Street Kid

This little guy has been selling hand drawn pictures and photos on the street going to ISAF the last few weeks. I bought a crayon drawing from him two weeks ago and gave him a dollar last week. Today he was inside our Hesco barrier and had both a photo and a drawing. I asked him in Dari how much for the photo and he had trouble holding up five fingers along with the two objects. I gave him a dollar as a gift and then remembered I could get a photo of him with my BlackBerry. He is adorable.

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Snow on the Mountains

There is snow on the mountains visible between the white building on the left and the antenna. It was a clear, warm, and sunny day today in Kabul. The smog has been oppressive several nights this week. Its so bad that it takes your breath away. I knew I could feel snow yesterday; just that it didn't fall in Kabul, but rather up in the mountains. Usually it is so dusty and smoggy we can't see the mountains. A double bonus on New Years Eve. Happy New Year to all!

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Street Friend

A closer shot of my little friend with the art work.

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ISAF Christmas

Five attorneys from our OSJA office and an Air Force Public Affairs Officer celebrate Christmas Brunch at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) dining room. ISAF offered salmon, shrimp, turkey, et al. while Camp Eggers had sandwiches.

ISAF offers china plates, metal cutlery, and a European flare for meals. ISAF's dining room is a pleasant respite from our paper plates, plastic utensils, and more mundane American cooking. We go over to ISAF for brunch every Friday (Jumma) and then go to their Bazaar (the highlight of our week). We look forward to Friday's.

My good friend from Day 1 in Kabul. Unfortunately, I'm leaving soon and he must remain until next June.

TV Hill Sunset & A Cloudy Day

This morning started off cloudy and overcast. It felt like it could snow. There was high humidity for Kabul and cold enough for snow. However, by mid-afternoon the clouds were gone, the skies clear, and warm, as usual.

The time was about 1630 and here is an approximation of the ambient light. The mountains were unusually distinct without the omnipresent smog, dust, and pollution.

This was the cloudy day from two days ago, 29 Dec 10. This picture was from around mid-day and it stayed cloudy all day; another rarity. The clouds were a wonderful change of pace from our ever sunny days.

Aschiana School

The instructors told us to start distributing the school supplies to the boys at the rear. I said I wanted to start giving the supplies to the girls at the front. Women and girls are discriminated against in this society and I favor them every chance I get. I buy from women at the bazaar and give them things before the men and boys at every opportunity.

These little girls were so shy they wouldn't answer questions about how they were doing or how old they were. I hope they are able to learn and to grow into strong persons to defend themselves and their families. They are going to be the vehicle of change in the Afghan society if they are going to be peaceful and prosper.

These kids were so happy to get pens, pencils, and notebooks. Try this in the United States! This is the best and most rewarding thing I have done over here.

A navy Lieutenant with the Afghan who helped arrange our visit to the Aschiana school and orphanage for street children. All Afghan public schools close for three months in the winter. This school remains open to attend to the needs of kids who beg on the streets or work in bazaars.

This is me in front of the Aschiana school. We didn't coordinate very well when we delivered the school supplies and clothes last Saturday. The children weren't in school. The muslim holiday of Ashura was on Thursday of last week and thus, the children had an extended vacation.

I was worried about the clothes and supplies going "missing" while in storage at the school. I took photos of me in front of the piles of donated goods and I told the instructors I had these photos and the piles should be the same height when we came back to hand the stuff out to the kids. The instructors and director promised they wouldn't touch them and gave us the key to the locked storage area. They were true to their word and the piles were untouched when we returned.

Air Force legal staff - Camp Eggers

The Air Force sent us a Christmas care package that included antlers for all of us. Here are your Air Force legal staff stationed at Camp Eggers. Happy Holidays!

<<12 Dec Cp Eggers 002.jpg>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: FOUO

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: FOUO

Legal Staff caroling

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101st Quintet

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Warrior of the Week

Lt General Caldwell, NTM-A/CSTC-A Commander, recognized Air Force paralegal as the warrior of the week on 14 Dec 10. TSgt Wikoff has created an outstanding relationship with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Ministry of Defense's GS Legal Department.

MGen Nooristani and Former Mentor

My predecessor stopped by MGen Nooristani's office to award him a commemorative plaque for his achievements in modernizing MoD Legal. MGen Nooristani is a rarity in Afghan government. He is decisive, intelligent, and overall well intentioned. We offer our advice and most times, MGen Nooristani takes action. We identified problems at the National Military Hospital and the next day, he is touring the hospital and giving a speech to hospital workers about the need to improve patient care. Afghanistan needs more leaders like him.

