My journey in Afghanistan

My journey in Afghanistan has been amazing. There were good times and bad times. There were bad smells and good ones. I must say that I have experienced more bad ones than good. Yes… 6 months without the scent of flowers, perfume in the air as someone passed by in the hallways, or amazing smell of freshly cooked food; fish, steak, etc. Most of what my nose encountered was less than desirable. Nevertheless, life is good.

By far the infamous “Poo Pond” or as the French might say “Lac du Merde”, tops the all time list of worst smells imaginable.

The scent of fresh “Poo” is very distinguishable. It is described by many as combination of a toxic waste dump and restroom that you would immediately walk out of and return back to it in one or two hours, or locate an alternative toilet if at all possible.

The signature photo of ones stay at Kandahar Airfield (KAF) is a photo of the “Poo Pond” in the background. It is as famous to the precious few inhabitants of KAF as a photograph of oneself in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

It is rumored that a Marine since decided to engage in a swim across the infamous pond. Whether or not this is true, I wonder.

While, this photo is evidence that I engaged in a brief stay in the bio-hazardous pond of KAF, or is it?

Was Rob in the pond or photo shopped into it? You look and decide for yourself. My roommate is a computer geek!

With love from KAF, only 2 weeks remaining. What will I do without the notorious aroma of the Poo Pond?

What will I do?

How to Look Scary in a Rough Neighborhood

I decided to blog about this today. We laughed for hours about this. Not sure if it will work in Kandahar City, maybe Chicago or New Orleans.

Step 1 Consider wearing a hooded sweatshirt or hooded coat with the hood pulled over your head. When people can't really see your face, they are more wary of approaching you. With your hood up and your head down, you become an unknown quantity on the streets.

Step  2 Look people in the eye if they approach you. Looking away is always viewed as a sign of weakness. Feeling safe is a matter of displaying confidence.



Step  3 Talk to yourself as you walk. When people think that you are mentally unstable, they have a tendency to leave you alone. This may sound silly, but making people nervous before you allow them to make you nervous is a valuable weapon when you have no other defense.


Step 4 Walk confidently and determinedly without smiling. Walk tall with your shoulders back and chest out, exuding confidence that you may not feel. Even if you are lost, look and walk like you know where you are and where you are going. Confidence is the most intimidating thing that you possess under these circumstances.

How to USE the Watercloset (WC) or Toilet for us Americans.

Relaxing on the Broadwalk after a long day of work

It is always nice when we take a few minutes to relax and fellowship with our folks away from their family and friends. We normally try to get together when one of our brothers or sisters is departing from Afghanistan. I am looking forward to my cigar and fake beer soon.

Although, most of us are not "real smokers" an occasional cigar is symbolic of down time. Along with the cigar comes "near beer, 0% alcohol" is also symbolic of the times that we enjoyed back in the states. Friendship is one of the few luxuries that we have in the battlefield.  My friend Andy from Louisiana and I would often have a symbolic "cigar" and discuss home. Unfortunately, he departed to another location in Afghanistan. We miss Andy!

Alcohol is prohibited in most Muslim countries because of Quranic cautions against the drink. All service members are not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages as a measure to honor and respect local laws. In addition, it would not be a good thing to have 100,000 young men and women with loaded semi-auto weapons drinking.

I am proud to serve with such brave and capable men and women in Afghanistan.  I look forward to a safe return home soon.

Visit to Afghanistan's Capital, Kabul

Recently, I had an opportunity to Visit Kabul Afghanistan and the headquarters for US Forces in Afghanistan.  It was an interesting experience. The city resembled cities that I visited in Northern India. Lots of people on the roads, traffic, and animals crossing the street. The buildings are not in great condition.  Most of the houses and structures resemble those of other third world or underdeveloped countries that I have visited in Africa and India.  Most people are very poor and live on a few dollars per day.  

Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, located in the Kabul Province. The population of Kabul metropolitan area is 2.8 million people.

Kabul is about 3,500 years old (looks like it :)), many empires have long fought over the city for its strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia.

Public and private schools in the city reopened since 2002 after they were shut down or destroyed from the fighting in the 1980s to the late 1990s. Boys and girls are strongly encouraged to attend schools but many more schools are needed not only in Kabul but throughout the country.

One day maybe Kabul will be a major tourist attraction, however, I would not recommend it for now. Visit Paris, New York, Lake Charles, LA, or London for the time being.

 
Peace, Love, and Happiness.

My Favorite Poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

Here, strait means narrow, restricted. To escape from “the fell clutch of circumstance” and “bludgeonings of chance,” the speaker must pass through a narrow gate. The author believes he can do so—in spite of the punishments that fate has allotted him—because his iron will refuses to bend.

