NMAA Staff 1

My favorite meal here has become breakfast because they always have some kind of eggs (scrambled, thin omelets, or hard-boiled), groul (oatmeal), some kind of potatoes, and cold cereal (can you say fiber). They also have fruit, but I don’t like to eat fruit in the morning for some reason – too sweet maybe. But, if they have bananas, I usually have one of those. Like I think I’ve mentioned before, lunch and dinner always have rice, noodles, meat in sauce, veggies in sauce, potato of some sort. The veggies are always good. There is a salad bar, but it usually has things like coleslaw, jello, meat/cheese tray varieties. And since we always have rice at lunch and dinner, we always have rice pudding from the leftovers. They also have really good soups (cream of broccoli or asparagus, “vegetable,” and tomato) which I’m sure have some sort of meat broth which make them taste so good. You won't find anyone that says the food is all that bad, but you will hear folks say that it’s the lack of variety that bothers them. I haven’t hit that yet … I’m not sure why I opened with that, but it’s just what was on my mind.

Found a good resource for Afghan news - the kind of stuff you probably won't hear in your newspapers or on T.V. Check out The Afghan News Network.

On the way into work today, we were getting the ear-full (like most mornings) about all the combat stuff that our Army brethren have been through. They are of course quick to point out that we Air Force types don’t know nothing about combat. True, so we ask them, “… but isn’t that why we have an Army – to take care of all the important Air Force personnel?” I really do like to hear all the stories they have. They continued on to say that military like us shouldn’t be allowed in combat, but if we were, in the first sign of trouble, “Army Special Operating Plan 3, goes into effect.” Then they all say in unison – "throw you out of the car and continue on!" Nice to know we’re in such good hands.

This was Monday, and we had 201 new cadets show up. If you recall, NMAA invited 310 or so to be admitted and we’re expecting around 275 to trickle in when all is said and done. The arrival of the new cadets was similar to what I’ve observed at USAFA: various lines to pick up items, fill out paper work, etc. Most them appeared to wear rather modern clothes, but many were also wearing the “man pajamas” with are long pants with a long shirt below the knees. Also as I mentioned, these new cadets come from all over the country and since the provinces are based on tribes, there is some natural rivalries that exist. You could see this a bit when the cadets had to mix and help each other get some of their supplies. Here’s a picture of a group of them getting bedding gear from supply. They were strangers among each other, but had to work with others from outside of their tribes – probably for the first time in their lives. Well, it is just the beginning of their new way to be more tolerant and respectful to others in order to work together “for a better Afghanistan.”

I thought that I’d introduce you all to some of the folks I’m working with and I could give you some background on each of them. For the sake of some anonymity, I use their names. First, meet C. C is a helicopter pilot and works on the military leadership side of NMAA and has the reputation of being quite the ladies man. The others claim he “dates by rotator date.” This needs some explaining. When you’re deployed, you arrange your return flight (“rotator”) 90 days out from when you are supposed to return. The guys say C won’t date any girl whose rotator date is farther out than 30 days because it would require too much commitment on his part. The guys also tease C about being a “metrosexual” because of a trip he took over his last break to a “Hedeism Super Resort” in Jamaica. That’s all I think I better say about that. C is a person some men can only imagine to be, or through whom, vicariously dare to live another life. He also runs an informal DVD swap in our borough that is known as “C’s Flix.”

R1 is the construction foreman and facilities manager for NMAA. He’s the one that makes sure things are being built when, where, and how they are supposed to be. This tends to be a bit frustrating sometimes because the Afghan way of doing things is by no schedule and to change things as much as possible. Today, he was having a very frank discussion with the Colonel Omar who is the head of the engineering department. Apparently, two new buildings were just completely renovated and there was supposed to be a toilet house built between the two buildings (the buildings don’t have their own toilets). But, Gen Sharif (the Superintendent of NMAA) decided, for some reason, to put the shared toilet on the far side of the building that wasn’t Colonel Omar’s. So, Colonel Omar was asking Rich1 if there was something that could be done – could another toilet be built in the original spot so his faculty didn’t have to walk so far to use the toilet (it is cold here). You have to admire a boss trying to take care of his people. It was getting very heated because R1 said “no, nothing could be done because the Superintendent had made the decision” and Colonel Omar wanted something done. Much more arguing ensued (translated through Azizi – more on him later.) with no resolution.

R1 also conveyed a funny story yesterday about the grounds keepers at NMAA. There are several large grassy fields that need to be mowed from time to time. The grounds keepers tried to cut the grass with a fancy new “mower” they just received. But it wasn’t working so good, so they told Rich1 about it saying that the mower was no good and didn’t cut the grass at all. R1 went to check out the new mower (which he wasn’t even aware had arrived) and discovered the problem immediately. The “mower” was actually a snow-blower. It’s a fine example of introducing technology which we take for granted in America to a people, that in many respects, still live in the 1300s. It seems that we’re demolishing “The Prime Directive” (non-interference with developing civilizations) that was always omnipresent in Star Trek. Last week when we had all the snow, R1 caught the grounds keepers using brooms to move the 4 inches of snow and he asked them why they weren’t using the snow-blower. They ignored him – apparently they didn’t want to mess with it. When I snapped his picture, he asked me if I was aware that he was in the witness protection program. I said, I’m sure you are and look at where you’re being protected.