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TJAG and Protesting Recruits

These three young attorney recruits haven't been paid for two months. The ANA keeps making excuses for their incompetence. These three brave souls came in from the Legal School and KMTC to complain about the lack of pay. The ANA TJAG is in the middle and tried to be conciliatory and appeal to the recruits patriotism. The personnel officer started yelling at them and saying you can't get money from a milk cow's udder. I guess something is lost in translation.

TJAG is going to try to get "bonus" money to pay them for their service over the past two months and the recruits should have recieved their bank debit cards for their pay today.

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Mud Houses up the Hillside

We went over to the Afghan National Army's (ANA) National Military Hospital (NMH). We have reports of poor patient care, theft of supplies, and moonlighting (absent) medical staff. The Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) is doing what he can, but its difficult going against the tide.

This photo is of mud homes that climb up the hillside near the hospital. They blend in with the surroundings and are hard to discern. However, surrounding the blue house in the middle are similar structures made of brown mud going all the way up the hill.

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Today Show live from Camp Eggers

NBC's Today Show with Lester Holt began broadcasting live from Camp Eggers at 1630 on 25 Nov 2010, Thanksgiving. The camera work, coordination with New York, and Lester Holt's professional delivery were amazing. The most amazing aspect was being live on television 9,500 miles from the United States.

These are the South Dakota boys (Task Force Rushmore) who are National Guardsmen providing base support in the Kabul area. These stalwart South Dakotans are professionals and superlative in supporting all our needs here.

Lester Holt is putting on his coat after interviewing troops and Airmen inside the "Goat" Dining Facility (DFAC) at Camp Eggers. The teleprompter was not working correctly and Mr. Holt didn't skip a beat. Very professional in his delivery and he evinced a genuine concern for the armed forces.

Today Show live from Camp Eggers
South Dakota's Task Force Rushmore at Camp Eggers
Lester Holt (NBC) at Camp Eggers

Col Akhbar & Friends

We went to the National Military Hospital (NMH) in Kabul to visit with the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA), Colonel Akhbar. Col Akhbar is trying to do a good job under difficult circumstances. The hospital commander is corrupt and Col Akhbar appears honest and trying to implement the rule of law for the betterment of his country and people. It gives one hope for Afghanistan if the rule of law gets to the tipping point and becomes the norm in government agencies.

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Afghan Oath Ceremony

Thirty-two new attorneys took their oath on Korans as new members of the Afghan Army at Kabul Military Training Center. The continued progress of the Afghan National Army (ANA) to recruit and to train gives hope for the future. Afghanistan has a long ways to go but I believe they are sincere and hard working. With quality leadership they may be able to make it. The question is if they have enough time.

.Command Website: http://www.ntm-a.com/
"Shohna ba Shohna -- Shoulder to Shoulder"

Judge BGen Khwuari

We met with the Chief Judge of the Afghan Military Court of Appeals, Brigadier General Khwuari last week. His office was dust free and organized. The Chief Judge spoke of the integrity of the court and vouched for the other judges. It is persons such as Judge Khwuari that give me hope for Afghanistan.

Judge Khwuari's court room is in this hallway. The table fills the space with just enough room for the appelate and defense counsel's chairs. The Judge said he will have a court room in the new MoD building.

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MoD Construction

Foundation for the new Ministry of Defense (MoD) building in Kabul, Afghanistan. The construction is adjacent to the existing MoD building and will be major improvement for the Afghan National Army (ANA). The modern facility should allow the ANA to enter the 21st century.

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New MoD Design

This is the architect's design for the new Afghan Ministry of Defense (MoD) building in Kabul. It was planned to be completed in 2012, but they have had to fire two previous contractors for incompetence and breach of contract. The third contractor is making progress, but they are a year behind schedule. Everything is Afghanistan requires much patience and understanding.

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Attorneys in Carpet Shop

Mirwais brought in Afghan food for lunch today for his customers. These are several attorneys at Camp Eggers. You can see Mirwais' carpets folded in the background. If someone wants to look at a carpet at the bottome of the pile, Mirwais and Salam must move the carpets that are above it to another pile. It is time consuming and heavy lifting is required. Mirwais and Salam have carpet folding down to a science.

The food was delicious as always. The nan bread is delicious, as well as the palaw rice and barbecued chicken and goat.

