refugees at this particular compound live in some Old Russian barracks from the 1980’s when they occupied Kabul. The buildings were shot up from the past 30 years of war when the Mujahadein and Taliban fought their battles against one another. The buildings had very few windows and of course there was not running water, sewage system or amenities that we take for granted on a daily basis. They would dump their trash, sewage and everything else out their windows onto the ground outside the building so you could imagine the smell. Actually, whatever you imagine as the most fowl stench you have ever encountered, this was exponentially worse. At times I got too close and my gag reflex was tested. There were large ants and other bugs I have never seen before crawling all over this area. This was near the food drop point for us. Some of the ants were so big that I thought they were going to carry the flour sack and other food away. Reminds me of some dialogue from the movie Ghostbusters:
“What are you exterminators?”
“Somebody saw a cockroach on the twelfth.”
“Must be some cockroach?”
“Bite your head off man!”
As we ran short on supplies the women began punching each other for their position in line to get the remaining bread mix, crackers and sugar packets. The men came in and had to calm the women down and it almost got out of hand quickly. We were able to get them to get in a single line and it turned out that almost everyone got some food. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised that the women were battling for food when they don’t have any money to buy it for their families. Women holding their children and throwing punches was amazing to watch. It was a very rewarding day and made me feel good that I was able to participate.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
This morning I woke up around 0630 and started to get dressed to begin the day. I sat down on the edge of my bed to put on my socks. When I got one sock half on, the slats in my bed gave way and I dropped through the bed frame. To quote Chris Farley in Tommy Boy when he broke the wooden bus stop bench, “Could’ve done without that!” When I got to work my desk smelled of coffee and the documents on my desk were stained a nice brown tint. Someone in the office used my desk this morning to make a few phone calls back home and he spilled his entire cup of coffee all over my stuff. He cleaned it up as best he could but it was still maddening. I didn’t give it too much thought until I couldn’t type emails because my keyboard was not functioning. I turned the keyboard over and a half-cup of coffee poured out. Ah what a great start to the day. Since I couldn’t work because my computer wouldn’t boot up since there was a keyboard failure I decided it was time to hit the gym. I got a great workout in, ate lunch and then met a guy at my room to fix my bed problems. I also got a new keyboard for work and now all is well. Our “weekend” is Friday so Saturday is actually a “Monday” so it was not a great way to start the week.
Saturday, September 2, 2006
I needed a road trip to find a piece of land to build some temporary winter quarters for about 250 police. James Wallace, Senior Chief Rodrigo, Tech Sergeant Drowne and I went up to the province of Panjshir with Afghan Police Colonel Hamid and our translator Saleem. It was a two and a half hour drive up north from Kabul. The main road took us up in the vicinity of Bagram Air Field where we fly in and out of the country. We turned east within 20 kilometers of BAF and made our way up a couple of switchbacks that wound through some tight neighborhoods. These roads were two-lanes for donkey pulled carts. Our SUV took up most of the road and was very nerve racking with all the kids playing on the streets and in the sewer gutters. It must have been bath time! After we got out of the neighborhood the road ended and there was a huge dirt pasture. Thankfully our SUV’s were 4-wheel driven so we made it through with only mild concussions from banging our heads on the roof of the vehicle. On the other side of the pasture the UN had constructed a very nice asphalt road that wound it’s way alongside a huge river. The water was moving fast through the valley. The mountains went straight up from the riverside. Parts of the road were carved out from the mountainside and we had a good portion of the mountain overhanging our vehicle. It was a great drive through this part. They even had corn fields!
Panjshir is made up of two mountain ranges that run from the southeast to the northwest. The road cuts right in between and everyone lives off the main road. It is easy to see from the high positions why the Russians, Mujahadein and Taliban never conquered this area.
Panjshir is where the Freedom Fighter Massoud was from. Massoud was the leader of the Northern Alliance that fought against the Russians, Mujahadein and the Taliban. In 2001, two days before September 11th, Al Qaeda dressed two operatives up as news reporters to interview him. The camera was just a cover for an explosive that killed the leader. He is very well respected in the villages that do not support the Taliban. His picture hangs on more buildings than Hamid Karzai’s. Some believe that if he weren’t killed he would have become the President of Afghanistan. Anyway, his tomb is located in the Panjshir province and is the most peaceful province in Afghanistan.
We met with the Police Provincial Commander, the Barokh city Mayor and the Provincial Governor. He met us in his outdoor office right on the banks of the river. It was incredible. I almost felt like I was in the States. The commander also invited us for lunch, which is never an invitation you look forward to. The served some beef that was a bit gamey, tough and not very tasty. The rice of course had been cooked in some sort of water that I’m sure will not sit well in my stomach. They served a bowl of non-pasteurized, non-preserved yogurt, watermelon, onions and tomatoes. The watermelon, onion and tomatoes were obviously grown in a garden, however in most provinces the gardens are watered and fertilized with the septic tank trucks. Now I’m sure they washed the vegetables before serving, but that goes back to the whole water issue that we are not accustomed to drinking. The part of the meal that I always like is the bread called Nan (phonetically). After about a four-hour visit we loaded back up and headed back to camp. It was a great trip and everyone returned home safely. Back to the grind, we’ll see what they have in store for us tomorrow.
