6 Months In Kabul: Climbing The Ghar

Problog

Hello and welcome to my blog. It is a blog about an Air Force Physician that was reluctantly deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan for 6 months.

I have to admit, I did not exactly volunteer for the deployment, and I was a little anxious about how it would all turn out. I ended up making the best of it, and surprisingly, I actually had a pleasant, life changing, experience.

I decided to keep the blog up and running because I kept on hearing, "Why is it that you only hear the bad news coming from Iraq and Afghanistan." I figured that I was helping spread a positive message about what we are doing over. Even more important, I wanted to continue to spread the word about the plight of the Afghan people, 99.9% of which are the most incredibly friendly people that you will ever meet. The title picture is a great example of that. I have never encountered such genuinely warm and friendly people. It was so strange to see so many people with so little material objects, yet at the same time, filled with so much of the joy that comes with close family ties, abundant friends, and a close knit community. We could definetly learn a lot from them.

You may notice, as you read the blog in its entirety, my arc. I shift from focusing on myself and my personal comforts, to shifting my focus on the Afghan cause. It is very easy to get distracted by the hustle of daily life and the comforts that the U.S. provides. It is really a challenge to awake from that coma and to start to care and think about the welfare of other people unrelated to you. I think it really took me about 4 or 5 months before I really opened my eyes and became personally affected by what I was experiencing. I hope I was able to recreate it.

I have tried to keep the blog squeaky clean so as to not offend anyone (or get me in trouble-I am still in the military). Even though I am a political junky with very strong personal opinions I have been steadfast in keeping this site free of any politics. I was called to do a job and I tried to do it to the best of my ability regardless of my political stance.

I recreated the blog to read more like a book, or should I say blook (get used to the corniness it only gets worse from here) just to make it an easier read. I have removed some names and pictures just to keep it more anonymous. I hope that it helps in making it less about me and more about the cause.

Lastly, in the spirit of the blog, I decided to include the Chipin Widget that I used to raise money for Nazia. If I get any additional money I will send the funds to The Women of Hope Project and someone over in Kabul will discretely give it to her (unless I hear otherwise). You can also contribute directly to the Women of Hope Project website. They are a wonderful cause. If you enjoy this blog then feel free to contribute. I am sure that once you read her story you will be very moved.

So kick back. Get ready to hopefully laugh and definitely cry.
If you like what you read then post a comment. I will be continuously editing this site in an attempt to improve it. Who knows maybe one day it will become a book!

Enjoy. Thanks for reading.

-Shazdoc

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Climbing The Ghar

"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So. . . get on your way. "

-Dr. Seuss US author & illustrator (1904 - 1991)

I went to the post office last night after dinner and, I am not kidding, I had about 30 different care packages waiting for me. It was very overwhelming. The people over at the post office usually want you to open your packages before you leave to make sure that no contraband is being shipped to you. This time when I asked if I should open them up the person jokingly said, "No, just take them... just go!" I smiled and laughed. The last thing he wanted was to wait for me while I opened up all 30 of my boxes. I had to make 2 trips back to the office with the help of a dolly. Boxes were falling everywhere because the cement is full of pot holes. Random people were grabbing boxes as they fell helping me out. It was a funny site. Here is a pic. You really cannot appreciate the number because there is a whole back row that you are not seeing.

The majority of the boxes were toys and medicine that was sent for children from the Zonta Club of Marathon. I need to google them to find out who they are and them send them a really big thank you note. I also got a few care packages from very wonderful soldier support people back home. We got sent a a ton of games- scrabble, chess, dominoes, different magazines (about 30), and way too much candy and snacks. If we were to eat all of the candy that people sent us we would not be able to fit into our uniforms. Everyone, thank you all very much for everything. I have a Community Medical Assistance (CMA) coming up and I plan to distribute all of the toys, medicine, and some of the candy to the local underprivileged children. I will be sure to take plenty of pictures.

I also received another package of letters from the Middle School in South Carolina. I tried to load a web cam thank you video with a bunch of Q&As but the file was too big and it took too long to upload. Let me work out the kinks. I promise to have the video technology perfected sometime in the near future. Stay tuned. I also bought all of the students nice presents at the bazaar today. I will not say what I got them since I know some of them read this blog. It should take about 2 weeks for the gifts to arrive so be on the look out.

Today we climbed "The Ghar." The Ghar is a 1,500-foot rocky mountain that sits on the compound of the Kabul Military Training Center. It was really fun. The last 20 feet are the scariest. There is a very narrow part that you have to climb to reach the top. I just tried to not look down while I did it. The view at the top was spectacular. I took a ton of photos and loaded them onto a picture book on the right column. I encourage you to take a look. After we finished with the Ghar we visited an old Soviet military junk yard. We saw a bunch of old tanks and other vehicles. It was very interesting.