My First Mission

In my last post, I had just arrived in Indiana to start training for my assignment to Afghanistan.  Now, I sit on the base that, in June, I will call home for awhile.  There have been many adventures, misadventures and non-adventures in between the two posts, but connectivity and time have prevented me from updating on a regular basis.  Now that things have settled a bit, I will play catch up with some late entries to document this crazy ride.  But now, let me skip ahead to the present.  I arrived at Camp Wright in Kunar Province after a week of travel and yesterday I participated in my first mission. 

The mission was to attend a dedication ceremony for a school that had been built with the help of the Provincial Reconstruction Team.  It was an hour drive from the base so we climbed into the vehicles early and made our to the village where the school was located.  The road we took followed the path of the river that winds through the province.  It was a narrow, paved road that had just enough room for our large vehicles to pass some of the local trucks that were navigating there way through the villages. The trucks are called jingle trucks because the owners decorate them in bright colors and hang a variety of bells, and tassles and doo-dads in the cab.  Throughout the entire drive there were people walking along the road, kids playing, men riding bikes or small motorcycles and women dressed in burqas walking along with their children in tow.  The burqa is the long blue gown that covers their head and face and flows all the down to their ankles.  They have to look through a mesh screen to see out and they have no peripheral vision when wearing them.  I think the only female I saw not wearing the full burqa was an old lady walking along the side of the road.  She was wearing all black, including a hijab which is the scarf that covered her head but leaves the face exposed.  Whenever we passed through a small village we would have to slow way down becuase the road would narrow even more and there were lots of people standing around watching us pass.  When I saw people, of course, I mean men and children.  The children seem to have no fear of the large vehicles we were in so the drivers had to be very cautious to ensure they did not miss any kids running out in front of them.  Of course, when I say "did not miss" I do not mean, make sure they hit them...that would be bad.  I mean make sure they were aware of where the kids were at all times.  On our way back the kids became very bold and used our vehicles for target practice, often throwing rocks at us...very nice. 

The ceremony was very formal.  The school had a nice, ten foot wall around it creating a nice courtyard where the ceremony was held.  The podium was placed at the entrance and the audience sat in white plastic chairs in the courtyard.  Between our guys, the local police, and Aghan National Police and the provincial governor's guys there was plenty of security.  A myriad of AK47s, M4s, rocket propelled grenade launchers and various other weapons were around.  I have no doubt I was very intimidating with my little M9 pistol strapped to my leg.  I think the only one afraid was me because I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.  Once the ceremony began there were speeches.  Many, many speeches by headmasters, and mullahs and elders and police chiefs and ministers of education and governors. Even the current PRT Commanding Officer gave a very nice, short speech.  All the speeches were given in Pashto (except for the PRT CO), and unfortunately my four months of language training did little to help me understand what they were saying.  I was able to pick up that they were talking about the school and teachers and students and the village, but I did not need any language training to figure that out since we were standing at a dedication ceremony for a new school (duh)!  I was given an earpiece that allowed me to hear our interpreter giving instant translation of all the speeches.  Some of them actually had great things to say.  There was the talk of the need for peace and the end of war.  There was the call to show the world that Afghanistan could take care of itself.  There was the talk of Islam being a religion of peace.  There was also the occasional speaker who would mention that the school was great but we have this other building with no running water, and we need this bridge repaired and we have other projects so when are you going to fix those?  One speaker (who will remain nameless) even mentioned in the speech that he didn't like the color of the doors and windows in the new school and the next time a school was built he needed to be consulted because the doors and windows were not a good color (they were white...I  liked them...I'm just sayin').  After the speeches there were gift exchanges.  The speakers were given woolen robes or cloaks...sort of an Aghan snuggie.  Alright they weren't snuggies because anyone knows you put a snuggie on from the front and these were not like that.  The governor gave out pakols to many people in attendance.  A pakol is a cloth hat that is worn throughout Afghanistan. 

Once the ceremony was finally over, we were ushered inside for some food.  That is where my worst nightmare came to reality.  They motioned me into a room where we would be eating and there it was....a nice little feast layed out on a cloth on the floor.  My first full day and I was going to have to sit on the floor cross legged.  Not an easy task for someone with old knees and little to no flexibility (emphasis on the "no flexibility").  The main participants were eating in similar fashion in the hallway of the school but I was relegated to the peanut gallery in a separate room which was find with me.  I strategically placed myself at the end so I could fold one leg but extend my other leg a bit past the end of the cloth that the food was placed.  It was good.  Large circular naan bread (although they don't call it naan), with rice, meat and fish.  You tear off a piece of the bread and grab some rice or meat with the bread and eat it that way.  No utensils required.  There was also some vegetables, water and Mountain Dew which seems to be a staple of the Afghan diet. 

We didn't stay long because it was time to head off to take a quick look at another school that was being built about ten minutes away.  Same exact design, same contractor.  It was interesting to see it halfway complete after just being in a school that represented the finished product.  After walking around with the PRT engineer looking at the quality of work we jumped back in vehicles and headed back to the base.  A successful first mission that provided some good insight into what I am in for over the next year. 

As I said at the beginning, I will backfill you on how life at Camp Atterbury was and how our travel went getting out here.  This post is a bit hurried but I wanted to get something out there.  In the future I will bring more detail or imagery to the post if possible.  Don't hesitate to leave a comment asking questions and I will be glad to answer.  Plus it will prove someone actually read this!  The adventure continues....