ANOTHER WEEK GONE AND A NEW YEAR

It is New Years' Eve at 6:29PM in Kabul. I never would have thought, a year ago at this time, that I would be where I am, doing what I'm doing. Right now, I'm watching "Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail," somewhat appropriate given the part of world I am in. I'm not sure what I'll do later tonight, but I imagine some of the others who live, here, at UNICA1, will gather at the bar to ring in 2010. I will probably join them, at least for awhile.

Today was another day at the office, working on projects for the Afghan Border Police and hoping that we get to one of our bases to actually start training ABP officers, sooner, rather than later. Two days ago, we got the word at the office that we were moving from the fourth floor of the main building to a pre-fab trailer on the ground. They are going to turn the top two floors into living quarters because there is a scarcity of safe hotels in Kabul. Our security has very high standards and they are extremely careful when it comes to our safety. Holy, crap, what a pain in the ass the move was. We had to move our desks, filing cabinet (with all the files inside), all of our books, written materials, computers and other hardware and all the other things that have accumulated in the office over the past five years. Up and down, up and down, up and down...four stinkin' flights of stairs. The trailer is much smaller than our office and with five of us in there, it is crowded to the point where we have decided it is not healthy. Breathe in oxygen, breathe out carbon dioxide. We had to open the window today, despite the chill in the air (it is definitely getting colder), because it was so stuffy. It's still okay, though, because I really love the four Afghan guys I am working with. I know I have said it before, and I will probably say it again before this journey is over, but they are a good and dedicated group. I can only hope that this New Year brings some modicum, even if slight, of peace to their ravaged country.

Now it’s 10:41AM, January 1, 2010. Another year gone and a new one has begun. It is the Sabbath, here, so I am off and just hanging out in my room, working on this blog entry and one of our training modules that I am rewriting. I will be going grocery shopping this afternoon with Kelly who has worked for the UN for twenty years in one war zone after another, East Timor and Sudan, to name two. I admire her and all the others I have met who have made the decision to work for an organization that, despite its well known problems, has devoted itself to trying to assist people in the worst imaginable places and situations. It seems interesting to me that there are certain elements in the US who oppose the UN because of bullshit and usually false claims that they are anti-American (our entire non-Afghan team are all Americans), they don’t pay their bills and the rest of the right-wing crap put out by these people—none of whom, as far as I know, has ever lifted a finger to make the world better in even a small way. Okay, so maybe the UN doesn’t pay its bills on time, like rent for their headquarters in New York. Instead, it is funding sixteen peacekeeping missions around the world, many in dangerous, war-ridden areas like Darfur, the Congo, Haiti, Timor, the India-Pakistan border, Kosovo, Lebanon and the Sinai. Then there’s the insane right-wing who say the UN is part of the “New World Order,” who want to enslave us, the black helicopters, secret detention camps and the rest of the delusional shit they preach.

I talked to Mona last night when it was Midnight, here, and again just now at Midnight in Oregon. It was so cool to be able to talk—for free with Skype—and see each other on video. Several of you reading this also have Skype and we either have talked, or hopefully, will in the future. If you want to do this, go to skype.com and download the program. It is free and if you have a video camera, we can video. If you do have Skype, look for my contact info as Stuart A. Steinberg, or VietnamEOD. I just returned from the grocery store. Today, we went to a new place—Karimi’s Supermarket. It was wonderful with many more choices than Finast and Spinney’s, where I had previously gone (in addition to the PX). In fact, the Finast store, which is very close to my living compound, is closed because of a fire last week that caused a gas explosion and blew out all the windows. At Karimi’s, I was able to pick up instant espresso and Coffemate in individual packets, Ruffles (with ridges), peaches and pineapple in juice, not syrup like they have at Finast. I got two one-pound bags of Tillamook Country Smoker (from good ol’ Oregon) beef jerky, Walker’s chocolate chip shortbread from Scotland, Dinty Moore beef stew and turkey breast with smashed pertaters and gravy. They’re good cold, but I am hoping to pick up a microwave when Finast reopens. But here’s the best find of all—I got two eight-ounce packages of Red Leicester (pronounced “Lester”) cheese, some of the best cheddar in the world. It's from England. I will have some later on my Jacquet Francais Toast. It is made in France and is like thin pieces of golden brown toast.

