Tripler, Stay safe and thank you for your service.
I’m glad I could give you an orgasmically Soviet experience . . . [sub]I’m going to start calling you “Little Nikita” from now on. . . or maybe just “Li’l Nicky”.[/sub]
Tripler
And thank you, Larry!
I added one more picture today.
I went ‘outside the wire’ for the first time, and I can only describe what I saw as a “circus”. I had some deliveries I needed to pick up, so myself and another guy went out the gate to find the delivery contractor to bring them on. Imagine all of the traffic from Manhattan trying to get across one lane of the GWB, and everyone fighting to be the next guy on the bridge. :rolleyes:
But I went out and waited. There’s kids all over the place. And lots of traffic. And tractor trailers. And dudes on bikes. And random people that will come up and ask you, “What do you want? I have it. You want iPod? You want movies?” One older gentleman just came up and held his hand out. . . didn’t say anything, just held his hand out. But there I waited, at the entrance ramp to the ‘first gate’ where they queue everyone up to let them into the ‘second gate’ where they do the controlled searches.
And all the while you’re keeping an eye out for your contractor and fending off the throngs of kids that follow you around, you note two men in a car with three cellphones pull up next to you, and try to get past the ‘first gate’. The US Army Sergeant directing traffic demands they turn around because they have no ID or paperwork–apparently no purpose to be there. But they can’t because a tractor trailer has just pulled up behind them. Then you see the passenger has three cellphones. And you have dozens of people around you . . . If you don’t see the picture I’m painting and what potentially is being set up around me, then, well . . .
But the kids were hilarious!! They’ve already got all the ranks memorized. So, for two hours, I was “Kap-toon! Kap-toon! You big money! Buy scarf!!”. I told the one kid who spoke darned good English that I was broke. He didn’t buy it, and told me he’d find my three delivery trucks for $2. I patted my pants–“No money today! I’m broke!” “No Kap-toon, you boss! You big money!” “Sorry Habib, I have no money today. I’ll be back tomorrow. . .” But imagine this conversation in the midst of Aaaahnold in ‘Kindergarten Cop’. Kids friggin’ everywhere and in traffic! I was talking with Habib and he wanted a picture. As soon as he and I posed, 18,973 local kids came out of the woodwork to get into the picture. Habib’s the one holding the puppy.
So then the paid local security guy comes with a stick, and swats 'em all away–ostensibly to keep them out of the road and out of traffic. But the kids would scamper back.
Other than the one five minute situation, it was a hilarious morning.
Tripler
Me big boss. Me big money.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It sounds worse than the Phillipines when I there in the late 80’s.
I hope and believe we will probably leave Afghanistan a better place than we found it. At least the grey market seems to be in full swing.
Jim
So Trip, can I ask a really embarrassing question? (You reading this, bear in mind that I’ve met Tripler. We’ve eaten pork and started fires together. We drank beer, we roasted marshmallows, we headed off drunk people. We’re not strangers to each other.)
So, (gazes around at the sky and acts elaborately casual) what branch of the military are you in?
Beautiful pictures, Tripler. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
Cute picture, Trip. Grow eyes in the back of your head, Kap-toon. Paranoia is a survival skill where you are.
Punkyova,
:: psssst ::
(Scroll up. “79”)
Tripler
Get this:
‘Dubya’ made an unscheduled landing/visit to Bagram today. My poor buddy got picked out to sit in the auditorium (a freakin’ huge tent with no A/C) for a few hours to wait for him to give a “pep talk” to the troops.
I however, being the sly one, got my picture in front of Air Force One (I’m on the far right).
Damn, I’m cool. 
Tripler
Yeah, like I need “pep”.
Sit in a hot tent and listen to a politician? That is cruel !
Kaptoon Tripler. Heh.
Oh, hey Shirley, I mailed out a half-dozen postcards to you two days ago. I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen anyone sell currency here in weeks. But then again after a handful of riots in the area, they’re not letting some of the shopkeepers or bazaar-ers onto the base.
Tripler
Bazaar-ists? Bazaar-istas?