There is quite a bit of walking in the Army. Sure, we might drive to a location, whether it be a school or a bridge or some other project. But, oftentimes we can only get so close and then we are walking the rest of the way. Of course, when we roll into the thriving metropolis of Asadabad, we have to park and walk to the projects because there just is not much room for our large, Mad Max style vehicles that we drive around in. The other day I made my first trip to Asadabad, which is just a few minutes from the base. We were there to familiarize me on some of the projects that were in progress in the city, and to check the work of the contractors that were actually doing the work. It is one thing to visit a country and walk through the streets of a town or a city as a visitor. It is quite another feeling to walk through in uniform carrying weapons. The people of the town were not hostile but they were not ecstatic about us being there either. They were just...watching. The kids were curious and some of the bolder ones would come out to the street and ask for things, pens, gloves, sunglasses, candy. It is astonishing to think that we have been in Afghanistan since before these kids were born.
My first impression of Asadabad was that it was very similar to some of the other countries I have been to such as the Philippines and Indonesia (although the climate is much different). The streets are lined with small shops, and there are plenty of wooden carts with tangerines, plums and bananas stacked on them. The buildings are basic, square and made with no frills and cheap concrete. The shops do not have doors or window displays but rather they are wide open with garage-type doors that come down at the end of the day when they close everything up. There are no traffic lights but the light traffic and the numerous pedestrians seem to co-exist without anyone getting run over (including me). At one point during our stroll we passed some interesting characters walking down the middle of the street....sheep. There were four sheep walking down the street, seeming to know exactly where they were going, and with no shepherd in sight. Very bizarre. Another moment that made me slightly uneasy was when we visited a local hospital to look at a water tower that had been built. The tower was on the women's side of the hospital, so we had to wait until the coast was clear and then they allowed us beyond the curtain and into the courtyard of the women's clinic. As I pulled back the curtain, before me were about thirty to forty women sitting on two rows of benches, facing each other waiting for their appointments. Every one of them was wearing a blue burqa. I felt strongly that I was invading their privacy and breaking some cultural boundaries. But, the men we were there to see seemed comfortable so I just made sure I did not catch myself staring at the scene. There were many children waiting with their mothers and a few of them came over to sneak a peek at us.
Today we were back out in the countryside, visiting school projects in some local villages. The first one was a hike as it was off the beaten path. We left the main road on foot and walked along a dirt path between separate fields. Soon the dirt path turned to stones as it wound in between two walls about two feet high made of flat rock that reminded me of the old walls you can see in New England that have been there since the Revolutionary War days. The end of the trail led to two schools that were being built within the same compound. One was to be a high school for boys and the other a high school for girls. Even though they will have separate buildings, when the schools are finished the boys will go to school in the morning and the girls will go in the afternoon.
Later we visited another school that was actually in session. We went in and visited the classrooms. It was a new school that had just opened and they did not yet have desks, so all the kids in each room were sitting on the floor during the lessons. One of our interpreters is a female Afghan. She does not wear anything on her head (except a helmet when we are outside), and she definitely does not wear a burqa. It was amazing to see the reaction of the older boys, some of whom already had full beards. It is certainly possible that when our interpreter walked in she was the first adult female they had seen who was not a sister, mother, aunt, cousin or some type of relative. They were wide eyed and had big smiles on their face as she spoke to them. It was fascinating to see their expressions as they looked upon someone they were culturally forbidden to see.
We stopped a couple of other places and did some more walking. After awhile you barely notice the fifty pounds of body armor weighing down your shoulders. I have just a few days left here before I head off to Bagram for four days of training. Then it is back to Indiana for two and a half months of building a team to bring back to Kunar. Part of me would like to stay right here and skip Indiana altogether. But, I am excited to put my team together and to prepare them for an amazing experience. More later...
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