Today was beautiful—blue skies, bright sun, 51°. More of the same tomorrow. It is concerning to my Afghan friends that there has been no snow yet, nor any rain. It is needed, like in Central Oregon, for irrigation and will mean a bad crop year if we don’t getting some. When I flew to Mazar, as I previously blogged and show in a picture, there is snow everywhere once you go to higher elevations. Kabul is at 5,876 feet and you would think there would have been snow by now. I think it is due to the unusually warm weather, including temperatures of the high-twenties and low-thirties at night. The humidity has also been very low—34% today. It is too bad that with all the humanitarian dollars flowing in, here, someone has not figured out how to bring water from all the snow in the mountains at higher elevation. The Kabul River flows near the city and typically swells in size from snowmelt. My guess is that if there is no snow, here, there is less snow at the higher elevations which feed the rivers. There is the Kabul River, but I am assuming that it is so polluted that it is not used for irrigation.

Today is January 3. We made our regular trip to Camp Eggers to the PX, but found when we got there that the bazaar was Friday. I have to develop a better intelligence network since Collie’s guy at Eggers--Fouad, the phone dude--gave us bad intel. The weather was spectacular—it must have been close to 60 at one point and, even now, at 5:30PM, it is 48--blue skies and lots of sun. I went with Kelly and her friend, Amani, who is Palestinian. She works for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She told me she was staying at the Serena Hotel and, apparently, was unaware of the fact that the Serena has been hit several times by rockets on the ground floor—where her room is. I told her to request a room on a higher floor and, fortunately, she was aware that the hotel has a lot of empty rooms right now. She was very appreciative of my advice.

Today, I was very happy to find that the PX not only had more of the Tillamook Country Smoker steak nuggets, but they had the peppered kind, which are my favorite. Jennifer, a friend in Corvallis, guilt-tripped me about buying them all the last time, so I only bought five bags. I got some more warm socks and t-shirts and a very nice black hoodie that zips. Also, Kelly gave me a nice little table for my coffee pot and toaster. I looked at a microwave at the PX, but it must be ten years old because it weighed a freaking ton. I will go into the city this week and look for something light-weight. We all went to the Green Beans Coffee Shop and sat in the sun drinking good coffee and chatting. Then, we went to some of the little native shops on the base and I bought another scarf, while Kelly and Amani looked at rugs and fur coats. . I was looking for one for my friend, Greg, but could not find anything that was earth-tone in color. Amani had to leave, so Kelly and I went to the Thai restaurant. It was quite good. I had wonderful crispy spring rolls and nuclear Thai chili sauce for dipping. I also had a chicken salad with lots of little pieces of crispy chicken cooked in a hot sauce, with cashews, slivers of ginger and green and red cabbage. I could not resist and had my first Coke since getting here—it was great. It’s amazing how you appreciate some of the weirdest things from back home. Maybe I can find a Big Mac. It is interesting that none of the American fast-food places have set up here--yet.

I heard, today, that the Brits lost an EOD man on New Years’ Eve. This dampened my holiday spirit and reminded me about how dangerous this place is. This is the third British EOD man killed in the past two months. Of course, it was in Helmand Province and he was part of a Counter-IED Team. For you EOD folks, and those of you reading this that are not ex-EOD, we have lost 79 EOD people in Iraq and Afghanistan, including two women. In the Vietnam War, we lost 37. It is a sobering thought. Today, the Iranian border police had eleven of their counter-narcotics border police killed in a shootout with drug traffickers near the Iranian border with Afghanistan. It was across the border from one of our Afghan Border Police outposts. Since 1979, the Iranians have lost 3,300 men fighting narcotics traffickers. It appears they take this war against opium product seriously and I respect them for that.

Well, that's about it for this week. One more thing. I sent out an email about the orphanage in Mazar-i-Sharif and the fact that I am trying to raise funds to help 160 children stay warm this winter. So far, people have offered $2,050. I need to raise another $5,800 to buy winter coats and gloves, thermal underwear and warm socks. I will figure out how to deal with the shipping once I know we have enough for the clothing. Others are helping with firewood and coal and trying to winterize the orphanage. I am hoping that Eveline, who works for the UN Aid Mission, will be sending me some pictures of the orphanage and the kids. Hope to hear from others of you who want to help. Later.