This poem sums up a way of life and the responsibilities that we have in life. It is by far better to face up to your actions and the results thereof. If you are willing to take the credit for the positive results of your actions, you must be equally prepared to take the blame for the negative.

I think that he was trying to say that we can in some control our future. No one else can prevent our down falls in life.

Many people have been inspired by this poem when faced with challenging circumstances. 

It full meaning has been debated by scholars and others for centuries.


4th July 2010.
Kandahar Afghanistan

Happy Independence Day

With all the cook outs, fireworks, and parades going on this weekend, there is a deeper meaning to the Fourth of July that is sometimes easy to overlook.

"For me, it means family time, and appreciating the ones that you love,".  Celebrating July 4th from the battlefield is ironic and profound.

The true meaning of Independence Day takes us back more than 230 years when the Founding Fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence, and we started a very rocky road to freedom.  Along the way we refined freedom many times, we engaged in a Civil War to end slavery and to unite our Country, Vietnam Era, WW1 and 2, Civil Rights Movement,  and granted civil liberties to women and minorities populations, etc.  Any road to freedom and independence is a challenge and Americans die and sacrifice along the way. 

Independence Day is a dynamic holiday! Although we celebrate it once a year with parades, cook outs, etc, we have to remember that it did not happen over night. We also have to remember that we continue to refine and redefine freedom and independence every day.

It's very heart-wrenching to see a lot of our fallen comrades, as well as people sacrificing their lives for us to enjoy the Fourth.  Men and Women have been doing this since the beginning of our country and will have to continue this unfortunate sacrifice because freedom and civil liberties are dynamic and not free and change as we change or as others' without the same prospective and desired way of life... force us to change and adapt. However, we maintain the notion that "America believes in FREEDOM".

The day that we decide not to adapt will be the day that our freedoms and lives that we know it and enjoy it;  begin to change in a way that may compromise our freedom.

War is not desired and not very popular, it has never been desired and popular.  However, I am proud to be here in Afghanistan serving our country along side of thousands of like minded Americans to ensure that our children and their children will be able to celebrate July 4th in the future.  You may ask "Is it possible for us not to have the freedom and liberties that would not allow us to celebrate Christmas, July 4th, etc?".

Of course it is possible, if we become passive and allow others whether outside or inside America to slowly erode our freedom.

Recently, a family and their close friends & villagers were preparing for a wedding celebration in a nearby Afghan village.  Unknown to them, a suicide bomber walked in, detonated a bomb killing many and wounding many many more.  Were their lives changed forever?  Why and how did this happen? Did they become passive, which allowed the Tabilan and extremists to contaminate their society?

Read a newspaper or watch the news, many many other Countries around the world are allowing their freedom to be eroded every day.  Did 9/11 change our lives forever?

Will we reset to a passive mind set and allow our freedom and liberty to be continually eroded away? Will we urgue among ourselves as to the best way to defend our freedom?

True Meaning Of July 4th At Times Easy To Overlook!

Stay Safe and as you enjoy the festivities and remember the Men and Women currently and in our past who died and who were forever changed to ensure that America was and continues to be the greatest Nation on Earth under GOD!

Selfless Service,

Robert

Water Analysis

What about water? How many of us question where water for the next shower, glass of water, or  "washing clothes" will come from?

Water - so basic and so necessary for life. We all know this of course, but many in the West understandably take their water supply for granted. Water is readily available, cheap in the USA at least, in abundant supply, and always flows when we turn on our taps.  Afghanistan in water is not abundant.


Water is not taken for granted in most parts of the world however. It is generally accepted that over 1 billion people do not have access to clean water in the world, and the health, economic and developmental consequences of this reality are dire. Women and children spend hours collecting dirty water each day and lose valuable time, energy and calories (which are in short supply anyway) in the process. A family can not prosper if it spends hours each day fetching water, and the bite is twice as painful because that water is so often contaminated that the family has to spend what little it has looking for a cure. All that effort for something that inevitably undermines your health - it is cruel.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) argues that over 2 million people die each year from diarrheal disease linked to inadequate water supply. Most are children, most under 5 years old.

And they suffer before they die. A child suffering from acute diarrhea is listless, can not produce saliva, can barely speak, can not sit up, and can barely swallow. The body shrivels, as the last remnants of moisture within are sucked dry by a parched body. Cholera is worse of course, as is typhoid. The child's death is gruesome to behold - all for a glass of water.


Few hear their cries, even if the child could muster a tear. These deaths are sadly silent deaths, far from the cameras and the news, because it picks off children one at a time. Perhaps today a child will die down the road from where I sit in Moçambique. Tomorrow the death will occur across town. The following day there may be a respite - no deaths today, but tomorrow... Hardly gripping but no less tragic than the famine camp footage that periodically galvanises the world.