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Unusual - Cloudy Day

There have been three days with rain and clouds prior to today. Today was just broken, high clouds. When every day is sunny, it is quite unusual to see clouds. This is looking towards what is called TV Hill and it is about 10,000 feet in elevation. Kabul is 6,000 feet above sea level.

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Generous People

The generosity of the American people is astounding. Every week we receive dozens of boxes filled with new clothes, new toys, and school supplies. The joy on Afghan children's faces when they receive donated pens, pencils, and note pads is rewarding.

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Volunteer Sort

The Chaplains receive donated clothes, toys, and school supplies from congregations in the U.S. Volunteers gather on Monday evening to sort the clothes and children's things into categories for donations to Afghan families, orphans, and school children.

Today there was a surfeit of boxes to sort. There wasn't enough room on the sidewalk for all the clothes, toys, and school supplies. Thankfully, we had plenty of volunteers to assist to open the boxes, separate the donations, create bags of goodies, flatten the boxes, and restore the goody bags.

The storage area is getting full. We were planning on a distribution last week, but it was cancelled. We'll need to go out in the near future or we will run out of storage space.

Connex Construction

I came out of the Swamp (my residence connexes) one morning and they were using a crane to load new connexes for a third floor on the Maxwell House. Its surprising how fast these self contained rooms can welded in place creating living and office space for Camp residents. The connexes are quite hospitable, if cramped.

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Afghan Photos

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-60767-6.html

Here is a link to six photos from Der Spiegel from Northeastern Afghanistan. Beautiful and quite explanatory.

Little Girl's Future

We were driving back from KMTC the other night and there was this cute little Afghan girl hanging out the back window of her father's car. We both were stuck in traffic and I saw her for several minutes as we passed her car and then she passed us. I thought about what kind of future was in store for her over the next fifteen years or so here in Kabul.

It was rush hour--about 1700 hours in the afternoon. Many people were out shopping, but it was predominantly men. I saw very few women shopping in the bakeries, none in the electronics stores, none in the small shops bordering the highway--very few women on the street. I saw many young girls below the age of say ten, but no teenagers, no young working women, no women in the streets. How different.

What does the future hold for the cute, four year old girl who was hanging out the car window of her father's car?

End House

Here is the front of the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan (CSTC-A) Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA) office--End House. It has offices in one of the turrets and a stairwell in the other. It is called the End House because at one time it was the last or end house on the street. Since then we have put connexes in front and on the sides so it no longer is the end house, but the name remains.

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Coalition Routs Taliban in Southern Afghanistan - NYTimes.com

I saw this article in the New York Times today. Our strategy is starting to pay off. We are starting to pinch the Taliban, intercepting their supply lines, killing or capturing their leaders. and instilling security in Southern Afghanistan. They are retreating to Pakistan. Now we need to go after them in Quetta and in NW Waziristan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/world/asia/21kandahar.html

Tostitos are Back!

After nearly a months absence, the Tostitos are back! One takes things for granted, such as the well stocked consumer items on the shelf. I have delayed buying things, but now--if I see it, I'm buying it and stocking up. I may not have the chance again. Thus, I bought a storage box and a comforter on Tuesday; plus, I bought four bags of Tostitos today.

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ANA Court

Here is an AF TSgt standing in front of the 205th Kandak Military Court building. The building and court are new. The ANA have 3-4 trials a week here. One murder case and mostly traffic cases.

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Third Row of Cans

Here is part of the construction process of welding new connexes on to our previously existing dorms. They have been blocking off the road for several weeks while they connect, wire, and plumb the dorm rooms. All the construction is making it difficult to get around.

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LTC Herring and Canadian Navy LCDR

Before our departure to the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC) to observe the first graduating class of Paralegal NCOs. The Canadian Navy Lieutenant Commander has been working with the Afghan National Army for many months and was our driver and convoy commander. He did a superb job getting us out there and back safely. We got back into Kabul at rush hour and he maneuvered the vehicle like a pro.

Afghan TJAG, Brigadier General Karim

We visited the Staff Judge Advocate's HQ for the 205th Kandak (Brigade). Here is a photo of the ANA TJAG, BGen Karim and his deputy, Colonel Momil. Also pictured is a U.S. Air Force Major who is a mentor at KMTC. We had several cups of tea (chai) at each of our stops as is the Afghan custom.

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Afghan Attorney at KMTC Graduation

Photo of Afghan attorney and instructor at the Kabul Military Training Center's Legal School speaking at the Paralegal NCO graduation ceremony on Sunday, 17 Oct 10. The mentors reported that the NCO did very well during the course.

