A Little of This, a Little That

Shortly after we arrived at NMAA this morning (Thursday), there was a suicide bomber attack on an American convoy not far from NMAA. The convoy consisted of two American up-armored vehicles. The suicide car rammed into one of the vehicles and then blew up. No one in the vehicle was hurt - a few bruises - the armor and glass does its job well. However, there were 6-8 civilians on the road killed. We were worried because we got word that some of the NMAA faculty might have been nearby during the incident – it occurred during the morning rush hour. Fortunately, none of the NMAA faculty were injured. Unfortunately, as is always the case, innocent civilians trying to just live their lives were the casualties. As suspected and is the trend, the warmer weather has brought about an escalation of terror by the Taliban. Here's a couple of links of information:

CNN
New York Times

Bad Day Also, Thursday morning was Dr. Wali's last day. He had mentioned last week that he might take an interpreter job at Camp Eggers, in the medical unit. He asked Lem and I what he should do. We both suggested that the Eggers gig would be better for him, because he would actually be working in his area of expertise and it could help him get to America faster. So, today he left. I am happy for him, but sad for us and NMAA. He was the best terp we have right now, but he is moving on to better things. He became a very dear friend.




Faculty Bios

This week I decided to put together some brief bios of all the science faculty. My idea was to take their pictures, and provide some basic data (name, specialty, work and teaching experience, etc.) in a binder or folder. We do this at the Air Force Academy and post them in the halls so students can get to know us. I thought this would be a good idea for here too, but I was mainly doing it so there would be some sort of record of who the faculty were and their experience, so they could have a copy themselves (sort of like a little resume), and future mentors could come here and get a jump start on who the science faculty were.

I drafted a form with several questions, had the terps translate it and then I gave it to the faculty. They then provided the answers, which had to be translated back to English. I put together some drafts with their pictures, and then had to interview each to fill in the blanks or clarify the information they provided. One of my questions, was “Have you received any awards for your teaching or military service.” All of them replied, “many” or “yes” or something equally vague. So, part of the clarification was to get the details. After discussing that I wanted more specific information about their awards they all seemed a little uneasy and embarrassed. They were embarrassed because they didn’t have any documentation of their awards – none of them did. They said that when the Taliban took over, that many people were killed (just one of the many excuses the Taliban used to kill people) for having documents showing that they were educated or worked for the previous government. So, people would shred and then burn their documentation – including award certificates and letters of recognition. Many of them related how they had seen with their own eyes, friends or family being shot and killed for having such documentation. The Taliban would rip up the documentation in the victim’s face and then shoot the person dead! Sickening!

Also, some of them, for obvious reasons, had gaps in their teaching history. Yet, others didn’t – they continued to work at the Afghan Air Force Academy during the Taliban rule. I asked how they all came about – what did they teach at the Afghan Air Force Academy during the Taliban rule. They said matter-of-factly, “We just taught the same stuff – physics, the students had just changed and there were more of them, and they were Taliban. The Taliban still needed educated fighters.” They were a little embarrassed by this – that they had worked for the Taliban – but I knew and they affirmed that they were just trying to do what they needed to do to survive. I made the comment, half jokingly, that maybe all their new and many Taliban students weren’t really Taliban – they were just saying they were so they could get an education. They all laughed and said, “yes, of course!” It makes one think, and I’ve mentioned it before, that the loyalties of the Afghan people are fluid. They are survivors and at any given moment, 1/3 of the people are supporting the government, 1/3 are supporting the Taliban (or some sort of opposition), and 1/3 are sitting on the fence – but, all of them are doing what they need to do to survive. Makes complete sense for a people that have had to endure so much strife and violence for so long – they are all hedging their bets!

A Khoja Adventure

Lem loaned his camera to Khoja a couple of weeks ago for a jumma, so Khoja could take pictures of his family and his house and neighborhood for us because we won’t ever be able to go outside the wire to see these things. He brought us back some pictures (four of just his TV!!) which included the mosque closest to his house, clothing shops, and pictures of his family. Khoja is the oldest of 3 brothers that live with his mother and father. He also has a sister who is married with 3 kids and lives in Pakistan. He is very close to his brothers and they spend time working out together nearly every day. His youngest brother had polio when he was younger and one of his legs is atrophied. There extended family lives a simple life, but from what Khoja says, they are happy. Some of the pictures that Khoja showed us were of clothing stores. He wanted us to pick clothes to buy for our wives and for ourselves. So, one day we took the pertinent measurements (shoulders, shoulders-to-wrist, shoulders to mid-calf, and waist-to-foot) so he could buy our “man-jammies” as they have become known by the American soldiers. These traditional Afghan men’s clothing are basically some long pants, with an oversized (i.e. long) shirt. After measuring and picking our styles, Khoja said he would be on the hunt for suits for me, Lem, and Marten. I picked black, Lem picked white, and Marten picked blue.




