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

Today Show Clip

Chipin Widget

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Light Another's Path

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven."
-Henry Ward Beecher

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own."

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world.
-Anne Frank, Last diary entry; "The Diary of a Young Girl," 1947; tr. 1952, August 1, 1944
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I fixed some of the kinks in the fundraiser. I think I got it down now. Nazia now has her own dedicated email and Paypal account and she does not even know it yet. I plan on meeting her later this week. I am curious what she will think about it all. Dr. Davis seemed ecstatic with the idea.
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Not a very exciting day at the clinic. I thought that I would share some of my recent pictures. For some reason I am very interested in very large buildings. Here is a montage.
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This building has a great big mural on its side.
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Here is a large gold building complex and wedding hall.
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A hotel.
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Another wedding hall.
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This to me was pretty funny. The sign on the building says Sultans Toilet Complex. There are not a lot of places to use the restroom so I suppose a toilet complex would be in high demand.
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There was a big group of ladies wearing black burqas walking by the side of the road. For some reason you do not see a lot of these black full-body burqas very often. You mainly see the blue ones that do not cover the entire body.
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Here are some very large cauliflower that someone is selling.
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I did not take this one. This is TV Hill. It is a pretty recognizable site. It obviously has a number of antennas on it.
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Kabul used to have a lot of trees. This field used to be covered with very tall trees. When the Mujaheddin took over they cut a lot of them down. The loss of trees is partly to blame for all of the dust.
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The only golf course in Afghanistan.
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For some reason buildings like to have really long names, like these two.
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Academy of Science of Afghanistan The World Philosophical Mathematics Research Center. Try writing a check to that place.
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How about Afghanistan Development & Export of Handy Craft Center Production Market. I think the more words you have on the sign the more important you are.
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Thanks for reading
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