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U.S. Advisor, Parliamentary Member Anjeer Ramazan, and Gen Nooristani

We spent nearly three hours with Gen Nooristani. Gen Nooristani is the head of the Afghan National Army Legal Department. It was a very enlightening cross cultural exchange. It is great being foreign.

Base Exchange - bare shelves

Our little BX was stocked with a limited, but good variety and quantity of goods when I arrived two months ago. Sometimes I would wish I had bought an item after it disappeared from the shelves, but this was rare. Over the past two weeks the shelves are showing large gaps and the items are not being replaced. It makes me appreciate the way it was before. Generally, other Camps, coalition forces, and U.S. agencies would come shop at our BX because we were better stocked. Now the shelves are bare.

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Farewell

This is a scene from the farewell of a fellow Air Force deployee. A small ceremony was held in front of the legal office for the presentation of medals and mementos. The Army personnel deploy generally on one year tours. We Air Force usually rotate back after six months. It's kind of a sad moment, but all of us are grateful for the duty those leaving have performed and thankful for their friendship. We are happy that they are able to return to their loved ones and their home bases. Their leaving is a reminder that we too will soon depart.

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Old Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard, but when she got there, the cupboard was bare--and so the little children had none. Wow! I wish I would have bought those corn chips when the shelf was full.

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Mirwais' Afghan Meal

This is the desert for Mirwais' Afghan meal--pomegranates. He says that the best pomegranates come from Kandahar. They are huge. He would squeeze the pomegranate to crush the fruit inside and then make a small incision so that you can drink the juice. Otherwise, they would cut the pomegranate in quarters (like in the lower right of the photo). I was picking the seeds out one-by-one when I noticed Mirwais biting into the quartered fruit and getting a mouthful of seeds at once. I tried this method and it was much more flavorful and successful.

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Afghan Meal

Here was the spread after we had devoured most of it. The nan bread was nearly a foot long and perforated so that it could be torn into strips. You can see on the plates at the top of the photo. The mantu are spicy dumplings with ground meat and chick peas. The kebab was barbecued goat meat. Some of the pomegranates were the size of sofballs. All-in-all, a great experience.

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Mirwais Raham

Mirwais owns several Afghan rug and carpet stores in Kabul and on coalition bases. I asked him if he had Persian rugs and he said "I only sell rugs that help my people--Afghans. Why would I want to help the Iranians?"

Over the past two months, Mirwais has become my friend. I go over to his shop for a cup of "chai" or tea. If you have three cups of tea--you are family. We called Ermie the other day about a Bokhara carpet and Mirwais told her that I was his "brother" and that he would sell us the carpet for a very fair price. It was heartwarming to have Mirwais call me his brother. Anyway, I had been asking Mirwais to bring some Afghan food for us. He said he couldn't do it Saturday (Shanbe), but he would do it Sunday (Yak Shanbe).

I didn't think that he would remember, but when I went to his shop on base at 1215 on Yak Shanbe--everyone in the shop was eating kebab, rice, nan, chicken, mantu, and vegetables. Several attorneys in the office wanted nan and pomegranates. Mirwais even remembered to bring the extra bread and pomegranates. I offered to pay Mirwais for the food but he refused. Afghan hospitality!

The food was delicious. Mirwais' wife had cooked it for us. She said that restaraunt food wasn't as good, so she would do it. She is nine months pregnant and due to deliver any day.

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ISAF Bazaar - Carpet

Carpet experts can tell where a rug is from by the design and workmanship. The best Afghan carpets come from Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat. The Turkmen are outstanding weavers and moved into Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded Turkmenistan in the 1920s. I read a study that said a drought killed the Qaraqul sheep in Afghanistan in the 1970s and thus, the older carpets are better than the new. It takes a woman about nine months to do a three square meter carpet by herself. The study said that she would earn about $80-90 for the carpet.

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ISAF Bazaar - Carpet

BThis is one of the carpets at the ISAF Bazaar. The Bazaars are usually held every Friday, or Jumma. The ISAF Bazaar is four or five times the size of the Camp Eggers' bazaar. We have gone over to ISAF the last several weeks for a European brunch and quick tour of the bazaar stalls. I am learning about oriental rugs. This is a fine example of the vendor's wares.

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ISAF Bazaar - Carpet

There are several carpet sellers on ISAF and Camp Eggers that are open throughout the week. One of the vendors on Eggers just sells Afghan carpets. His name is Mirwais and offers us tea each time we go in his shop. It is a calming respite to be able to drink some tea with friends and learn about carpets.

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