Today was also the first day of college football. The games start at 2100 and run all night long. The Navy game starts at 0200 and the OU games starts at 0330. I am going to sleep in the office to watch the OU game and get updates on the Navy game on the Internet.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Well I stayed up all day and it was a good day for the Echols family on the gridiron. Navy, OU, Texas, Iowa, Indiana, and Ball State all won their contests. Air Force opens up next week with a tough one against Tennessee that whooped a Cal team that mayt have been overrated. We’ll see. I made sure I let the Army guys know how the Army mules fared. Losing to Arkansas State does not bode well for a good season. Ninety days to go until the Army-Navy game. Who’s counting though? Speaking of countdowns, eight weeks until pass!!!
On the 9th of August I wrote about the Temporary National Police Command Center. This project was awarded on contract on 18 August. However, because it is deemed a temporary project the Afghans have prevented me from building this facility. All they want is a two-story building and a basement. When I ask what goes in this monstrosity, they can only tell me that my one story structure is not good enough. Even though I have told them repeatedly that I am designing a larger structure for the permanent facility the Minister of Interior, Minister Moqbil has put my job on hold. I explained to him the difference between permanent and temporary facilities. He said he misunderstood and signed a letter that allowed me to build. However, the site is filled with storage containers and the signed letter from Minister Moqbil has not made its way down to the people to let me move the containers. This letter was signed over a week and a half ago and today it finally turned up in MGEN Basir’s office. He wants full details of the facility (again) and wants me to include a basement. I have to explain that there is not a basement in this facility. I feel like I have done this before, it is just another Groundhog’s Day. “Watch out for that first step, it’s a doooozy!” We’ll see how this turns out tomorrow when I meet with him.
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
My second trip of the week took me to the province of Herat. The purpose of the visit was to find piece of land to build a Regional Headquarters and Regional Logisitics Center for the police for the western provinces. The plane trip was not too bad. It was a small 14 person aircraft that got us over the mountains in just an hour and a half. It is hard to believe the entire country is approximately the size of Texas. After arriving to Camp Stone I was given my berthing assignment. Most of my trips so far we have been given nice temporary quarters. Beds with mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillows. This makes travel lighter and doesn’t weigh the small plane down with excess pounds. Apparently this camp has not heard of hospitality because they put me in a tent with cots. In addition, there weren’t any sheets, blankets or pillows. Oh boy, this is going to be quite a trip. I got that right. The cot ended up being a foot shorter than I am tall so my feet hung over the edge. I made a quick run to the “Ship’s Store” that is on the camp. I was able to purchase a pillow. The store doesn’t stock sheets or blankets so I was out of luck on that one. The good news was they had towels. So I bought a terry cloth towel that was only 3 feet long (maybe). So I knew that at least half my body could be covered during the night. Unfortunately I forgot that we were at 5,000 feet altitude and it got down to the upper-40’s. Boy howdy was it cold. I didn’t sleep well that night. Bad news was that I was booked here until Saturday. Even the bathroom situration was bad. The urinal consistend of a 3 inch PVC pipe stuck in the ground. I don't know about you but that was a test of accuracy! As you can see there was no privacy either. The only thing I could hope for was a quicker than scheduled meeting on Thursday so I could fly stand by back to Kabul.
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Okay the meeting that was scheduled for 8 hours took less than 5 minutes. I had a feeling about that. Afghans have trouble doing anything for 15 minutes let alone 8 hours. The trick was to get to the airport to reserve a spot on the soon to be departing aircraft. We arrived at the airport just after the plane arrived. They had already taken on their load of fuel for the flight. More bad news…they have room on the flight, but they have too much weight due to the fuel onload. Fifteen minutes earlier and I could have gotten on because they could have adjusted their fuel intake. I think this was a ploy by the Brits flying to see how they could stick it to an American. Oh wait a minute. What do I see on the horizon. An Italian C-130 aircraft…that thing can hold a hundred of me and we wouldn’t affect the weight. And their destination is Kabul so I definitely can get on, right? Wrong, typical Italians wouldn’t let me on the flight because it was a VIP flight. Oh no, I am not going back to that dreaded tent to sleep on that cot! I hoofed it over to the Italian Operations Center to find out if there were anymore inbound flights today. It took about 20 Italians to get them to understand what I was trying to ask. Apparently speaking in English really slowly doesn’t help with the translation. They just think you are giving them grief. There was a bit of a language barrier, but their English is better than my Italian so I won’t mock too badly. Finally some good news on this trip, an American C-130 is landing in Herat and then returning to Kabul. The American C-130 had room for me and we made it home safely just in time for dinner. It was an awful trip, but the mission got accomplished so there was at least one positive.
Who do you think will get to the ball first? My money is on the little speed demon Aiden.
Here she is passing the ball to get the other members of her team involved in the game,
In the end Aiden had 5 goals in her first soccer match. Looks like she's getting her celebration down with a little point to the crowd. If a microphone were in Aiden's face she'd say, "I love you Mom!"
Group shot in the "hands on" section of the Aquarium. I feel sorry for those fish that have to put up with those pesky little hands day in and day out.
Brady is showing off his new ride to Gramma and Papa. Look Mom no hands!
