Day 219: Listening

I spent the majority of my day today in a small room with seven Afghans while we prepared immunizations for our upcoming police in-processing event. I had an interpreter with me. However, most of the time I just sat and listened. It is sometimes more interesting sitting in a room understanding little to none of the conversation than it is if you understand every word. One nice thing about it is that you don’t have to pretend like you are interested in the conversation. Also, there is no requirement to make small talk. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t enjoy being anti-social--at least most of the time. However, it is interesting how much information you can gather just by listening. For example, I could start to figure out the different personalities in the room--the jokers, the serious, the outgoing. Also, I could often tell what the conversation was about...or at least what I thought the conversation was about. That’s the great thing about not understanding what people are saying--you can imagine them saying anything that you want them to.

Now if only I could apply this principle when I get back home. “Honey, please go change Ammon’s diaper” could easily become “Hey, Justin, why don’t you go relax, put your feet up and have a bowl of ice cream!”

Day 215: Merry Christmas

The last time I was away for Christmas it was 1996 and I was on my mission in Argentina. Now twelve years later I am in another part of the world on a different kind of mission. Hopefully this will be my last Christmas away for a long time...hopefully forever.

Today was a rather slow and uneventful day. I think it is normal for days to pass slowly like today did, when you really wish you were somewhere else. I opened a few presents, read a little, worked out, watched part of a movie, and called home to wish my family a Merry Christmas Eve. The snow of last week was melted and rather than a cold and blustery Christmas, we had seventy degree weather. It felt more like spring than winter...although I am not complaining. I’m sure winter will come roaring back within a few days. The dining facility had a nice Christmas dinner and we even had a live band playing in the background. Overall it was a nice and relaxing day. However, I have to admit that I am glad the holiday season is ending and we are moving into 2009...the year I come home!

I hope everyone back home has a very merry Christmas. I miss all of you and am grateful for all the support and encouragement you provide.

Day 214: To My Kids on Christmas Eve

Dear Abbie, Ellie, Eden and Ammon,

Merry Christmas! When mom reads this message to you it will be Christmas Eve. I can only imagine how excited you must be and how much fun you will have today. I hope you have a great and special day. I wish so bad I could be there with you. I miss you guys a lot.

Since I won’t be home this Christmas, I wanted to make sure you had a little note from your daddy. Every kid deserves to hear from their daddy on Christmas. Some kids don’t get to, so I feel blessed that even though I am very far away, I still get to say hi to my favorite people in the whole wide world today. I love you guys...A LOT! I have been given a lot of presents in my life; however, the five best presents I have ever received are my Susie, Abbie, Ellie, Eden and Ammon. Thanks for being the best kids a daddy could ever have.

I especially wanted to tell you how grateful I am that you are willing to ask Santa to give some of your Christmas presents to the boys and girls of Afghanistan. Yesterday, I put a picture on my blog of a little boy who is probably only a year or two older than Abbie. This poor boy was standing outside in the cold with no socks on. Can you imagine going outside in the cold and not having any socks on your feet? I bet your little toes would get cold pretty fast. Every day I see kids who don’t have warm clothes to wear or who don’t have enough to eat. Other kids don’t have any paper to write on or crayons to color with when they go to school. Tomorrow, you will get to open a lot of presents and will get a lot of fun things. I am sure you will have HUGE smiles on your faces in the morning as you sit around the Christmas tree looking at your presents. Try to think of the HUGE smiles that will be on the faces of the kids here in Afghanistan when in a few weeks they open up the presents that you are sending them. I am proud of your decision to share. Sometimes it is hard to share...but in the end it always makes you feel happier and blesses those whom you share with.

A long time ago, on the first Christmas morning, Heavenly Father shared his Son, Jesus Christ with the world. I’m sure it was hard for Heavenly Father to send His Son so far away. However, he did it because He knew that His sacrifice would bless all of His children. This year, our family is being asked to sacrifice--we are being asked to be apart. It isn’t easy. We sometimes feel sad. Sometimes we feel like crying. However, I know that soon we will be back together. Just like our Father in Heaven, we are sacrificing to bless the lives of other people. It is hard, but someday we will look back and be glad we made the sacrifice.

I love you guys. I miss you so much. I wish I could somehow pull you through my computer and give you a big hug and a kiss. Know that I am thinking of you on this Christmas day. I can’t wait until the next one, when we will all be together again.

Love,

Dad

Day 213: Nothing To Say

Sometimes inspiration comes...other times it doesn’t. I was sitting here trying to think of something meaningful to write for this post and after several failed attempts I realized why my page remained blank...I really have nothing to say. So I will say nothing. However, yesterday we went out on a convoy and I took a few interesting pictures I wanted to share. Here you go...enjoy.

