This morning, I was able to catch a glimpse of the sunrise coming over the mountains.
This afternoon it is snowing pretty heavy - perhaps it will hold some of the dust - more like talc - on the ground. It is so dusty here, that even paved roads look like dirt roads. We took the short drive to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAA) today to get oriented with our new digs. Here's a shot of NMAA's dining facility. Just beyond it is downtown Kabul - the capital of Afghanistan. The other pictures of NMAA below are of the new entry gardens outside our building and one of the four large dorm buildings. Also, NMAA is the home of one of the largest groves of trees in Kabul, shown below around one of the soccer fields.
We took a tour of the campus. The cadets are in the middle of finals, then they will have two weeks off and come back for field training. At that same time, the new class of about 325 will show up for the basic training. This 325 was wittled down from about 1800 applicants last fall. Now, just think of this: these slots for NMAA are highly competitive and NMAA is made of the same provincial representation as Afghanistan's government. That is, depending on the provincial populations, a percentage of the new cadets must come from that province and all provinces are represented. The thing is, prospective cadets must travel here to Kabul in order to apply (take a skills placement exam - the SAT actually, go through physical training and testing (often without shoes), etc.). Needless to say, to get here is extremely difficult for most of the candidates, let alone going through the admission process once they do get here, with the strong possibility that they want be accepted. Here's a couple of pictures of applicants taken their placement exam last fall and waiting for the next station of inprocessing. Really impressive showing for an opportunity of hope and a better life and better Afghanistan.
There's about $13M of renovations going on at NMAA right now which includes a new gymnasium, some new classrooms, and new showers/toilet facilities. Speaking of toilets, here's a shot of ours.
Note, that they are squatters in this part of the world. If only the picture good capture the odor that comes along with it. They don't use plumbing traps here, so what goes down, fumes up!!! We are told by the other US folks here that it is in our best interest to get on a morning-evening schedule for toilet business so we don't have to use the toilet, except for emergencies. If you notice in the picture, there is no toilet paper, but a small bucket. That bucket has water and that's what you use to clean your behind. The Afghans do wash their hands, but the bathrooms are not equipped with towels, so all the doorknobs are perpetually damp. Another reason not to use the bathroom. The US group has plenty of hand santizer around We had the chance to peek into one of the dorm rooms. There are 12 cadets per dorm room and again, the provincial representation is maintained there too. The rooms have only one small table in them for the cadets to do homework. This has been a real problem apparently, so there is a move afoot to try and keep the classrooms open after hours so cadets can study there too. Here's a shot of some of Afghanistan's future leaders.
They are all very eager to succeed and learn and were eager to practice their English with us. One of the difficulties with the cadets is that they have never had to do homework before because teachers here just don't assign it. The curriculum at NMAA is very challenging, but provides a nice broad liberal arts/sciences foundation for these future Afghan officers. The majority take English (about 1/4 take German, French, or Turkish), they take basic engineering courses (related mostly to civil engineering - the West Point influence), leadership and management (how to be a good/effective leader), science (physics, biology, chemistry), math (even calculus), history and psychology. It's a full plate to say the least and then many of the classes are taught in English, so they have to learn that as they go along too. Part of my job here is to help the Afghan teachers come up with a reasonable physics curriculum for all the cadets and help the teachers become more effective at teaching. Brian, Lem, and I met with our respective departments to get to know each other a bit. Here's my at my NMAA desk.
We also met the Dean and Superintendent of NMAA. At each stop, as we enter the room everyone stands and greets us by handshake, then we sit and chat while chai (tea) and snacks are brought in. This is greeting and partaking of chai/snacks is a Afghan custom that is taken seriously. The snacks included dried chickpeas, almonds, pistachios, and dried white grapes that were especially good. After all the tea, we had to succomb to using our toilet. Where's that hand sanitizer? At NMAA there is a permanent party of about 8 US military, mostly army, that spend 12 month tours at NMAA. They provide stability and continuity between the short timers like me, Brian, and Lem. There are about 3 officers and the rest are enlisted. They do everything from getting supplies, negotiating/managing contracts, oversee construction, organizing the library, coordinate the military training side of the house for the cadets, as well as work with individual departments and Afghan teachers like I will be doing. They are a truly remarkable bunch - cuss like nothing, lovingly and endlessly harrass one another like brothers, and have a totally down to earth no nonsense approach to serving their country. In fact, this group is made up of men and women who have served in multiple, nearly consecutive deployments. One officer told me that this is his 5th deployment since 2001! But, you know what, they wouldn't change it for anything. In fact, they are eager to deploy again after this assignment and some are trying to extend here at NMAA. So, despite what we all read and hear about, there is a healthy contingent of soldiers in our armed forces that don't mind one bit to deploy. I asked my new friend, why he does it and his simple response was that it was indeed difficult (especially on family), but the bottom line was that it was the right thing to do - trying to make things better, trying to clean up the mess - part of which can significantly be attributed to us. BTW, on the way here I had plenty of time to read and the best book I've read in a long time was by Sarah Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue. It's a great true-story of Afghanistan immediately after the fall of the Taliban. It is amazing and if you want to know what it's like here and how the Afghan people are, then read the book because she conveys it so well. Looks like we got about 4 inches of snow and I can hear the morning song of prayer by the local Afghan workers and other Muslims on base as they greet the sun and another day bestowed upon them by Allah. It doesn't seem that we're so different afterall.
This afternoon it is snowing pretty heavy - perhaps it will hold some of the dust - more like talc - on the ground. It is so dusty here, that even paved roads look like dirt roads. We took the short drive to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAA) today to get oriented with our new digs. Here's a shot of NMAA's dining facility. Just beyond it is downtown Kabul - the capital of Afghanistan. The other pictures of NMAA below are of the new entry gardens outside our building and one of the four large dorm buildings. Also, NMAA is the home of one of the largest groves of trees in Kabul, shown below around one of the soccer fields. 
