Yep, I’ve read The Places in Between. Now that I’ve been here a little while I appreciate how hard it was to build schools in the mountains. Beautiful country with very proud people, beautiful women and crushingly hard lives. As an example, in the recent suicide bombing we had here, I had just been down that street a few days before. It’s a residential neighborhood. It went off outside a movie theater and not far from a high school.
Food is provided cafeteria-style and is okay, at least there’s a salad bar with fresh veg and sandwich bar. The Afghan food I’ve had I 've loved. Military folks here get more American-style fast food, which is a nice change. People at the Embassy go to a base with a barbecue every sp often, the military tries to get over to us more. It’s amusing. Mail is Army Post Office or diplomatic pouch. My Netflix works here, I buy off Amazon. It’s not like I’m in a tent waiting for my Red Cross parcel. We have AFN and movie channels and cartoons. I have blessed internet in my trailer, so life is realtively good.
Okay, ten hours at the office and four at a reception mean I have to clock out now. More later.
The weather is pleasant but a bit cold at night and in the morning. Winter is coming soon.
I try to get out as much as I can and be safe, which is hard as I like walking around and talking to people and finding out what’s going on. That’s hard but manageable here.
The women I’ve spoken to have been very proud, I’m glad I don’t have to do women’s issues here as it’s just so hard for a Western man to speak to regular women. More girls are going to school and there was even a Reuters piece today about a fashion show in the north that I found amusing.
What I do is that I talk to people, find out what’s going on, and then send that back in various forms to my government. Based on what I tell them they make decisions about where money gets spent and what is important. Sometimes it reminds me of the children’s party game Telephone, where a line of kids pass a message. Often, what comes out at the end bears no resemblance to what it started out as, but if people have fun it’s usually a good time. I like to say I point to things and say “This is a problem” or “this works well.”
Human rights are easy. We’re for them, and we’d like the locals to understand what they are and incorporate them in what Afghanistan does for the next century. Religious freedom – we’re also for that, and now we have to show Afghanistan, one of the most fiercly Muslim, tribal, traditional, spawned the Taliban ya might have heard of them that it’s okay to worship in a different way and wear something else and read different books. I’d be happy if everyone could read.