R2 is a burley northeasterner(Maine, by accent) who trains the Afghan military cadre at NMAA in soldiering skills. Yesterday, Lem and I caught him and a couple of Afghan soldiers repelling off the top of one of the dormitories. R2 was the first to go down and he was cracking up the whole way down – so much so, we couldn’t help but to laugh at him. Apparently, the Afghan soldiers were playfully beating up on R2 at the top “to make it seem more battle-like.” They got carried away a bit because R2 got a slash just above his eye, but he didn’t mind a bit. R2 has been at NMAA for over two years and is very close to the soldiers and senior staff of NMAA. R2 is also the one that feeds the cats every morning as we drive into NMAA. He brings them meat scraps from the chow hall and the cats wait for him every morning. It is quite amazing to see such a tough man be so tender to the kitties and have so much fun mucking around with the Afghans.

R2 is one of those who listens in on conversations then always has a great one-liner to throw in and make everyone laugh. The guys were complaining about the supplies available at Camp Eggers – how there was never anything that anybody ever needed. At some point, R2 throws out (think thick Maine accent), “we can get all the margarita salt, German figurines, and early pregnancy tests we want, but we can’t get any f***ing soap or toothpaste!” It is funny that they have margarita salt considering that the U.S. forces are forbidden to drink.

S is the Team Chief of NMAA. He has a huge job and oversees everything. He organizes the NMAA teacher mentors (like me), is the boss man to all the other NMAA personnel, is advisor and liaison to the Afghan senior staff, controls the entire budget for NMAA and all it’s construction/renovation projects, and is the POC for senior international staff when it comes to NMAA. These are just a few of his many responsibilities. S was very glad to have us Academic types show up because he says, now he’ll have someone to talk to because the rest of the American NMAA staff are soldiers through and through. Although an Army officer, S is very much an academic – from West Point – and has volunteered to take on a job that is way out of his expertise in many ways. But, he seems to have a good relationship with Afghans and NMAA staff alike and is doing a good job in what can be a tremendously frustrating and difficult job. S is very quick to squash any grand illusions we might have when it comes to dealing with the Afghans or “leaving our mark” at NMAA. He is a realist, from experience, about the non-optimal progress being made. There is progress, but definitely not at the pace that we (the U.S.) would like. Not that he’s not enthusiastic about what we’re trying to do, he just wants us to realize (like we have indeed) that we will not be able to do as much as we hope and it’s mainly because of the Afghan culture. His favorite line whenever one of us brings up an idea to try and get the Afghans to do something different is, “Ha – good luck with that” and then he punctuates it with a “phrumpf” out his nose. I have a lot of respect for him because of the tough job he has and the dedication he puts forth.

Now, meet H. H is extremely funny and so completely in-tune with the battle tempo. I think I mentioned him before – he’s been in the Army for 28 years, is as tough as nails, and takes a no-nonsense approach to soldiering. He’s the kind of person for whom his troops would do anything. He has spent the bulk of his military career deployed in just about every U.S. military venture during the last 30 years. He would tell you that being deployed is the best thing for his 20+ year marriage. Through his lips pursed with chewing tobacco and a mouth full of Texas twang he squirts out – “we don’t have to put up with each other’s bullshit and we don’t get tired of each other’s company when we are together.” H has taken it upon himself to educate and train the weak Air Force officers that we are in the true (and only) ways of serving in the U.S. military – the Army way. He is quick to define acronyms for us, tell us countless war stories, and invite us to participate and experience in as much as we can in this deployment.

All I can say is thank God we have leaders like him in the military! He told us a story a couple of days ago about how they were in a convoy from Camp Eggers back to NMAA about some time ago that got blown up by a suicide car bomb. Yes, I think I mentioned that incident before. I forgot to mention who the occupants were in the Suburban that got blown up (recall no one got hurt). It was the U.S. lead on the counter-IED (improvised explosive device) team. He was the expert (from Iraq) that came to Camp Eggers to tell everyone how to prevent from being taken out by IEDs (e.g. suicide car bombs) during convoys. So, H explained that it was kinda funny that this guy’s convoy was the one that got blown up. If you recall, H and a couple of other U.S. troops were driving in the tailing vehicle of the 2-vehicle convoy that day. After the attack, it was H and the others that quickly jumped out to redirect traffic and push the damaged suburban safely back to the NMAA grounds. When they got there, H asked the “expert” who he was, and the officer said, “I’m the lead counter-IED expert from Iraq.” H quipped back, “How’s that working for you? Welcome to Afghanistan.” Brian asked H, if during that whole incident if his heart didn’t pop out of his chest out of fear or excitement and H said his heart didn’t miss a beat, it like “taking a walk.” He’s been through everything and I have no doubt he’s telling the truth.

