6 Months In Kabul: Lord of the Flies

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

Dance like it hurts,
Love like you need money,
Work when people are watching.
-Scott Adams, The Way of the Weasel US cartoonist (1957 - )

Those kids in the video are so funny. They just spontaneously started to dance. They reminded me of a scene from Lord of the Flies. There were 20 or so kids with no parental supervision. It was cold and rainy outside and they did not have a care in the world. They just were dancing so full of joy. What made me think of Lord of the Flies was when they decided to build a fire and dance around it. They looked like they were having so much fun.

Another image that struck me today was when we were convoying back from the clinic. Like I said, it was raining and very cold today. We passed by a father and a daughter who were homeless and sitting on the side of the road. The picture is not very good because we were moving very fast but I think that you can get the jest. They are sitting by the side of the road, in the rain, and the daughter huddled up to her father eating some naan. It is both adorable and sad at the same time. It makes me sad just thinking about it. Tomorrow I will give them some of the donations. I am sure that they will appreciate it.

A lot of changes are going on at the clinic. The Afghans are in the process of converting it to a hospital. They brought some of their old beds over and were cleaning them today. It should be interesting when they start to have inpatients.

Some of our teammates visited a children's hospital called Indira Ghandi yesterday. It is run by doctors from India. I was so amazed to learn that they had one over here. From the pictures it looks like a really modern facility. They had some pretty sick children in the hospital. My friend took a lot of pictures. I won't post any pictures of the kids since they are sick and in the hospital but I will describe a few of them. One of the pictures is of a male child that looks about 8 years old. He was a victim of one of the recent vehicle borne suicide attacks. You see him lying in bed with dressing around his head because he had to have brain surgery from all of the shrapnel. There are a number of really young and premature little kiddos that have feeding tubes through their noses. One of them has bruising around her eyes. The person that took the picture thinks that it may of been a shaken baby. Some of you will be happy to know that some of the toys that were sent to me were given to some of the children in the hospital. I am sure that they appreciated them.

I am sorry. I will try and be a little more uplifting tomorrow. I lent my camera to one of the cleaning crew. He was going to a wedding. Weddings in Afghanistan are really big deal so I thought that it was important to get some first hand pictures.

We also visited Phoenix today. Here is a pic. Take care.