Celebration in an Afghan Home

Asa and her family were most gracious to invite me to their Big EID celebration. This holiday is held 70 days after Ramazan and like EID from previous blog (held at the end of Ramazan) celebrates Abraham's great belief in God's will and obeyed by nearly sacrificing his only and much loved son Isaac. Big Eid, from what I could determine, is a time of family gathering and celebration so I was quite honored to be invited. It was also the first opportunity for many in Asa's family to directly interact with "normal" Americans, Americans not armed to the teeth traveling in full body armor and armored vehicles. The above picture is of is Asa and her Mother prior to the luncheon, a social time which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Asa's mother was not too thrilled that a guest help prepare lunch; however, I was so very excited to learn about preparing Oshak. Think dim sum with ground lamb, parsley, garlic and other spicings. A spicy yogurt sauce is then poured over the stuffed noodles. Here I'm pictured with Asa's sister and her 7 year old son who took a great liking to me, needless to say he had me wrapped around his little finger in no time. They all got a charge out of my ineptness in making these dumplings; however, recognized my great skill (in my mind anyway) toward the end. No table or countertops, the food is prepared on top of a table cloth on the floor. My legs were cramping something fierce.

This large room Asa is most graciously sitting in serves as family and dining room. Most Afghan family homes do not have furniture as we know it, they use only pillows to sit on as you can see in this picture. Isn't she stunning? You already know how competent she is.

The food, oh the food. It was all amazing. They do not do courses of food but serve everything in one setting which I find much more cordial and keeps the women sitting through the entire meal. Served? A delicious bean soup, salads, jasmine rice, lamb chops, the Oshak which I helped prepare, and various spicings (spicy) to add to the foods. Oh my, I ate waaaay too much and only wished I could eat more.

After lunch, other members of the family came by for a visit which proved very entertaining for all of us. They were mesmerized sitting in a room with two Americans who proved most cordial... a great opportunity to demonstrate what Americans are truly all about. Americans not armed, covered in body armor and invading homes. After the visit, I concluded the importance of such gatherings and believe current coalition policy on social interaction should be changed. I've attended many formal events with the Afghan elite at the various embassies and sadly aware of coalition members interacting in illegal bars and houses of prostitution; however, it is social events like this one which will have greatest impact on a lasting peace. It's been over 10 years since we've been in Afghanistan and we must adjust our policies if we are to have long term impact.

Sadly, when we arrived via taxi (also prohibited) and then departed we had to maintain a very low profile as we did not want the neighbors seeing Asa's family hosting coalition guests. The Taliban truly are everywhere and they particularly hate Hazaras (Asa's tribe), many of whom were slaughtered when the Taliban initially entered Kabul. Further, it was against our rules to visit with Afghan families. Sadly, I can only tell these stories now that I am out of the mission. While this appears to contradict my previous push for policy change, I believe greater interaction inside Afghan society (restaurants, shops, homes) would lead to this behavior becoming the norm thus negate the threat on either side. Understand, the threat will always be there.

UPDATE ON ADVENTURE: I will be home June 1.

Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem

I was captivated by the throngs of Othodox Christians in Jerusalem, moreso than the many statues, paintings and beautiful churches. I recognized many coming from poor countries and thought about what they sacrificed to visit this holiest of places. While I found their worshiping practices a little extreme for me, their overt and passionate love of God was inspiring.

Professional Development Outing

Sorry, it's been a while but I hope that I'm back in rhythm. This day proved a most insightful one for me as I saw my Director in a whole new light. That morning he came into my office and asked that my interpretor translate a briefing he built for presentation that afternoon at the Police Academy for a professional development seminar for Provincial (state level) Police leaders. Upon initial viewing, I observed it was a complex power point brief even though it was all in Dari. In the end, our very short notice effort to translate the slides proved inept. My interpretor was not nearly as competent with Power Point as the original author and remember they write right to left so this proved a most daunting task. I crammed editing the document the best I could but it just didn't jibe with me. I did recognize the strategic and complex concepts which I believed at the time was not a good match to his target audience. Ahh, wrong again.

