Hello everyone. As you can read, made it to March, which means only 9 more months left to go. I have been joking that I am pregnant with Afghanistan-since a pregnancy is 9 months long...so, at the start of my 9 months-it has been an interesting week. I have a lot of great pictures and some interesting stories to go with them.....so this entry is a story in pictures....
Picture #1-The house that Afghans built
Satar's guys live in this container. It used to be touching the container below it. They raised it up so that they could get a higher, better view-they said to enhance the security over the ASP. I have some serious concerns that it may blow right over in the big wind storms that come along. It will be my mission to try and find them some sort of bricks or to convince them to put another container up there instead of the one they have there now. We will see how it goes. Albeit I am worried about it, the soldiers were proud of themselves. They were proud that they took the initiative to better see the ASP for the security. What can you do?
Picture #2 Sure we can give you a ride
Something that the Afghans do is play circus. At least, that is the way I see it from time to time. They try to put as many people in any vehicle they are driving. Niazy told me that when he was an interpreter at another place he was at a checkpoint and 29 people climbed out of a vehicle. This type of truck has been seen with far more. Given how rough the roads are here, I don't know how they don't fall out?
Picture #3 Have RPGs and Giant Flag-means I am important
When I see these guys driving around, it does two things to me. One-scares the crap out of me. Two-scares the crap out of me. The RPGs in the back of the truck are acting as if they are keeping the covered contents in. The guys who drive these trucks are of some importance-what caught my attention was the giant flag. Not sure what that was all about, but, generally it means there is an important guy in there-question I had, but, wasn't willing to ask-who is going to shoot the RPGs? I mean they had 25 guys in the truck above and nobody with this stuff? Maybe they were hiding under the covering, like Rambo or something-who knows. It was picture worthy though.
Picture #4 You want me to move? How come?
Every day it is like driving an obstacle course. The soldiers will be walking like this all the time. Sometimes there will be like 30 or 40 of them in a formation and they just look at me like, why are you in a car and driving on this road?
Picture #5 Taliban Welcome, come on in
This is a picture of what I can only say is a welcome sign for the Taliban to come in and steal or use whatever they can against us. These tents were at one time, not like this. They first figured out a way to get over the wall. Which I believe was the tarp over the barbed wire and c-wire, short for Constantine wire. Once they got over the wall, they had to find a way to get back over. So, they moved these tents into place and it worked like a small hill, they could walk up and down it and you could see the path where they did just that. I have no idea how long they have been doing this, only that it has been done. Niazy and I cut the tarp away, fixed the C-wire, removed the rope they used to climb up with. Made the tent ramp unstable and disassembled it as much as we could without the forklifts help. There is still a long way to go, but we at least took the welcome sign away-the tarp over the wall and the wire was horrible. Satar doesn't have enough guys to watch the old ASP-which this is where it is at, to stop them from doing this. The least I can do is help to make it better or more secure. One day at a time, one day at a time.
Picture #6 Do you want some tea with your sugar?
While sitting and having some chai with the Army guys who brought us some barriers and C-wire. The young Specialist had never had chai before and asked for some sugar. The Afghans believe more is better with everything-hence, the inch of sugar in his cup. So funny. He was a respectful and good sport about it. The little cakes we were eating, the soldiers get them from their dining facility and have them with us when we have chai. They are not sweet, they are moist-sort of the consistency of corn bread. They go perfectly with chai-you can't really eat them on their own, you need chai to go with them. They have a wax paper thing on the bottom of them-got to be careful to peel it all off!
Picture #7 I am a tie-down strap and I am very strong
The Army guys in the picture above delivered this truck load of hesco containers-the things that you see that are filled with dirt and act as barriers. They also delivered C-wire. The leaning pallet was being held on the trailer by one tie-down strap-which held on so tight that we had to cut it, we couldn't get it undone. When Satar picked up the pallet, he didn't drop it or push it off of the edge-pretty miraculous.
Picture #8 I can't take it anymore
This pallet made from the highest quality wood from Afghanistan (I have never seen a tree here by the way). It simply couldn't hold on any longer with the weight. When Satar picked it up, it crumbled and the hescos fell.
Picture #9 I am going to find the prize before you
In each pallet of hescos is a bag with the tools you would need to work with them. A razor blade, gerber knives-about 10 tools in total-pretty cool. Niazy knew about this and told Rock (in traditional garb). So they went scrounging through the pallets.
Picture #10 And the winner is...