This past week, Khoja arrived one morning to present us with our man-jammies. He was very proud and he told us how difficult it was. He said he went to one store where he had to order the material, then another store where the tailor made the suit, then another shop for the embroidery, and then another store for them to be folded and packed neatly into little cellophane bags. We thanked him and paid him and after work, tried them on to take pictures so we could let Khoja see. They really are quite nice and will surely be comfortable. What’s funny though are the pants. The pants are absolutely gihugic. They are meant to be bunched up at the waist with a belt, but they are just really funny to see for the first time before you put them on …

Also this week, we got Khoja to show us where he lives with Google Earth. If you haven’t already done so, you really must check Google Earth out – you can zoom onto most any location (address, city, etc.) on earth and see a satellite image of the location. Khoja thought it was amazing to be able to see his house and navigate from our houses in Colorado all the way to his house in Kabul Afghanistan. We printed out the images of his house so he could show his family. Marten even got into it and showed us his house in Montpelier France. The quality of the shots was amazing, not only could we identify his mother’s car in the parking lot, but we could actually see his patio furniture and maybe even his cat on the terrace of his house. He and Khoja both appreciated being able to see where Lem and I come from.

Women’s Day

As many of you recall, March 8 was International Women’s Day and even Afghanistan got in on it. President Karzai pleaded (click here to read more) with his countrymen to stop forcing the country’s young women (and girls) into arranged marriages with men several decades older. He suggested that women should be educated. Sarcasm would say that the girls could get educated until the “legal” age of 16 and then get forced to marry. And, then perhaps not to a man several decades older, but maybe a man just a few decades older. Well, the fact that it even got any mention in this country or this part of the world is a huge, um, baby step.

The faculty were very proud that Afghanistan was participating in this international celebration. I think they really like the fact that they were part of a much bigger and global activity. I asked several faculty, what Women’s Day meant for the women of Afghanistan and all of them, as if it were rehearsed, would say, “It’s a day to show appreciation for our womans.” I then asked them how exactly they showed their appreciation – did the women have a day off from house chores? And, invariable, I would get the same response after a short chuckle, “No, they must still work at houses and take care of kids, animals, shopping, cooking, etc. - we simply recognize them for appreciation.” Well, baby steps …

Sgt B, who just joined our NMAA team a few weeks ago, met with all the women of NMAA (1 terp, 2 librarians, a few kitchen ladies) and had a little gathering to have tea. They had a good chat apparently and really appreciated getting to know Sgt B and having a special time for them to get together. They decided to try and do it more often.

“Googletalize” Your Life

When I worked for the Scientific Advisory Board (nearly 10 years ago now), one of the first trips I took included going to meet the founders of Google. They had just started out and had garnered quite a bit of interest. One of the things that impressed me on that trip was what made Google unique among the way its search engine worked. Up until that time, internet search engines were fairly simple in that whatever phrase or word you plugged in would be searched among all of the millions of titles of websites at the time, or possibly even in some of the front page text. The higher up in the file structure of the website’s hierarchy the phrase appeared, the higher priority the website was given as a match to the users’ search parameters. However, Google’s search engine worked differently. Instead of finding your word or phrase in website titles, Google prioritized sites by the number of times a website was referred to or linked to by other websites. That is, the more a website was referred to, then obviously that website must have offer something that not only other websites felt was important, but surely would be more beneficial to users. It was (is) truly a paradigm shift in how to find information.

I have heard some say, that you can measure yourself by how you love, through your actions or inaction, by what you accomplish, by what you say, or by how much wealth you accumulate. Some say that you measure yourself by the people that measure themselves by you. This seems to fit the Google analogy mentioned above. Maybe the greatest success we can achieve is inspiring others.

I was fortunate to experience something of this nature this week. There is a young Afghan who NMAA is trying to hire for a physics position. I interviewed him a few weeks ago and recommended that we hire him. Unfortunately, there won’t be any positions available until this summer. But, Col Raghi invited him to “volunteer” to teach for free until NMAA might be able to hire him. I invited him to participate in my faculty get togethers as well. He has been faithfully participating in everything we have been doing for the last few weeks. Yama is extremely enthusiastic (and only 22 years old). The other day, I went to ask the faculty to come up with two more projects we needed for the first semester syllabus. He did not hesitate and volunteered to do one of the projects.

The next morning, he came into my office very excited. He had made a beautiful poster (in Dari) illustrating the theory and equations behind Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion. He was so very proud and said that he had worked all night to get it done. I said, “It was great work and I appreciate you doing it, but you didn’t have to get it done right away.” He started speaking rapidly and lost me fairly quickly, so I asked Dr. Wali to help out. And you know what Yama said to me? He said, “I didn’t want to let you down, I wanted to make you proud, I wanted to help make NMAA a better place. You work so hard for NMAA and Afghanistan and we should too.” Wow! It was quite humbling and all I could say to him was, “Tasheqor, rafik!” “Thank-you, my friend!” And then we shook hands and made a loud clap when our hands met. He put his left hand on top of our clasped hands and just looked at me and smiled for just a moment. Now, that felt like a success.

