A little light in the craziness

We spent February on a fantastic trip home. Much needed recuperation. However, when we got back, it was like the Embassy had been taken over by werewolves. The stress was almost tangible in the air. More than one person said that February was the hardest month they have had here hands-down. One theory is that everyone is hitting the 6-7 month point and the constant grind is just wearing everyone down. Anyway, it's been hard to not get sucked in to the vortex of doom, which is why I am so thankful for today.

A friend at lunch invited me to go with her to check out a school run by Women for Afghan Women. I fought back my laziness and impulse to say I had too much work and went. SO glad I did.

The school is in effect a boarding school/shelter for children whose mothers are in prison. If this school did not exist, the kids would still be in prison with their mothers. In Afghanistan children live with their mothers in prison until 7 years old, at that point they are supposed to go live with other family. In reality, sometimes the kids go to orphanages. Some end up on the street. The ones who do live with other family are almost always stigmatized because of their mothers' situation.

The place is brimming with happiness. These kids were so excited to be there. In the first classroom, one little girl sang us two songs, which immediately made the other little ones (7ish) want to read us their lessons. They started learning to read just 3 months ago. The next classroom was for computer class and it was full of 10-14 year olds. The oldest girl at the school was in there. She's 14 and her younger brother and sister are both there too. She's been learning English and was both excited and embarrassed to show off her skills. As a result, we got a quite loud and exuberant welcome that she giggled all the way through and hid her face in her teacher's shoulder when she was done.

Their stories are hard - how could they not be with this population of kids? One girl's mother died in prison, but they have not told her yet. That sounds awful until you hear the back story. The mother killed all the rest of her children. This girl is the only survivor and she doesn't remember it or her mother. I don't know if that's because she's repressed the memory or if it's because she was very small when it happened. Another little one, the youngest, is only 4, and is not supposed to be there. The school is supposed to get the kids at age 7. However, she was being abused in the prison and somehow the school administrators managed to get her out. When we met her today, we asked how old she is. She said "4" and the teacher almost started to cry. Apparently until today she would say "7" - she knew she wasn't supposed to be there and she was scared she would have to go back to the prison.

The good news is that the school administrator is incredible and she has literally tried to plan for everything. She has an in-house psychologist who works with the kids and agreements with the local hospitals to provide medical care. Tomorrow is the first day of the new school year in Kabul. Most of these kids have never been to a "real" school and she has arranged for them to go to public school with supplemental lessons at "home". The stated goal of the women running the school is to keep the kids until they are old enough to go to college.

Joe's That Just Happened Day

Bev had her "That Just Happened" day and today it was my turn. You see we get most of our gear and equipment through chartered cargo flights. We had one scheduled today at 12:15. Our trucks arrived at the airport at about quarter 'til twelve. So we parked at the end of the runway in our designated staging area and waited. At about 12:40 I called the office to to check on the status of the flight. I was told they got held in Bagram and were due in at 12:45. Cool. No problem. Actually, big problems.

So, at 1:15 I called to check on the status of the flight and was told they are there at the designated area. I said, "No they're not. We're here and I don't see them." So now my office is calling their office in Bahrain. I get a phone call back telling me they are at Ramp 9. Where the heck is Ramp 9? They are supposed to be at Ramp 7. So I take a walk out as close to the runway as possible and look down back towards the terminal to see if I can see a big plane with a yellow tail. Nope, none here.

I call the office back (because I don't have the phone number of the courier). I get told that they are being pushed back from the terminal and will be here in five minutes. I look down the flight line and see a large jet being pushed back and think okay, just a few minutes... Ahahahaha!

That plane comes down toward us and then out of the blue turns back in at the next available loading area. Ruh Roh! They messed up again. About that time my boss calls me and tells me that the plane is parked in the wrong area. Duh! It turns out that she is also at the airport but over at one of the support sites discussing comms issues with some folks there.

After conferring with the flight line guys we decide that someone should drive down there to check it out. BUT they can only go so far without a flight line pass. Snake, yep, that's his call sign, comes back and tells me that he thinks that is our plane.

After waiting for another 30 minutes we get a call from my office that says the plane's APU (auxiliary power unit) has failed AND they have shut down their engines. They are DIW (dead in the water)! Now we have to find an APU to take to them but we can't because we cant' go down the flight line.

After figuring out how to get down ther and getting the APU hooked up to the truck we see the plane start to move. The only problem is that it turns the opposite way and heads down the taxiway. What? Are they taking the long way? No. that plane is an old Russian IL-76 cargo plane and the next thing we know it takes off over our heads. Shit! Where the $R^& is our plane?

