6 Months In Kabul: Shopping Intervention

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

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Shopping Intervention

"It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago. "
-Jim Bishop

"I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist." Tammy Faye BakkerUS wife of Jim Bakker 1961

The snow really came down last night. Kabul is somewhat surrounded by very large mountains and for the first time they were all covered with snow. You have to really be careful walking around here because it is very slippery with all of the ice.

Last night a few stars came to visit Camp Phoenix. It is too bad that I missed it. A lot of people took pictures. I should have some more coming. Take a look. Maybe you can recognize a few of them.

Robbin Williams

Lance Armstong

Kid Rock

And that guy from the Daily Show. The Daily Show is one of my favorite shows back in the states. I would record it on a regular basis.

The Eid break was nice and now it is time to get out of the office and back to clinic work again. This next week will probably be the busiest of my entire deployment. I can’t go into any details yet but stay tuned. It should be interesting.

Tonight we had our team Christmas party. It was fun.

I am a little concerned about my friend Adam. I think that I might have to do a shopping intervention on him. We were joking with him tonight saying that he could probably open up his own shop with all of the stuff that he has bought. This is just a very small fraction of the things that he has bought and sent back home to his family.

When he opens his shop he will need to get the different standard phrases down that all of the vendors use. "Looking is free," and, "It's OK...just looking," or the so very believable, "Mister, I have not gotten any business all day. You are my first customer. I give good deal."

I was in the Coffee Bean having a Chai Latte with cinnamon with my good buddy Puff Daddy and I noticed this box with a sign on the front. It had a bunch of envelopes in it. The note in the card reads:

"Destiny began collecting and sending greeting cards to the troops in 2005 when she was only 10 years old. She read requests on anysoldier.com and found that most service men and women wanted cards and letters from home for the holiday." It goes on to say that she has sent out over 7,000 letters. I grabbed one and opened it expecting at most a signature, because after all there are about 100 cards there, it had about 12 different signatures on it. Wow.

I will send her a thank you and feature her on my community service site. Here she is.