We took a tour of the campus. The cadets are in the middle of finals, then they will have two weeks off and come back for field training. At that same time, the new class of about 325 will show up for the basic training. This 325 was wittled down from about 1800 applicants last fall. Now, just think of this: these slots for NMAA are highly competitive and NMAA is made of the same provincial representation as Afghanistan's government. That is, depending on the provincial populations, a percentage of the new cadets must come from that province and all provinces are represented. The thing is, prospective cadets must travel here to Kabul in order to apply (take a skills placement exam - the SAT actually, go through physical training and testing (often without shoes), etc.). Needless to say, to get here is extremely difficult for most of the candidates, let alone going through the admission process once they do get here, with the strong possibility that they want be accepted. Here's a couple of pictures of applicants taken their placement exam last fall and waiting for the next station of inprocessing. Really impressive showing for an opportunity of hope and a better life and better Afghanistan. 
There's about $13M of renovations going on at NMAA right now which includes a new gymnasium, some new classrooms, and new showers/toilet facilities. Speaking of toilets, here's a shot of ours. 
Note, that they are squatters in this part of the world. If only the picture good capture the odor that comes along with it. They don't use plumbing traps here, so what goes down, fumes up!!! We are told by the other US folks here that it is in our best interest to get on a morning-evening schedule for toilet business so we don't have to use the toilet, except for emergencies. If you notice in the picture, there is no toilet paper, but a small bucket. That bucket has water and that's what you use to clean your behind. The Afghans do wash their hands, but the bathrooms are not equipped with towels, so all the doorknobs are perpetually damp. Another reason not to use the bathroom. The US group has plenty of hand santizer around We had the chance to peek into one of the dorm rooms. There are 12 cadets per dorm room and again, the provincial representation is maintained there too. The rooms have only one small table in them for the cadets to do homework. This has been a real problem apparently, so there is a move afoot to try and keep the classrooms open after hours so cadets can study there too. Here's a shot of some of Afghanistan's future leaders. 
They are all very eager to succeed and learn and were eager to practice their English with us. One of the difficulties with the cadets is that they have never had to do homework before because teachers here just don't assign it. The curriculum at NMAA is very challenging, but provides a nice broad liberal arts/sciences foundation for these future Afghan officers. The majority take English (about 1/4 take German, French, or Turkish), they take basic engineering courses (related mostly to civil engineering - the West Point influence), leadership and management (how to be a good/effective leader), science (physics, biology, chemistry), math (even calculus), history and psychology. It's a full plate to say the least and then many of the classes are taught in English, so they have to learn that as they go along too. Part of my job here is to help the Afghan teachers come up with a reasonable physics curriculum for all the cadets and help the teachers become more effective at teaching. Brian, Lem, and I met with our respective departments to get to know each other a bit. Here's my at my NMAA desk. 
We also met the Dean and Superintendent of NMAA. At each stop, as we enter the room everyone stands and greets us by handshake, then we sit and chat while chai (tea) and snacks are brought in. This is greeting and partaking of chai/snacks is a Afghan custom that is taken seriously. The snacks included dried chickpeas, almonds, pistachios, and dried white grapes that were especially good. After all the tea, we had to succomb to using our toilet. Where's that hand sanitizer? At NMAA there is a permanent party of about 8 US military, mostly army, that spend 12 month tours at NMAA. They provide stability and continuity between the short timers like me, Brian, and Lem. There are about 3 officers and the rest are enlisted. They do everything from getting supplies, negotiating/managing contracts, oversee construction, organizing the library, coordinate the military training side of the house for the cadets, as well as work with individual departments and Afghan teachers like I will be doing. They are a truly remarkable bunch - cuss like nothing, lovingly and endlessly harrass one another like brothers, and have a totally down to earth no nonsense approach to serving their country. In fact, this group is made up of men and women who have served in multiple, nearly consecutive deployments. One officer told me that this is his 5th deployment since 2001! But, you know what, they wouldn't change it for anything. In fact, they are eager to deploy again after this assignment and some are trying to extend here at NMAA. So, despite what we all read and hear about, there is a healthy contingent of soldiers in our armed forces that don't mind one bit to deploy. I asked my new friend, why he does it and his simple response was that it was indeed difficult (especially on family), but the bottom line was that it was the right thing to do - trying to make things better, trying to clean up the mess - part of which can significantly be attributed to us. BTW, on the way here I had plenty of time to read and the best book I've read in a long time was by Sarah Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue. It's a great true-story of Afghanistan immediately after the fall of the Taliban. It is amazing and if you want to know what it's like here and how the Afghan people are, then read the book because she conveys it so well. Looks like we got about 4 inches of snow and I can hear the morning song of prayer by the local Afghan workers and other Muslims on base as they greet the sun and another day bestowed upon them by Allah. It doesn't seem that we're so different afterall.
3 comments:
Is that sarcasm about the largest grove of trees??
the squatter thing makes me cringe...I have enough bathroom phobias in the U.S.!
NO, it's not sarcasm. We can look out over Kabul from on top of our building and really it's the biggest clump of trees we can see. Of course, we can't see all of Kabul, but the guys that have been here and have cruised around Kabul say it is probably the biggest grove.
As far as the bathroom stuff, we all just have to get used to it and adjust. Another thing about the bathrooms is that the stalls are extremely tiny. Afghans are genuinely small people and the stalls are made for them. I have to work pretty hard to get the door closed, so usually I don't bother. But, I only use them to pee in not anything else!
I am trying to figure out how to do this. Think I might have it now.
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