Now my phone rings again. It is my boss. She tells me that she is hearing that our plane is in Bagram. What? Didn't it just leave Bagram? Now another phone call from Bahrain telling us that the plane is in Kabul. Ok, WTF?

This whole time we have noticed a cargo plane, NOT one with a yellow tail, sitting at the far end of the runway on the other side of it. Could that be them? We have to find out! So we call the tower on the radio and request permission to cross the runway so we can check that plane out. The tower comes nack with a negative response. Really? "If you need to get to ramp 9 you have to take the perimeter road." So the driver tells me to go get my protective gear on so we can take the perimeter road. Um. Not happening. I am not authorized, nor stupid enough, to ride in a "thin skin" vehicle outside the wire. "Tower, Ramp 7 Air Ops. Request permission to cross the runway to talk to our plane that is stranded down at ramp 9." "Negative."

Now we get the real Air Boss to call them on the radio and finally get permission to cross the runway. Shew! So we take off down the taxiway and turn left to cross the runway. Now the radio rings out again. "Stop, hold your position." Two flights land and the we get permission to cross.

We finally pull up to the plane and I get out. The co-pilot opens his window. I yell, "Is Keith onboard?" "Wait one." Yea! We have found our plane! Its only 4:30 at this point. Keith crawls down the escape ladder under the cock pit and literally gives me a hug. They have been here since 11:30 and DIW since then. They asked around for an Auxiliary Pressure Unit but nobody at the military end of the airport has one. (Note, this APU does not equal the one previously mentioned.

Their aircraft needs a blow start, not a jump start. Its kind of like rolling your manual transmission car then popping the clutch except this bird requires a big blower to start the turbines spnning so they can "pop the clutch". Do we have one at our end? The answer turns out to be yes. The only problem is that we have never used it. Really? After spending about 20 minutes at the plane we get a call on the radio that ours works. Snake asks me, "You want to wait with the plane?" "Uh, no. I'll ride back with you and then come back."

This time the tower immediately gives us permission to cross back over. Three planes land before we can cross. We get back and have to wait for the APU operator to start another plane before we can head back the mile and a half to the other end of the runway.

The tower gives us permission but we have to explain that we are towing an APU with a chase vehicle. After explaining that we don'' have three vehicles, we have two with the follow vehicle pulling an APU they finally let us go.

(Sigh!) Did I tell you that the tow vehicle was a John Deere tractor. BTW, they are not that fast. About a quarter way down the runway the radio cackles out, Ramp 7 Air Boss pull off the taxiway NOW! I look into the side mirror and there is a helicopter bearing down on us from above. We immediately pull off into the weeds and the poor guy driving the tractor pulling the two-ton APU can't pull off so he has to get blasted by the helo as it passes us on the taxiway.

Tower, ramp 7 Air Boss...Tower, Ramp 7 Air boss... ...Tower, ramp 7 air boss... ... ... Ramp 7 cross now and wait at Kilo. So we cross. Now four planes land and we wait... and wait. Cross to Charlie. wait... wait... wait... Two UN planes taxi by. Ramp 7 Air Boss you are cleared to Ramp 9. The journey continues at three miles an hour. Ramp 7 Air Boss you are going to have to go faster. "I can't! I have a John Deere tractor pulling an APU behind me and he is going as fast as he can.

Finally we make it to the bird as the sun sets behind the Hindu Kush. We hook up the APU and the flight engineer steps in front of the plane and tells the pilot to start the engine. NOTHING! The flight engineer sprints back to the redlining APU and shuts it down. He didn't hook it up right and it was about to blow because of all the pressure in the hose. He disconnects the hose and bleeds the pressure off. He reconnects it and they try again. This time the turbines start to slowly turn...And after about five minutes the engines start. At this point it is pitch black.

We disconnect the APU and I hop on the plane to taxi because we are going to get there way before the John Deere. I sit in the small area for the crew with Keith and we catch up during the taxi. But then I hear HEY from the cockpit. The crew chief jumps up and runs to the cockpit. He turns around and taps me on the shoulder. The Captain needs you. WHAT?

I jump into the cockpit as we approach our unloading area. "Where do we park?" Uh... okay, turn left 90 degrees here then go to the end and turn right 90 degrees. Then we go about 100 feet and turn right 90 degrees again so you are lined up for the taxiway back to the run way." I just got called to the cockpit to give directions to the pilot. That happened too?

Finally, finally, we are parked and ready to unload. They have 5200 kilos (11,000 pounds) for us. 75 pieces. Four weigh over 700 pounds each. Thank God we brought six laborers with us. About a half hour into the unloading and accounting process a light flashed from the plane. Keith runs over to check it out. About three minutes later he comes sprinting back. We have 10 minutes to leave or the plane is grounded here for the night. NO! We still have to verify 30 packages against the "Bill of lading". I have never read numbers so fast in my life. We finished with about 30 seconds to go. I swear the plane was rolling before the ladder left the ground.