So, off we went to the Police Academy right before lunch. While there were other coalition members attending, I was the only one invited in for lunch as the guest of the Director. Actually, it made me felt kinda special. After lunch, we sat through three brutally boring presentations, at one point you couldn't hear the speaker above the chatter in the room. I took a much needed nap. The Director was the last speaker of the day and I was most concerned. He proved captivating, totally engaging his audience and generating much discussion. The lecture went well beyond the allotted time, but that was only because of discussions. While I did not understand a word being spoken, I could see the excitement in the room and passion for the subject. I do know it was about the Afghan culture/traditions and how criminals were taking advantage. I was captivated.

Below are pictures from this outing. Interestingly, it started out with me taking a picture of the director and his junior executive officer. Naseer (the driver) than insisted I join in. Then others and even more. Of course I had to show the pictures to all who thoroughly enjoyed.

After this, we proceeded on to the Academy Commandant's office, once again me being the lone coalition member. There were about 7 senior police officials present, all very passionate about about whatever they were talking about... once again, discussions in Dari. Another interesting experience in Afghanistan

Holy Week

A few weeks ago I learned of the church at the Italian Embassy which just happens to be on my walking path between the coalition base I work on and my safe house... go figure. After attending my first mass, I was hooked. Here I met the Missionaries of Charities (Mother Theresa's Order), a group of beautiful Sisters from throughout the world valiantly running an Afghan orphanage. I was truly blessed to get to know them never having experienced such amazing kindness. The older woman at the lecturn is with a group of French order Sisters whom I unfortunately did not get to know.

Holy Week at the "Mother Catholic Church of Afghanistan" proved a most spiritual experience for me. The Bishop of Afghanistan was most inspiring, a man with a loving soul and great sense of humor. He also sings beautifully which really enhanced the masses for me. I was able to attend Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday masses. A great way to wrap up my Afghan adventure.

I will be trying to catch up on blogs while in Grenada when I have more time. Lots more experiences I've yet to share, the timing is just not as good.

All Is Good

I just wanted to share with you that I am fine here in Kabul. There was a big attack (assuming Taliban) on the Ministry of Defense today, I do not work at that Ministry. Although, I was at my Ministry and just hunkered down there until things settled down from the attack. Unfortunately, this successful attack will prove a big propoganda success story for the Taliban.

The picture is of my Afghan dressmaker/tailor/designer Nafisa (pseudonym), we're posing here with the beautiful wool coat she designed for me.

Love to all and I'm now down to 1 week remaining in Afghanistan.

Naseer

Naseer (bottom picture on the right) is the Director's driver and has rapidly become a friend. While he doesn't speak a word of English (my Dari is almost as limited) we somehow communicate, he is what we would call a "gentle giant".

One recent day I was waiting outside the building with Naseer awaiting the Director to go to a meeting. So, we're watching the landscaping guys struggle with pulling out some very old roots so they could replant. The workers were Hazara (most discriminated ethnic group in Afghanistan) and I assume Naseer is Tajik (power tribe here in Kabul) but I watched him as he watched them with an obvious level of compassion at their failure to extract the root. Next thing I know Naseer has the pick axe in his hands and powerfully swinging it against the root system. I started cheering him on (not effective as it was in English) but others soon joined... the workers were just beaming! In short order, he had the roots out and beamed victoriously.

For me, it wasn't about the root but the act of kindness on his part. The Director is a meticulously clean man and expects others around him to maintain themselves the same. So, this act of kindness brought personal risk which I'm confident he weighed before jumping into the hole. I just love many these people!

Unfortunately, there are many here who are not Naseers. As you've probably been seeing in the news the Taliban are now becoming more assertive outside Kabul, although there is significant anticipation here for the weekend. Sure wish the media would tell Naseer stories.

Mud is Good

Just loved the Dead Sea!! We stayed at an amazing hotel, The Kempinski; however, it was truly all about the floating and mud. The mud went on like liquid silk, especially when applied by a beautiful Bedouin lifeguard :- o. And, it's true what they say about the sea... I could literally stand in the water without having to tread. All in all an amazing experience, luxurious is the best word that comes to mind.