Back in the Saddle

Finally back in Afghanistan after three glorious weeks of adventure, great food and drink.  I feel like I walked into an entirely different world.  My living conditions, job, co-workers and the whole feel of the place is entirely different - for the better.  My old co-workers were excellent people, but the new ones are from all over the world, have been doing this type of work for a long time and are generally quite interesting.  Japan, Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and the UK seem to be the predominant origins with a hefty dose of Irish and Scots.  I was in a meeting the other day and during the entire event someone was playing bagpipes from their room.  Adjusting to all of the different versions of spoken English and cultural slang has been interesting, but at the end of the day, the curse words are exactly the same and I've even learned some new ones.  If I'm here past three months I can only imagine how I will come out of this experience sounding and speaking - some kind of multi-accented-hillbilly dialect is a certainty. "Whilst y'all pass along the jelly grape?" "Fook it, then ya (courtesy of the Irish!)"  Love it!

No more tent or tent walls that flap in the wind.  I now live in a lovely shipping container that has been retrofitted for habitation - that comprises the entire hotel which is basically living and work space for a variety of contractors.  I have my own bathroom which was an amazing stroke of luck and I hope I remain in this unit during my 3 months on this contract.  Different voltage so my fancy pants coffee machine and microwave are no longer usable, but who in the hell cares when you feel like you're actually living within something civilized!  Several days a week I ride over to work at our main offices which are just outside of base in their own protected fortress. I do this in an up-armored SUV (one hopes to never close one of those doors on the fingers) with a security escort, and wearing an armored vest (kind of like my one of my nephews!) - I've only tried to get out of the car with all of that equipment on before I unbuckled my seat belt twice so far - absolutely no way to play off that kind of awkwardness because you're too top heavy (something that's never been a natural problem for me).  Instead you free yourself from some ugly, hanging limbo and then tumble out of the truck - usually in front of people.  I'm learning quickly though and do freely admit that grace has never been a strong point.  At least I get up laughing.  If it were my sister, she would gracefully glide out of the SUV with all of the equipment intact and in place while happy chirping birds would be landing on her shoulders singing morning songs... she got the grace genes.

Totally different work atmosphere not being attached to a military unit.  I have a ton to figure out - like how all of these programs overlap, how to avoid unknowingly stepping on toes, new acronyms, pay systems AND my job.  Have already been researching how Muslims use public space and looking into playground design - particularly Islamic playgrounds - yes me, the Hillbilly, actually designing some religiously significant playground and park space - people who know me well will totally see the irony in that. There will also be some economic development aspects included in some of these spaces - hmmmm .... The public space and religious aspects to these parks will be the most interesting to navigate - there is no actual "public" space as a concept with which we are familiar - it is actually occupied by men here and women are highly restricted in movement and space - "public" is "male" - so I guess we can save on restrooms??  I kid, but when you really start thinking about it, there will be quite a challenge.  I have to fight the urge to leave the women's issues here alone and focus on the short term so I don't have any angry "huzzbennz" calling up the Taliban because I suggested too many "lady days" for the park districts.  Damn is this culture horrific - absolutely horrific - to their women.  That's for another post, but it disturbs me on the deepest of levels.  On a different note, I did find out they have some weird amusement park in Kandahar City - I can't wait to see it because the idea of one here cracks me the hell up.

So this weekend I take my first convoy out to Arghandab to take a peek at the existing parks there so that I can get a better idea of how to gussy them up.  I won't meet the Kandahar Mayor for three more weeks - will be working with him closely and shaping these parks per his political and personal needs and wishes.  It's interesting to participate in meetings with this new job - so many conversations surround which political figure was just killed and who may be alive in 2 months and how all of these possibilities relate to the projects that are being undertaken.  Hopefully my guy will be around for the entirety of my project!  He actually has lived in the U.S. so he has a much greater understanding of what we may be suggesting AND he loves him some parks.  But really, imagine yourself at work and having your projects dependent on the assassination cycle of events - how those affect budgeting, timelines, staffing (not to mention where you stand when you're with them) - then asking if there's fresh coffee on - friggin' surreal!  Although I'm sure many of you work with people you wouldn't really mind including in a discussion such as that.

Well then, I am actually enjoy my big weekend night which now falls on Thursdays.  We work with so many Afghans that Friday has to be our day off because of their holy day.  I have a TV in my room that gets three channels and two are HBO from India but with American movies - by the way, who did Brendan Frasier piss off that resulted in him having the lead in "George of the Jungle" - my mind is still spongy from having that on while I was in the same room.  Anytherewentyourcareerbrendan, I would like to wish my brother a very happy birthday this Monday - so far I'm still claiming him and he me and I'm certain he is still glowing from the Republican coup in the midterms - I'm glad I'm not home just so I don't have to hear about it!  Pickle, I hope you have an incredible birthday and I wish I were there for the family get together this weekend.  Side note - I'm a raging liberal spawned from a household where that wasn't necessarily the case.  However, kudos to all of 'em for the phenomenal progress they've made in the last 20 years!  I think I caved a little in their direction as well, but we certainly don't like to discuss politics at family gatherings!  Love them all to death though.  Hope everyone has an excellent fall weekend of football and chili and anything else that feels like pre-holidays!

Drink of the night - some wine I brought back from Dubai but then found out I'm not supposed to have ... and hot tea! Cheers!