The Greatest Thing

I've figured out the greatest thing about Dubai and the Dubai Airport.
At the McDonalds here, they still serve the original apple pies!!!
The fried, crispy, wonderful apple pies from my youth!

I have about 11 hours to kill here, I may try to eat one per hour...MMMMMMM!!

Last Week

A week ago an Engineer working with the Corps of Engineers here in Kabul was murdered. It was a pretty quiet story as there was/is an active investigation going on to try to determine what happened...most of the major news outlets carried the story, but it was a short story as there were very few details. Most people don't even know that it happened. I don't know many details, and can't really talk about what I do know, but I know that his death was totally senseless. We had a memorial service here on Friday. It was both somber and sobering. Sobering because some forget that we are in a combat zone and seen as unwelcome occupiers to many people in this country.

Today is 9/11. To commemorate this anniversary, the soldiers are holding flag flying ceremonies all day long. They say that the greatest honor that can even bestowed onto a flag is to have that flag flown over a U.S. base in a foreign land. Today about 200 flags will get this honor. They won't be flying over the base for a long time as the color guard has 200 flags to push through...but the color guard raises the flag, salutes, and then lowers it, folds it, and presents it to the person that requested to have the flag flown. The flags can be flown in honor of someone else...or for someone else...and the Commander signs a certificate for each flag. As it is an honor for the flag, it is also an honor for those involved in the ceremony. Most of the military members on this base will rotate through flag duties today. Until I got here, I never really thought about the flag, what it means, and all the people that have died serving under it. It is a bit different now because of my experiences here.

Another bad day.

The current events related to Afghanistan are deeply saddening. I'm not allowed to speak about anything that has happened, so I won't. But this much is very clear: despite of all the time, money, personnel, and effort that we have invested in this country, there are still lots of people in this country that don't like us.
It is really too bad.

In news that is not a complete downer...my kindle has been broken out of jail!
I found a website that shows how to apply a "jailbreaking hack" to my kindle so that I can load my own screensaver pictures onto my kindle instead of having pictures of old-lady authors on there when I turn it off. Below are some of the pictures that I've added.






There are about 20 more pictures that I loaded up...it is so awesome!

Cigars

Today on our compound was a meeting of the Tali-banned Cigar Aficionado Club; I went.

It is a group that was founded in Kabul in 2009. They have patches, shirts, coins...you name it. A picture of their patch is shown below.

They have almost 500 members worldwide. You become a member by attending a meeting held here in Afghanistan and paying your lifetime membership dues of $50. This gets you a shirt, a patch, and a free cigar at every meeting. Then when you go somewhere else, you can start your own cigar club and you'll still be under the Tali-banned regime.

They now have about 6 clubs in Afghansitan, a couple in the states, and a couple in Europe. They enjoyed meeting at Qalaa House as we actually have some trees and shade. Most of the time they're sitting in the sun trying to enjoy their cigars.

I didn't join, but I did have a cigar with the group.

They usually meet twice a month at ISAF or at the US Embassy, but they voted to start a chapter at Qalaa House to cover the other 2 weeks in a month. They even voted to give the new chapter $1000 to start buying shirts and cigars.

During the "meeting" they provided some tips on how to properly smoke a cigar. The guy said, "...it is acceptable to put down your cigar to take a drink of your favorite beverage. Here in Afghanistan, that beverage is water." A large number of good-natured "boos" erupted from the crowd. It was a decent way to spend an afternoon.

Getting shorter ever day...

Getting short...

From what I understand, some military terms never change. Most of the people at Kristi's office know that I'm deployed over here. Some older guy that Kristi doesn't really know stopped her in the hall the other day and asked when I was set to return. She told him I would be back in just a couple of weeks and he responded with, "Oh, he's getting real short now!"

That's the term. When your time over here is winding down, you're "getting short". I've asked a couple of other people and they said the term has been around forever. Just another thing about this deployment that makes me feel like I've become part of a special club. A special club where random people can talk to Kristi about deployment and their concern for me/us is genuine...because either they've been there or they've had family who have.

I still have 2 weeks here but but I'm already "chomping at the bit" to get back home. The other night, I had a hard time falling asleep as I was planning my first 10 days or so at home. All the things I want to do with, and for, my family: family pictures, backpacking, canning peaches, projects on the house, etc. It is going to be a full 10 days but I'm really looking forward to it.

Getting shorter every day.

My Brain!

When the boys were little, whenever they bumped their heads we would always ask, "did you smash your brain?"

The other night at t-ball, Matty fell down in the gym and bonked his head so he was sitting out for a bit. Sam yelled for him to come play and Matty replied with "I'm taking a break because I smashed my brain!"

How great is that?!?

I can't wait to see those boys...only a few weeks left.
Fingers crossed that it goes by quickly.

Amazing.

So I'm back in Kabul now...no more Wardak for me. I'm actually a little bit sad.

Last night, my Wardak team announced that there was a "farewell dinner" for me at the DFAC. I thought that this roughly translated into us all going to dinner together, nothing more than that. I was wrong. When we got to the DFAC, the DFAC staff had arranged the tables and covered them with linens. Atop the table was a big RESERVED sign. I've never seen this before and I said to myself, "wow, there must be a big-shot here tonight" but then I saw some of my coworkers sitting down at the tables. Apparently, I was the big-shot. I was surprised and very touched that they went to the effort...I had only worked with them for a couple of weeks?!?