Development workers focused on water supply struggle and are often frustrated. Despite all our efforts, the number of people without water continues to climb - despite claims from some in the sector to the contrary. There are many debates as to why this is happening, and the reasons are complex. But the truth is that many water projects fail throughout the world every day. Projects fail because of inappropriate technologies, poor operation and maintenance systems, or a lack of finances on the part of governments and communities to keep their systems operational. Projects fail to improve health because many countries do not have the finances to purchase chlorine and other chemicals necessary to treat water - to make it safe to drink. Too often, these basics are out of reach.

A Man and his WIFE.

After an interesting discussion in my "Men's Fraternity" session on Wednesday, I decided to blog about Three Models of Marriage that we discussed. We meet twice a week as part of a 24 week program by Dr. Robert Lewis. http://www.mensfraternity.com/.

Men's Fraternity is a series of three one-year-long studies, beginning with The Quest for Authentic Manhood, followed by Winning at Work and Home, and ends with The Great Adventure. Men's Fraternity provides men with an encouraging process that teaches them how to live lives of authentic manhood as modeled by Jesus Christ and directed by the Word of God.

He introduced three models of marriage: The Top Down Traditional Marriage where the husband's position is "King, Lord", Leadership Style is "Lord, Goal in Mind is Personal Benefits, and effects on marriage is "usually results in a winner and a loser, the woman is normally the loser.

Secondly, the 50-50 Identical Marriage, Husband position is partner, Leadership style is leaderless, Goal in Mind is Equality and Effects on Marriage is balance, but balance is not achieved so the marriage fails. In business, partnerships fail more than any other type of business.  Read Galatians 3:29 for  more information on the biblical prospective.

Finally, the Side by Side Biblical Marriage, Ephesians 5:23, 25, and 31. Husband's position is Head, Leadership Style is Responsible and Sacrifice, Goal in Mind is ONENESS, and Effects of Marriage are health, happiness, and harmony. Obviously this goal is what Dr. Lewis views as the best and most likely to survive.

Although, couples today try to have an identical marriage, it often leads to loneliness and confusion and divorce. However, it is the most often pursued marriage style of young Americans today.

Why is this? comment please.  I have decided to only pursue the Side by Side Marriage!  Although, I may get pressure for other opinions, however after my sessions up to this point in their is only one way for a successful marriage. Many of the men in my group have a lot of work to do to fix their marriages. I have learned from my own mistakes and my the men in my group! All of the men involved in the partnership style are divorced or very unhappy...and so are their wives!

Life and a day at Kandahar Air Base

  Kandahar has a certain Groundhog Day quality to it. The weather is the same everyday, people wear the same clothes everyday and the food has the same military blandness everyday. Some people lose weight, while other gain weight.  Given that I am from Louisiana and have grown accustom to a bit of spice to my chicken and veggies, I am on the losing side.

When I arrived back in February, we had a Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut and other restaurants. They all have gone with the wind or dust storm. Our leaders decided that such eating establishments were unnecessary in a combat zone, I agree. These changes will likely put more Soldiers on the losing side as far as weight is concerned. May not be a bad thing.

Internet access is remains slow, but reliable (by third world standards) and I have an Afghan cell phone that allows me to call locally....with exception for my few American colleagues..my local calls are limited as I have not made many local Afghan friends. 

Believe it or not, the weather this time of year is wonderful (if I were a lizard or snake). It tends to range between 95 and  116 degrees during the day and about 74 to 90 at night.  I have not decided whether or not I prefer the humid Louisiana summers or the dry desert heat of Kandahar, really I prefer neither.  As I recall, the best summers of my life were in France and Boston, each for different reasons.  I bottle of  cold "Rose" wine on my balcony in Grenoble or a cruise on the France coast would be wonderful, maybe even simply a nice view of the Charles River or walking through Boston Commons.  Unfortunately, I will miss both the Boston Pops on the Charles River July 4th as well as Bastille Day July 14th in France.  We may have fire works in Kandahar on these dates, but I am sure they will not be to celebration American or French Independence Days.

Maybe one day the Afghan people can celebration and enjoy the freedoms of the West.

I do enjoy getting out our forward operating bases. The food is much, much better, and the air is cleaner.

I must say that the free flights on military helicopters are not bad, it is so exciting to fly and enjoy the views of the Afghan terrain. From the sky it is often hard to believe that a war is ongoing.

Finally, the best coffee and pastries are by far are in the British quarter of the base…it’s like stepping out of the war zone into uptown Manhattan, with exception....all of the patrons are in various military uniforms and the lack of skyscrapers, subways, etc etc.