We finish loading the trucks and I thank each and every one of the laborers and drivers for being patient and working so hard. Now we head home and actually get stopped at a police check point. I flip my diplomatic credentials and they let us go. Shew! Tem minutes and two traffic jams later we are home. 7:45pm.

Now, we have to unload 11,000 pounds.......Nope, that HAS to wait until tomorrow...

Happy New Year!

We made the decision when we first came out to stay here for the Holidays so other people could go home to be with kids, etc. It turned out that no one from Joe's office went home, but most of Bev's did. We're not going to talk about what work was like. The actual holidays, however, were far more fun than we had any right to expect.

We got away for Thanksgiving week - went to Germany and Brussels to visit friends and see the Christmas markets. Thanksgiving Day was in Frankfurt at our friend Matt's. His Mom was also in town visiting, so we got a fantastic home-cooked meal.

Brussels was a BLAST with our friends Emily and Ashish. What a great city. They have Belgium waffles topped with things like chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream on the side of the street. We also got Mexican and Sushi - two of the foods we mss most. We also drank in the clean air, the smell of rain, fantastic public transportation, and the freedom to just walk around.

After Frankfurt and Brussels we spent a few days in Heidelberg. It's this incredibly beautiful town with a castle sitting on the hill above it. Oh - and the Christmas Markets. What a fantastic tradition!! Sure, all the stalls sell some variation of over-priced ornament.
But, people walk around drinking mulled wine, there are literally Christmas carols playing in the air, and shops/stalls look like they fell straight out of Norman Rockwell or Willy Wonka. It was perfect. Exactly what we needed.


Christmas itself was full of great friends and parties. The week before, we had a Christmas Cookie-making party at our friends' Kelly and Sandro's apartment. Christmas Eve we had a Flag Football Tournament that our team ALMOST won. We would have taken it if the brackets hadn't been all messed up. We played 3 in a row, and the team we played in the final got 2 games off before they played us. We lost 4-3 and it could have easily gone either way. That night, we had a Clam Chowder party at Anne and Greg's apartment. Apparently Clam Chowder is a tradition in her family on Christmas Eve. I was seriously impressed with the cooking. Canned clams sound horrid, but they make pretty good chowder. Several people, including Lynn Chow, believe it or not, came to our place after to watch a movie, so we got to bed about 1am.

Christmas Day was lazy and wonderful. We hosted dinner that night, potluck style, in our PJs. We decided Christmas Day should be spent in sweats or PJs. Oh, and Joe learned his lesson about sending out a Christmas list and the amazing array of presents he will receive if he doesn't. (Really Mom, where did you find kazoos and a calorie-counting jump rope???)

As wonderful as it was though, it was really hard to be so far away from our families. We did the Skype thing, but it just is not the same. Next year!!!

The crowning moment of the Holiday season was, no doubt, New Years. The Embassy had a huge party in one of our tents, a bonfire outside and a no-kidding ball drop. The party was fantastic. FBI donated the open bar, Embassy management brought in a bunch of food, Joe's section bought pizza and a few of our guys DJed. It was like a high school dance - the seniors (the core Embassy crowd) going crazy out on the dance floor while the freshman ("The Surge" or "Civilian Uplift") standing around the edges looking nervous.

We went out to the bonfire about 11:30 and it was comical it was so huge. The people trying to roast marshmallows had two or more unraveled coat-hangers twisted together in a long "pole" because you couldn't get closer than that without cooking yourself. They looked like they were fly-fishing. Now, I know the security-minded among you are wondering if it was smart to light the world's largest beacon. Possibly not, however nothing happened. I figure we were safe for two reasons - 1) The bad guys in Kabul don't actually know how to aim anything - they lean the rockets against rocks and they land wherever they land; and 2) It probably looked from a distance like the Americans had finally gone stark-raving mad. There's also the very real truth that Kabul is just not as dangerous as it sounds on the news. We have been here for 6 months. In that time we have had one vehicle bomb go off close enough to send us in "Duck and Cover" and two others close enough that we really heard them. We have never been rocketed. By comparison, our friend in Baghdad said they had several "Duck & Covers" on New Year's Eve alone.

Then, the Ball Drop... It was amazing. I have no idea how they set this up, but it was an actual lit ball that fell as we counted and 2010 lit up at the bottom. Our count was off and I'm pretty sure it wasn't actually midnight, but that is in no way the point. If Christmas is about family, New Year is about friends, and we could not have been surrounded by better people. It was joyous. There's no other word.


Here's the video of the countdown.