Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Day Seventeen













It was a cold, blustery morning as I went through my normal routine. The temperature was a wintery 35 degrees, and the winds blew at around thirty miles per hour. This was quite a different feeling than the sixty degree days we've been getting, and I was forced to get out my Gortex jacket and gloves to wear to work today.

I got to work just after 0900. Chris had just left to go pick up Bari and bring him back to the office to translate more paperwork Sandy had left for him. With that being the case, I knew that we'd have to sit and play babysitter, as Bari isn't allowed to be left alone or allowed to run around camp by himself. So we sat around the office for a while, had a meeting talking about some issues within the ANA PA office, and then I decided I wanted to go over to their office to work on exporting video to DVD from my editing program.

Chris and I ventured off for the ANA office without an interpreter. Rohullah Amin and I are getting pretty good at carrying on decent conversations with what English I know he knows and using simple hand gestures. It's tough at times, but we get by. I get tired of having to sit around and wait for an interpreter all the time, so I'm trying to break down the language barrier as much as possible. It seems to be working so far. When we first got there, we drank some Chai and Chris taught Rohullan Amin some English stuff. Rohullah Amin is taking English classes, so he had a book with some stuff written in it to show us. He was so proud to be able to say "door" and "chair." It was funny. His problem is that he's trying to memorize the alphabet as opposed to learning it, so he doesn't know the letters when he tries to spell something. I told him to spell door, and he looked at the letter "D" and said "H." It's like that. He needs to learn it and not just try to memorize everything.

So, I got on the computer and started messing with the video editing program. When we left yesterday, we discovered that the CD drive was not working. Rohullah Amin said that it was broken, so Chris opened up the computer and unplugged it. The editing program was looking for the DVD in that drive, and it wasn't working. So today, my goal was to get the computer to talk to the DVD drive and export video straight from the editing program to DVD. Long story short...it worked. Sweet.

We sat around for a little while longer and LtCol Niem asked if we had eaten. We hadn't. Rohullah Amin took us over to the Afghan chow hall, where we were given trays of Palaw (Rice) and some sort of bean/Pea stew-like stuff and some nan bread. It was good. Now, you have to realize that we are in Afghanistan. I had to take that into consideration as I watched a sweaty, old, dirty man reach onto a huge plate of Palaw, grab a pile of it with his bare hands, and put it on my tray. I also had to take that into consideration when another man reached down into this huge bucket of nan bread pieces, swirling his hand and arm in it like a witch stirring her cauldron, until he found the perfect piece of bread for me. In America, there's no way. You see THIS in a restaurant and you're already two feet out the door to the Public Health inspector's office. Here, you deal with it. It is what it is. The only thing I DON'T do is drink the water. Rohullah Amin filled up a metal cup for me from a water cooler on the table, but I didn't drink it. We're not supposed to. It sat there full as I walked away, since the thought of being sick for three days from unhealthy water really didn't appeal to me. "Only drink the bottled water"...that's been drummed into our heads from day one.

We went back to the ANA office and didn't have much else to do there. I made a little graphic for Rohullah Amin in photoshop, and played around with the programs a little bit. LtCol Niem came in with a stack of new newspapers, so Chris and I looked through them. It's so strange having the paper open up on the left side, with the binding on the right. In Afghanistan, they read and write from right to left. So, it's like taking one of our books, flipping it to the back cover and starting to read backwards. It's odd. It's even more strange to watch the Afghan people write from right to left. I sat at LtCol Niem's desk watching him write today. I was just fascinated.

I started getting tired about thirty minutes after we got back from eating lunch. That plate full of rice really filled me up. We finally left, telling them that we would be delivering their shelves for the editing suite tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Thursday and a half-day for the Afghan people, we'll go over there early, try to set everything up, then start training on Saturday. Friday is an off day for the Afghans...if you haven't caught that in previous posts already. On our way out of the building, we noticed that the Afghan flag was being lowered, and it seemed as if they had their own little "retreat" ceremony going on. There were soldiers lined up saluting as one man lowered the flag. It was interesting to see yet another custom they have just like us. Amazing.

I came back to camp and took a nap around 3:30 and slept 'til 7:00. I probably shouldn't have done that, but I needed it. I'll be up until midnight like I always am probably anyway. I went to the dining facility and got some turkey lunch meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. I'm trying to watch what I eat a little better, as I've been slacking that area and in the gym. I need to get going on both of those things. It's not like I don't have the time.

So, another day comes to an end. The computer works and is able to export directly to DVD. The ANA PA soldiers are doing things they've been trying to do for years already. We're very close to getting them all set up and very close to beginning their official training. It's getting exciting here in Afghanistan as things are progressing forward.

1 comment:

  1. you CRACKED me up with the part about the guy stirring is hand in naan like a witch with a cauldron! I could picture it!

    I really love your observations. You are def there for a reason...that very job. You are the kind of person they need to get this mission done. It really is a shame that people did not follow through when they said they would or didn't put the effort you are putting in.

    Also the guy showing you his wife! AMAZING! That is what it is all about! Making connections with the Afghan people. I am going to try an learn some Dari so I can talk to the Afghans that work on base or at the bazaar.

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