They didn't find any tools in these stacks, but, they did find some MRE Irish Coffee Powder-lucky!
Picture #11 through #13 What is in that hole under that container?
Satar went for a pee earlier and came and got us to show us something. He had a gleam in his eye like a child who discovered a cool treasure....what could it be? He showed us these holes. Something had burrowed itself under the container.
Picture #14 This will kill you
"The creature that shoots these at you from the body will kill you", says Rock who is apparently deathly afraid of porcupines. This is the animal who has been digging holes under the container. I found a couple more quills and told them what the animal was. Rock isn't convinced it won't kill us.
Picture #15 Please, please, please, I want to see it
Satar was determined to see it. He ran to the forklift to try and lift the container. Rock ran and hid behind the wall, it is going to kill us of course. Niazy and I were ready with our cameras. But, the forklift isn't strong enough to lift it up. We will be keeping an eye out for him though. I think he will make an appearance when it gets warmer. This activity occupied at least 45 minutes of our day. This is why I went to training for...to win the hearts and minds and to find joy where you can. I hope to break Rock of his irrational fear of the creature that shoots these at you and will kill you...a porcupine!
Picture #16 Tarps for Terps
One of the RLBs was leaking, Hydari's. So we did a recon mission and found some tarps and covered his container up to keep the water from leaking in. It was a Herculean effort with the freezing rain blowing in our faces and the balancing act. We were all pleased with out work, except Hydari. He said it was still leaking and changed it-which made it worse. We tried.
Picture #17-19 Rain, rain, and rain equal people trying to cross a waddee-like a wash-so crazy
When it does rain, can see mountains normally covered with dust and clouds
Picture #20 What is That?
With the rain, the Afghans don't like to work. So we decided to clean out our desks. Freddy found this-it was gross. We found a ton of other weird stuff, but, this was the grossest.
Picture #21 Take me away...
Caught a pic of this helicopter hovering today. Pretty cool.
Picture #22 Do you need any help carrying that?
Picture #23 Cough, cough, cough-pardon me, cough, cough, cough
The clean fresh air from KAF!
Picture #24-26 Guard dogs in training
The bigger dog, hard to see-she chased off a bunch of kids then came back to her babies and resume her position.
Couldn't forget this little guy-they are grubby looking, but, it is nice to see life out there
Picture #27-29 Mud...there is even a slimy kind of mud, it is so nasty
Picture #30-36 Rainbows in a land of chaos are always pretty
Picture #37 I'm melting...
Suddenly, about 30 guys ran across the road in front of us-it wasn't raining that bad, but, according to them-it must have been acid rain. Either that or it was cleaning them-can't have that!!
Picture #38-40 Oh wait, I need to turn around
This was the traffic on the way home through an area called Walmart-everyone seemed to have to turn around. It is roughly 200-300 yards long through Walmart-very scary and dangerous and these guys are turning around and halting all traffic?
Picture #41 I think I can make it
The waddee we have to cross, wasn't too bad today. The truck crossing hesitated for a minute before he crossed.
Picture #42-44 Which way to go...
These are from a sign post on the boardwalk at KAF. I have walked the boardwalk several times and hadn't seen it. The boardwalk is a wooden walkway with a number of stores on it. It is pretty cool, they have an area in the middle that they do events in. They have a hockey rink where people play, a basketball court too. It is pretty cool, the time of day we were there it was pretty quiet, not too crazy busy. KAF has thousands of people, so it is always a pain to go there. Wasn't so bad today.
Picture #45-46 Leaning tree of Pizza
Saw this tree leaning while I was eating a slice of pizza to celebrate the changing of the month to March.
Picture #47 Someone left a note on our truck...
Oh damn, it's not a note. We got a parking ticket. We parked in an area we aren't allowed to. Although, there were 15 other cars there too-all with notes too. What are they going to do-send me to Afghanistan? Oh wait, already here....
Picture #48 For Sale-only 6 goats!! What a steal
Going through Walmart-saw this place, a little fixer-upper, an Afghan HUD home.
Picture #49 Back to the Lindsey puddle
Picture #50 Home Sweet Home, my welcome mat/door
The cut-outs are from Kevin and the kids, Cecilia colored the MOM...
So there you have it. 50 pictures in the life of Kristin in Afghanistan....until the next 50, be safe, be loved, be strong. Love and miss everyone and everything!!!!
I almost forgot this picture.....
Scuba Lessons? This is the Poo-Ponds-hence the Bio-hazard sign-gross!
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