Wow, it sure takes a lot of words to say that you have nothing to say.


See the kid in this post. No socks...middle of winter...evidence that Sue's Christmas service project is important.


This year my Christmas sleigh ride is being replaced by Christmas humvee rides.


Doesn't it look like I just landed on Mars or another planet? Interesting scenery.


These women in their burkhas are dangerous due to their limited field of vision and the bad habit they have of stepping out in the street without looking.


A view from the back seat of the humvee as we drive through the city.


This is the Blue Mosque. It is one of the largest and most beautiful mosques in all of Herat.

Day 211: Calling 911

I have only called 911 once in my life. Several years ago when we lived in California, Sue and I drove by a young girl who had just been hit by a car. The poor girl looked as if she had been twisted into a pretzel. As we were one of the first people on the scene, I called 911 to request emergency medical assistance. I was surprised how long it took for 911 to answer my call--at least several minutes passed before anyone even picked up the phone. However, ultimately they answered, the ambulance was sent, and the girl ended up doing fine.

Imagine if you had no access to emergency medical care and that if you called 911 no one ever answered your call. This is the situation the Afghans face every day. Their medical system is broken and people don’t have access to the care they need. The Afghan police in particular have a serious lack of emergency medical providers. The police are often the targets of attacks and are frequently injured or killed. Up until now, the Afghan police out here in the western part of the country have had no trained medics. One of my goals when I arrived was to help create a program to train and certify medics--increasing access to care, providing needed medical support, and most importantly saving lives. Well today, the dream become a reality. The first Afghan Army and Police medic training course outside of Kabul kicked off this morning. Approximately twenty students will spend the next eight weeks learning everything from how to care for a broken leg, to how to dress a gunshot wound, to how to deal with serious chest and abdominal trauma.

In a place where progress is so slow and is measured in inches rather than feet or miles, it was satisfying to see something so important and with so much potential to do the Afghans some good, finally come to pass. It is a first step. Much work still lies ahead. However, today the Afghans are one step closer to having access to the medical care that they need. They are that much closer to being able to one day call 911 and have someone actually come to help them.

Day 209: Icicles

Today on my way to Church I noticed the icicles coming off the roofs of various buildings here on base. Now, as I understand it icicles are supposed to come straight down. The idea behind an icicle is that as the snow melts and the water begins to drip, it refreezes before it can fall to the ground. When this happens over and over again, before you know it you have an icicle. Due to something called gravity, the icicles should be basically pointing down toward the ground, right? Well, apparently no one explained my theory to the icicles I saw today. You will see icicles pointing towards buildings, crooked ones, and even one that is perpendicular to the others near it. Someone explain this to me. I have some theories, but I’m curious about what you think about the subject. All are invited to respond--especially kids and the one physicist in the family. The person with the answer that is closest to mine (caution--this will not necessarily be the right answer--so don’t try to look this up on google or wikipedia) will be sent a special present in the mail...an Afghan snowball.

Day 208: A Day of Sacrifice

The following post is a little gory...however, it is also kind of interesting and informative. Read onward at your own risk.

The Afghans recently celebrated a major holiday called Eid. It is a week long celebration in which personal sacrifice is emphasized. This was a time of heightened security for us as we knew that personal sacrifice could be interpreted by the bad guys as a “good time to turn myself into a suicide bomber”. Luckily the holiday passed peaceful in our region with no major acts of violence.

Today the hospital staff ended the week of celebration by making a sacrifice. Much like in the times of the Bible, in Muslim countries animal sacrifices are still made. Similar to Christianity, the Muslims believe that Abraham was a prophet. He was commanded to take his son into the mountain and offer him up as a sacrifice. However, at the last possible minute an angel appeared and intervened, commanding Abraham not to sacrifice his son but rather a ram that was caught up in a nearby thicket. The major difference between the Muslim and Christian story is that in Christianity we believe this son is Isaac while in Islam they believe the son is Ishmael. In commemoration of this event, and to celebrate the end of the week of sacrifice, the hospital staff sacrificed a sheep. As part of the sacrifice, the meat obtained from the animal is to be given to the poor. In today’s case, the meat was donated to the hospital housekeepers who are not paid very well.

Below are pictures of the event and a few interesting details of the process:


After slitting the throat of the poor sheep, they blow it up like a balloon. This allows them to more easily skin it. Here one of the housekeepers is blowing him up--it was surprising how big he got.


