New Discoveries

First there is my wonderful and most talented interpreter, Asa. Below I am pictured with some pretty powerful Afghan police leaders at a social function. From left are the Directors: Criminal Investigations, Major Crime Task Force, Me, Anti-Crime Police, and Police Finance.

My new discovery is not only the challenges of interpretation but of semantics. Asa tells me there are only 4000 words in the Dari language, so when she interprets for me at meetings with these powerful men she must compile what I'm saying and interpret my intent as there is oftentimes no literal translation. We've learned to discuss what I plan to talk about before meetings. I not only tell her what I intend to say but also my desired outcomes for the meeting. Spontaneous meetings are not good for us as it precludes this strategizing. Then when I speak to these gents, I ensure I look them straight in the eye so they can read my body language and I theirs. Many in the coalition speak directly to the interpreter which I find impolite. I speak slowly with many hand/arm gestures using non-complex words... these guys understand more English than they let on and it also proves for more cleaner interpretation by Asa. It's working for us and I believe we're now a stronger team for it. Sorry, that's the DISCOVERY

I've had many of the Afghans I work with compliment me in my communications to them because I do speak slowly, with smaller words and communicate with more than just words. In turn, they are getting more comfortable speaking their broken English around me. I take this as the ultimate compliment because anything outside of perfect to them is a display of vulnerability. This technique is also opening more doors for me, a good thing for my efforts and it's proving helpful for them too. Most importantly, we all communicate better which contributes to their continued development. In the end, their development equates to our (US/NATO) withdrawal from this country and that's the purpose of my existence here.

While I'm not too thrilled about my quality of life in Afghanistan, my work is offsetting that. I do love my work over here. Not sure if that part is coming through for you.

I will share at a later date how we're evolving in humor and "stories" to get our points across.