There are a few more guys in the office, but I haven’t gotten pics of them yet, but I will. My time at work over the last couple of days has been devoted to trying to come up with in-class activities and projects for the Afghan instructors to use in the coming semester. This is what they wanted most from me – to give them “new” ways to teach. I’ve been trying to come with an activity for every 3-5 lessons. They are designed to get the students to use the physics knowledge they get from class in a contextual application. For example, the first project is “measurement, distance, and vectors” so I designed an activity where they are given a map of NMAA and they must trace out a path in class on the map, and calculate some distances and vectors. Then they go out and actually measure their paths and compare it to what they calculated and explain any differences. I have a meeting with my Afghan instructors on Saturday for them to try that activity and the other two I have developed as examples. The idea is for them to experience these activities and hopefully they’ll be able to come up with some themselves. Here’s a picture of me when I was out taken measurements for one of my proposed projects.

Lem is doing the same sort of thing, but for the math courses. Brian, on the other hand, has managed to get the entire Leadership and Management major dissolved. We have nicknamed him, “The Terminator.” Let me explain. The Leadership and Management department is the most seriously lacking department. Leadership and management are extremely important concepts for future leaders, but the Afghans have no such capacity to teach it. A curriculum for these just doesn’t exist anywhere in Afghanistan. But, at NMAA, there is an assembled faculty for Leadership and Management (L&M) and they have one course that they have taught for the last two years with the help of the U.S.. Now, though, there was a push to make L&M a major within itself and so they had to come up with 10+ new courses by March. This is why Brian was brought here - to help get that going. Help is putting it lightly – Brian was brought here to build the entire L&M curriculum – all 10+ or so classes; did I say by March when the semester starts? Actually, there will be another West Point officer arriving soon to help Brian. So, just like Lem and I did, Brian met with his faculty but instead of the enthusiastic reception we got, Brian was greeted with despondence. His faculty said it was fruitless to try and teach all the classes that were required (because they didn’t have any teachers) and they were going to recommend that the L&M major be scrapped (because they didn’t have any cadets that wanted to major in L&M) – the faculty didn’t even want to try to make something out of nothing. Well, as you can imagine, this caused quite a stir for Brian. After some wrangling, the program isn’t terminated (but we kid Brian that it is), but it is being absorbed into a English/Law general studies program with the goal of having it become a full-fledged major in a couple of years. So, Brian still has a job to do, but it’s not quite as formidable as it once was. Here’s a little something that H came up for Brian …

I wanted to relate just one last thing for now, so bear with me. I think I’ve mentioned that the electricity goes out frequently at NMAA and our internet connection is intermittent. Well, today we had a very nice young Afghan man come in a fix our internet connection. Well, it’s not like cable-modem fast, but it is the fastest the NMAA staff have seen for months. Anyway, his name is Azizi and he spoke pretty good English and pleasantly sang while he worked. I wanted to mention him because he was one of the few locals from “outside the wire” with whom we’ve come into contact. He is contracted by the U.S. (so he makes pretty good money, ~ $450/month) as a computer fixer-upper. He travels all over Afghanistan to fix the computer systems of the coalition forces. Because he spoke English so well, I asked him if he’d like to be an interpreter. He said he would because he could make more money, but more importantly, because he said he didn’t like traveling to the most dangerous places in Afghanistan (where the coalition forces tended to face the Taliban head-on). He described several close calls he had encountered and how his girlfriend and mother worried so much about him and how he just wanted to be in a safe job now. Well, although we couldn’t hire him directly, I made the suggestion that if he could get into the pool of interpreters, he would be a 2-for-1 hire because he could help with the computer stuff too. Well, we kicked around about how to get this done and before he left, we had his resume on the way to the folks that hired the interpreters. Also before he left, he was the one translating the argument between R1 and Colonel Omar – now, that’s what I call on the job training! We’ll see how it goes.

Well, this has turned into a mammoth blog entry, but I’ll just have to say that I’m going to type what I can, when I can. I really wish I could convey everything I want to, but I’m keeping notes so I can maybe pass the many stories onto you at some later point. Anyway, I hope this wasn’t as laborious to read as it was to write and I welcome and salute all of you that actually managed to get to the end! Here are a couple more pictures: one of two Russian Migs on the NMAA grounds and the new shower/toilet facilities for the cadets. I wanted to show you this one because in their shower area, they have units (I don’t remember what they are called - absolution stations I believe) for the cadets to cleanse their feet before prayers (5 times a day).