To Hoop, or Not to Hoop

As we were driving out today, there were cadets playing soccer in one field, a group playing volleyball and a bunch doing bar dips and pull-ups. It was spring in Kabul I guess ... very nice. So, the next day (Tuesday), Marten and I went to play a little basketball. It was kinda hard to play with my ABUs and weapon on, but we just wanted to get out in the sunshine and shoot a little. So we headed out. Well, all of the new cadets are back now and they were sitting in the courtyard between the dorms and we had to walk thru to get to the hoops. They saw us and immediately wanted to talk – to speak English. We got to the hoops and started shooting. A bunch started watching, then a couple of brave ones wanted to shoot so we let them. After about 3 minutes – every one of them (~ 150) were surrounding us, wanting to try. It was getting pretty chaotic and they were collapsing in all around us, so I broke them into 2 lines to take turns shooting.



They were funny, they would just laugh when people would miss and then they would all cheer and clap if someone made it. They had never played before and Marten and I were just cracking. They were so uninhibited to try and they were all such kids. Then they kept calling me Morris because they saw my name on my uniform and could read it. They kept saying, “Mr. Morris, I turn” or “Mr. Morris, hello.” It turned out that Marten and I didn’t get to shoot much at all. Tthey kept wanting me to shoot, so I did a couple of times, but I just kept letting them. It was fun and neat to see them laughing so much and having so much fun and just being kids ...



Marten was funny too. He is so young himself - he said, “Maybe we should make two teams of 5 so they can play a game?” I said, “Marten, there are 150 of them, they are laughing and having fun, just trying to do simple shots. Let's leave them be ...” He, said, "yes, of course, you are right." Later, he was inspired to make a physics problem about basketball. He was explaining it to me and then he said, "…then a cadet shoot the ball into the ....what's that called?" I said “the basket ...” Then the light bulb went off in his head - "Ah, that is why they call it basketball." We both laughed at that.



The cadets were disappointed when marten and I had to leave - they were doing work and wanted to play some more when they were done - I told them we'd be back. They were unloading all their new bunkbeds and trunks to put in their rooms. I told this story to Natalie and she ask “Do you think they think it's weird for a Lt. Col to be out there playing?” I don't think they know better. I think they thought it was cool that this old guy with gray hair was playing basketball and letting them play and laughing and having fun with them. They definitely thought it was cool that I was an American. I’m not sure they cared that Marten was French, but I think they liked Marten because he is just a kid like them too.

Marten has accepted a challenge from LTC Tim for a weekly basketball match on panj shambay (Thursdays). We're going to have a 5 on 5 basketball game after work - should be fun. Marten is our manager and Tim is for the other team. Marten is very energetic is everything he does and has designed cartoon characters of us and he wants to make t-shirts. He put photos of our heads on cartoon characters - he even did Khoja. Check us out!


Here are a couple of things that spread a little cheer:

Pi Day

One of the problems of living with a math teacher is that he expresses a bit of geekiness from time to time. And, he has many math friends that practice being geeky on a full time basis. Lem received an email from one, reminding him that March 14 is “Pi Day,” that is “π” Day. The number π is a non-repeating real number equal to 3.14159 … So, March 14, can be represented by 3.14 and to go along with that, everyone should eat pie at 1:59 pm. Get it? Ha! Ha! From my undergraduate days, in nuclear engineering we seemed to often have to convert quantities of stuff per second to stuff per year. After doing this countless times the long way, I realized that there are actually about πx10⁷ seconds in one year and I’ve been using it (whenever the need arises) ever since. Okay, I’m a bit of a geek too. Here are some other Pi Day sites you can click to:

A Pi Day Website
Another Pi Day website (complete with limericks)
Pi, Pi, Mathematical Pi (song segment)
More Pi music
Pi Sudoku (free for downloading and printing)

Jumma Song (to the tune of Mama’s Little Baby Loves Short’nin’ Bread)

This is dedicated to my old friend "Mike Diesel" who sent me an email this week that made me laugh out loud when I read it. Thanks!

Meetings are over, faculty are gone
Today is jumma eve, so it won’t be long
Get all your gear, it’s almost here
Let’s get movin’ to what we hold so dear

All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma, jumma
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma day.
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma, jumma
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma day.

Head to the DFAC, it’s pizza tonight
Rumor has it, there’s also cherry pie
Finish it up, it’s movie time
You want “There Will Be Blood”, but “Charlie Wilson’s War” is mine

All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma, jumma
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma day.
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma, jumma
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma day.

Sleep in late, no rush to the morn
Jumma’s our day, a day to be reborn
Refresh our minds, refresh our hearts
Jumma goes quick, then a new week starts

All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma, jumma
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma day.
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma, jumma
All of NMAA’s mentors love jumma day.

Thanks for reading.