Burkas Abound...

I was up early this morning having hit the rack at a decent time last night. As I headed out to breakfast I was greeted by Tina, the resident doggie…it seems that all FOB’s have a dog. Tina doesn’t get much attention but when she wants some she is persistent. She will keep nuzzling your leg until she gets an ear scratch or a pat. Usually she is curled up in the coolest spot she can find taking a nap. Oh, by the way, we got a report last night that ecoli was in our water - so no singing in the shower! At breakfast I had to cook my own eggs after attempting to try the breakfast burrito that was the morning meal. When I almost broke my plastic fork and knife trying to cut through it, I made what I thought was a wise decision and cooked some scrambled eggs. That’s how it works here in this DFAC (dining facility). If you choose to have eggs instead of what’s offered you line up at the griddle and throw your own eggs on and cook them yourself. After breakfast we got our gear out to the vehicles and we were assigned our MWRAP. Yes, we are back in the WRAP! With “battle gear” on and gear stowed, we mounted up for our first visit outside the wire. We had flown in by helo and our only view of our surroundings was from the guard towers which we toured last evening. Since I was now familiar with the workings of the 700 lb. rear door, I volunteered to sit by the door with DK, while the two other civilians with us, TP the PRT coordinator from the Embassy and CG, the USDA ag advisor here, sat in the two remaining seats. All the military personnel were up front, the gunner in the turret, the driver and the Sgt. riding shotgun (or M4) – literally!

We slowly made our way out of the compound and wound our way through the small dusty streets of the surrounding town. Even with the tension of this area being a hostile environment, the children are still excited to see the military vehicles and they give the thumbs up or run next to the HUMVEES and wave at the gunners. At this time of the morning the town is abuzz with the hustle and bustle of the morning commute that would rival bigger cities. The modes of transportation are varied but all are very colorful. The “jingle” bus or motorcycle, the tractor that doubles as the morning bus and the ever popular bicycle. This is the poorest town we have seen since we started our tour 3 weeks ago. Garbage is strewn everywhere and in many places it is stacked as high as the buildings. We passed what perhaps was the busiest corner of the town where livestock was being sold. The nomadic “kuchies” were busy selling their sheep and goats in this livestock market. We wished we could exit our vehicles and get in the midst of the chaos but we knew that would be impossible here. Our military escorts would laugh in our faces if we were stupid enough to ask. The traffic was heavy on the well paved main road but this was Highway 1 after all, the “Ring Road” that encircles all of Afghanistan. It is the lifeblood of commerce and transportation throughout the country. Thus the importance of small towns that are directly on this route. Towns like this are very important to those who want to utilize the infrastructure but it is also important to those who want to compromise and disrupt the infrastructure.

Our first stop is at the Citadel of Alexander the Great. It sits high atop a strategic hill from which all the surrounding territory can be seen. It is very obvious why he would have chosen this site. This was Alexander’s home on the eastern side of the country. We were fortunate to have seen his western citadel at our second base visit. I am sure this is a very rare opportunity. It is said that he married a local girl and that’s why some of the Pashtun in the east have light eyes - they are supposedly from his lineage. This Citadel has been occupied by every invading army since Alexander. It has had over two thousand years of military occupants including the Soviets in the 1980’s. While waiting for us to complete our filming, one of the soldiers actually found some relics of the Soviets’ stay – an old, rusted, broken gun and helmet left behind. Today the site is held by the Afghan National Army.

Our main mission of the day was to visit a demonstration plant nursery donated and built by USAID where seedlings of non-fruit trees are being cultivated, grafted apricot and almonds fruit trees are planted and small cuttings are being budded. The facility is a training center for the Agriculture Department of this province. The caretakers of this nursery, the ladies who do the plantings, make the seedling sacks and water the plants are all vulnerable, very poor women. Some are widowed, others are homeless and some are even thought to be prostitutes who have to be extremely desperate because that line of work is punishable by death. Today the military brought humanitarian aide for 18 of these women who were asked to show up for our cameras. Unfortunately the word got out and more than 30 women showed up for us. This caused quite a commotion and a near riot as the extra women demanded some hand outs as well. Thanks to our interpreters and the Director of Agriculture and his staff things calmed down enough to get our filming done. The women who were not getting any packages today would all be given handouts on Friday at a larger event. This seemed to satisfy them enough to stop their wailing and high pitched cries for attention. The shade houses where the seedlings were being watered by the 18 women in their blue burkas were marvels of ingenuity. The main frame of these substitute greenhouses were long thin sticks that were intricately woven together by wire and string. They formed perfect oval roofs which held plastic over them in the winter time and were bare in the spring and summer. The light patterns caused by the shadows and beams of sunlight through the twigs caused the inside of the shade houses to look surreal. Even more so was the images of these blue burka’d women gliding through the paths of tiny seedling pots as they watered. They looked like blue ghosts drifting through the shadows. A few days ago I said I had never seen any women up close but that all changed today. It was evident that these women were not beholding to any males other than to take orders from the interpreters or the male assistants that encircled us. This is why we could actually take pictures and shoot video of these covered women, because there were no men who took “ownership” of them and thus would have beaten or chastised them for being so close to strangers and “showing” themselves to the cameras. Being this close to them I could see the dyed fingers, the henna tattoos, and the aged hands and feet, aged not by time but from hard manual labor. When the filming was over the women immediately went to receive their “gifts”. They are so desperate that they don’t mind me being next to them taking pictures of the soldiers distributing the blankets filled with female products, books for the children, and the most treasured article, oil for cooking. They grasped at the goods tied up in blanket bundles. “Tash akor, tash akor!” they mumble, “Thank you, thank you.” The younger children cling to their mothers and the not much older ones help to carry articles taken out of the bundle. These children are most likely fatherless and therefore also shunned in the society. This was the best part of my day. I had been part of the packing and loading of the humanitarian aide the day before and to see the distribution to what the Bible called “the least of these” was heart warming. Seeing the joy on the face of the soldier giving the packages out and knowing how appreciated it was by these most vulnerable made me think back to my serving the homeless back home. As I’ve said so many times before – so much in this world is relative. As bad as you think it can be, there is always worse in some other part of the world. The needs of the less fortunate is so great, there is so much injustice in the world – it overwhelms me. Today we helped 18. How much more can we do – here in Afghanistan and across our ever shrinking planet? Our mission today is a complete success and we returned to the base safe and with an empty trailer that held 18 blanket bundles when we left this morning.

PS – As evening fell we went for a post dinner walk to the guard tower overlooking a part of our small surrounding town. DK wanted to record any evening activities that might occur on the streets below. It was here I observed one of the most disturbing sights of this culture. Walking down the tiny street below us was a village elder and behind him at the required distance was what I can only assume was his wife. She wore a dark grey burka and shuffled at a slow pace with drooped shoulders and her head at an angle that indicated her eyes were looking at her feet. The elder stopped at a blue gate with a design drawn on the outside and knocked. He was greeted at the gate by an unseen figure and ushered in. Before entering he turned to the woman, nodded his head and she immediately squatted at the base of the gate post, with head bowed and she proceeded to wait there while the man entered and conducted his business inside the now closed gate. I cannot describe the multitude of emotions that raced through my body. Anger, frustration, pity, a deep sadness and even more anger swept over me like a raging river. I couldn’t then and I can’t now, put my feelings into words. I just have to share this with whoever reads it and pray for hope, forgiveness and understanding of what makes this tolerable in any culture!