Just A Quick Note

I'm not going to write much this time because I am working on my last blog post. It is going to say some things that would probably get me kicked out of here if I said them too far out from my "get the fuck out of here" date. I have had almost seven months to try and figure out what the hell is going on over here, and I think I have a decent handle on it. I will say some good things and I will say some things that will, no doubt, piss a lot of people off. I'm talking about the people who are supposed to be running this nightmare. So, I think those of you who know me well get the drift of what this is going to be like.

Anyway, today I was fortunate enough to participate in the celebration of "World Drug Day" at the Herat Fine Arts High School. My group, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, was the sponsor and it was a wonderful experience. I was one of the guest speakers and was able to talk to the young students and their families about our program training the Afghan Border Police. First, and, I think, most importantly, this is a coed school, a rarity in this conservative Muslim part of Afghanistan. These young artists showed their stuff and I mean to tell you, some of the paintings were beautiful, and devastating, at the same time. The painting of the blooming poppy flower that is on this page just took my breath away. I am hoping to buy it from the young artist and give him enough money to help him continue to develop his obvious talent. I picked his painting to finish first in the competition, but he came in second. What was wonderful, though, was that the first-place winner was a young woman. This, of course, would have been unheard of during the Taliban years and, in fact, this school would not have even existed, especially since it is coed.

So, I'm down to 25 days and a wake-up and looking forward to getting home, getting on my pony and heading up into our beautiful Oregon mountains with my wife and the doggies. It was 111, today, and I mean, man...I don't care how "dry" it is, that is just God-awful friggin' hot. I have been teaching "Crime Scene Investigation" to the new class of NCOs and they really seemed to like it. I think they understand now why you can't have ten guys all walking through crime scene and why you shouldn't just throw the evidence in a heap in the back of a truck. My good friends Daud and Asef from the Kabul office are coming in tomorrow and it will be great to see them. I don't miss Kabul, but I miss the people I worked with every day for the first four months. Enjoy the pictures.