mmm, beans and lard

When we were at Khowst Provincial Headquarters (KPHQ) the police there made dinner for us each night. They don't use silverware or individual plates, but they know we do so they provided them. When they eat, they just use centralized plates and share from there and they use bread as their spoons. They also don't eat at a table...

You'll also notice, they made us dinner, at a table, with silverware and then didn't join us. They had their own group dinner in other rooms. I guess sitting in a chair hurts their butts about the same as sitting on the floor hurts ours... :)

The food tastes pretty good actually. But they use a good amount of fat in the beans and potatoes, and if there's meat in the beans it's gonna be fatty and have gristle in it. So I usually just push the meat off to the side. The rice and bread is always good; I look forward to that part each night.

Google Voice

So, instead of me explaining what's so great about this service and why I'd like to have it. I'll just post this link and you can watch the video for yourselves (by clicking 'Watch the Overview')...

Google Voice

KPHQ "Hotel"

So, this one is for Natalie. She had asked what I was sleeping in/on over the past and upcoming mission. And this is it!

It's not super impressive, but it's a bed with a mattress and there's only 4 of us in a room... not bad at all! AND it was warm during the night! Quite the change from our usual 'over-nighters'!

Cityscape:

Well, I took some pictures of the city at night but none of them turned out. Which is too bad because they would have better proved my point than these...

The thing is, at nighttime when you look out across the city it doesn't seem so far away; so foreign. At nighttime it's just a dark bunch of buildings and street lamps.

It's interesting how 'American' it all feels when all you can see are city lights and as you look out over the cityscape it just fades into the darkness. It's calming... for awhile.

But eventually, the light comes back and exposes the city for what it is... which is not American at all and it loses all that reminds me of home, as you can see from these daylight pictures.

Friends who care

Andrea:

God, be with Nate today...give him your love...and let him know you are with him every minute of the day...let him know that his family and friends miss him and are constantly praying and thinking of him...let him know you love him...let him feel your presence....give him strength to be the man you want him to be...AMEN

(edit: Sorry about the font size previously! I'm not sure what happened.)

"God Rays"

Look at the "God Rays" here. It's as though God is right there, right behind the cloud curtain. Without the clouds there it's just the sun in the sky, but when He pulls the clouds in front of His face it gets your attention as His glory comes peeking through. He just can't be contained. Thank you, God, for letting me find you.

Poor widdle guy...

So there are two puppies that wander around the Musa Khel DC. One is super timid and starts screaming and yelping the moment it thinks you're chasing it... the other one runs from people but at least doesn't cry about it. So, we chased it, caught it, cleaned it (with shaving cream), made it a house (complete with an MRE heater under the 'floor' for a furnace), fed it, and pet it a bit. And after he slept for a bit, we'd found we made a fast friend.

While we were sleeping, he had apparently sneaked into our room and cuddled up next to SSG Roberts... who later rolled over on him by accident... but that's beside the point.

It was neat to see how fast his attitude changed toward us once he figured out that we like dogs... which is a bit different than the sentiment afforded them by the Afghan soldiers and police...

Musa Khel (10th-14th)

So we left for Musa Khel on Blackhawks rather than Chinooks... which meant for less gear and multiple trips, but it did allow for much better pictures!

Musa Khel is a short flight from the city of Khowst over the mountains to the North.

The District Center (DC) is where the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP, previously referred to as Afghan National Police or ANA) are stationed (supposedly... more on that below**), as well as a platoon of Afghan National Army (ANA) while we're there. The place has undergone a few attacks in its day, but as you can see it's still standing and is plenty secure.

Afghanistan is made up of a few different types of landscapes; as you can see, where we're stationed is absolutely beautiful. The mountains and rocks are simply stunning as the sunlight changes through the clouds and over the ridges. I find myself just sitting outside and constantly snapping pictures of the same things just because the light changed and I'm newly fascinated every few seconds or minutes. Even here on the other side of the world I'm provided with evidence that God knows exactly what He is doing and that He truly knows what it takes to create beauty.

**(So, the ANA heads out to the DC the day before we head out there because they serve as our security force, and then they leave a few minutes after we leave; the AUP, however, are supposed to always be out at the DC. It's supposed to be like police stations in the US where there is always someone manning the station. But, it turns out, they leave. As soon as we take off they go into our rooms, take all our bottled water, "rat" our MREs for the food they like (leaving the mess behind) and then head to their own homes, leaving the station completely empty until they hear the helicopters signalling our return. Sneaky sneaky...)

Years Behind...

So it's taken me WAY too long to get into the blog sphere... and for some reason I feel that I owe everyone an apology for that.

Natalie's blog has inspired me to attempt to 'catch-up' and since I'm in Afghanistan now this seems like the perfect time for me to give online updates about the goingson in my life.

I will do my best to provide text and photos that give you an idea of what I'm doing, what we're doing, and some just to let people remember what I look like :) I will do my best not to provide anything that will be 'scary'... so no one should be afraid to stop by and check out what's going on with me.

Now I guess all that's left is to see how I do at keeping it all up to date...

Wish me luck and report back often to see how things are going!