I was surprised at how easily the skin peeled off of the sheep. I think these guys have done this before.


Anyone want an anatomy lesson.

Day 207: Caramel Popcorn Balls

Growing up, my mom had a winter time tradition. When the first snow of the season fell, she would make caramel popcorn balls. This has been a wintertime ritual that as far as I know has never been skipped. Even this year, I received a package from my mom with caramel popcorn balls enclosed after the first snowfall of the year in Utah.

Well, snow finally found its way to Herat yesterday. We have had plenty of cold recently and we have had plenty of rain. However, until yesterday, nothing white made it all of the way down to the dusty valleys of Herat. Last night around 5PM we noticed that the rain had turned to snow. It snowed hard for several hours and then lightly the remainder of the night. By morning we had 4-5 inches on the ground. Not bad for the first storm of the season. It was fun to see snowmen appear on the camp and care had to be taken to avoid the snowballs that were flying through the air throughout the day. It was kind of exciting.

Hopefully my mom will read this, make caramel popcorn balls, and send them to Herat. I hate to have her go through all the work, but after all, tradition is tradition.

Day 205: Little Flirt

I’ve heard rumors that my wife was a bit of a flirt when she was a little girl. Being the youngest of five girls, she undoubtedly had plenty of opportunities to watch her older sisters bring home boys. I can only imagine how she tormented and embarrassed her sisters in ways that only a eight or nine year old girl can. Okay Sue’s sisters, now is the chance for you to share some stories about your baby sister--let’s hope we see something good in the comments section.

Today I went downtown and met with our soon to be appointed Regional Medical Director. It actually was my first encounter with this doctor (he really is a pharmacist but he assures me that doesn’t make a difference). He was accompanied in the office by his youngest daughter who he thought was 8 or 9 years old (remember, Afghans often don’t keep track of birthdays). Anyway, this girl is the youngest of his 14 children. That’s right FOURTEEN kids! That’s a lot even for you readers back home in Utah. I guess it would be important to mention that these 14 children came from two different wives. This is allowed in Islam and is not an uncommon practice, especially among those who have a little more financial security. His first wife has given him nine girls while the second wife five boys.

Anyway, back to this little girl. She was very cute and seemed to be very interested in the strange speaking American soldiers. After about 30 minutes in the doctor’s office, I noticed her sitting next to me. She would steal a glance at me occasionally and give me a little smile. Later on she moved across the room to her father’s desk. At this point she was nearly directly in front of me and she started to become more bold. She started to smile more openly and then started making “eyes” at me. I chuckled when I looked her way again and saw her point to herself and then point at me, all the while with a flirtatious little grin on her face. It is funny how all little kids are the same. I imagine my little Susie, twenty some odd years ago, sitting across from her sister’s boyfriends, doing something similar.


In a country where society still puts women behind burkhas and limits their interactions with others, it was neat to see that their little girls can be just that...little girls.

It made me miss even more my little Susie and the three other little ladies waiting back home for me. By the way Abbie, Ellie and Eden--I better never see you flirting with the boys. You will be in big trouble!

Day 202: Legoland

Southern California is full of fun and worthwhile tourist attractions. My family and I have enjoyed going to Disneyland, Sea World, Knott's Berry Farm, and the San Diego Zoo. All of these places are fun, high-quality attractions that are worth the money you spend on them. However, there are a few Southern California attractions that are tourist traps that I would warn you to avoid. The first one on my list is Legoland. I know it sounds kind of exciting...cities made of legos and fun rides for the kids...how could that not be fun? However, don’t be deceived by tricky marketers who paint a picture of a blissful and enjoyable afternoon with family and friends at their park. When Sue and I went with the kids, we felt ripped off and we even had free tickets. Never pay money to go to Legoland! Trust me it isn’t worth it (okay I know one of you out there reading probably loves Legoland...Sorry).

Well yesterday reminded me of the land of the miniature as I stopped in at the Herat airport. As I wandered around wasting some time I ran into an armored vehicle unlike any I had seen before. Take a look at the picture above. I am taller than this thing--all 5’10” of me. One of the Italians saw me looking at it and offered to open it up and give me a tour on the inside. It was equally small on the inside--I don’t know how you could wear body armor and fit in this thing. Typically all of the armored vehicles around here are big and bulky. This was definitely an exception. One of the interesting things about being in Afghanistan is that we get to interact with many different nationalities and get to see the different vehicles and equipment that they use. This mini Italian up-armored vehicle looked good on the base but I don't know about riding in it “outside the wire.” Maybe we should send it out to California. I think it would fit in well at Legoland.