The Commander and his XOs came and sat with us. I got to spend about 30 minutes having a very nice chat with the Commander about family, kids, and life. It was really wonderful. It may be a hard to understand, if you haven't been in an organization like ours over here, but the Commander is in charge of hundreds of soldiers and a base in a very kinetic part of the world...he is a pretty busy and important guy. For him to take the time to get to know me personally during my time there, even though I was just passing through, was very touching. When dinner was finished, my Captain said some really nice things to close it off. Everything was perfect and totally unexpected...I was touched.

My time in Wardak has been the highlight of my deployment. I really felt like we were doing work that could have a large impact on the people of the Wardak Province. It was a rough couple of weeks, though. The helicopter crash, IEDs, and some recent kidnappings and killings were all relatively close to our base. It elevated the stress a little but I had confidence in the soldiers that went out with us. It is a unexplainable feeling to go out on a movement, site visit, or walk and have someone designated to cover your butt. The soldier in charge of the movement would say, "so-and-so, you're watching out for Engineer Hace!" As we walked the sites, the designated soldier was never more than a stone's throw away. It is surreal putting that much trust/faith in other's abilities.

Most of TF Slugger only has a few months left in Afghanistan. During this time,as I read news reports that flow from that province, I will likely hold my breath a bit until I find out that my co-workers are safe. I wish them all the very best, I really enjoyed the time I spent with them at Forward Operating Base Airborne.

The stress was higher out there, but the rewards were much higher also. I actually miss it.

Helicopter

So it has been a few days since the Chinook was shot down.
It is truly heartbreaking.
Most of us here haven't read very many of the news reports as it is a little too close to home for some of us. The crash happened only about 15 miles from our base.

Equally tragic, however, are the soldiers who are killed and not recognized or mentioned in the news, like the 2 killed when the IED hit their MRAP last week. Even the engineers in Kabul didn't know about this. It is really sad that we have gotten so accustomed to soldiers dying and such that it takes an incident of this size to make the news.

Things are fine for me here in Wardak. I'll be leaving here in just under a week to go finish my tour in Kabul.

Today we went out on movement for a meeting with the DAIL, department of agriculture, irrigation, and livestock. Our agribusiness team is working with the DAIL to set up seed associations and a variety of other agri-business programs throughout Afghanistan, it was an interesting meeting. They needed a quick structural evaluation of a building on their site, so they brought me along.

The interesting part about our trip was that it was all on foot. We took 12 soldiers, 2 civilians, and 2 interpreters and walked from our base through the village to our meeting site. It was hot and we were in our full battle-rattle. I sweated through everything...it was hot. It was a pretty interesting walk...a little "higher speed" than I'm used to because you never know who is a friend and who isn't. Additionally, we planned our route before we started moving but as we were walking we turned down a street and it was full of locals working on the foundation for a wall. We had to walk by over 50 people to pass through this street...it is tough on the nerves because I don't have the experience to tell friend from foe. One of the men that we passed yelled something derogative about the women in our group in Pashtu...our interpreter told me. Our interpreter informed the man that language like that was not OK during Ramadan and that he should shut-up.

There is talk that the locals don't really like us, but I'm glad nothing more happened today.

Bud Lite

I went outside the wire again to inspect the masonry wall that surrounds the agricultural institute. The work we saw that other day was really poor and we had the contractor in our office so that we could explain all the deficiencies.

We went out today to see if he's figured out how to correctly build this wall. While we were out there some of the soldiers made up a "real American hero" jingle about me. If you don't remember, google "bud lite real American hero" where they would make a commercial about those with really mundane jobs.

Mine went.
We salute you, Mr. Aghan-Wall-Inspector-Man.
You walk this crappy wall under the hot sun.
guy singing in the back ground, "oooo, it's really hot out here"
You tell the contractor that his masonry is not very good.
guy singing in the back ground, "oooo, the wall is really crappy"
...I don't remember the rest except for "So, here's to you Mr. Afghan-Wall-Inspector-Man."

It was pretty funny...

The other day wasn't so fun, though. A patrol from a COP (Combat Out-Post) that is a few towns over from where we are, hit an IED while they were driving on their patrol. They were in an MRAP but 2 soldiers were still killed in the attack and another 2 were wounded. They soldiers were from the same brigade or company as the ones that I work with. It was weird to be in the office when someone came in and announced that, "We lost 2 today and they're bringing in 2 wounded." The people I work with didn't really know the soldiers but you could tell that they felt the loss of their own.

I also found out that I may be moving back to Kabul sometime soon. I guess they found a permanent replacement for me that should be arriving this week.

Wardak

So I'm working over here in Wardak Province on Task Force (TF) Slugger. It is pretty sweet being on TF Slugger...it just sounds cool. On thing that the Army does quite well is come up with team names. I'm convinced that corporate team cohesion could be created with some great team names.

"You have a question about your bill? That is handled by Team Ripcord, I'll transfer you now."

"You'd like to speak with marketing? Transferring you to Team Thunder."

I'm going to push for our structural engineering team back home to come up with a better name: TF Blackbird, TF Dagger, TF Tank, TF Hat-Trick...all good names.

We went out on movement today. 4 MRAPS chock full of soldiers and me. We had to go look at a potential bridge project, inspect a wall, check out a building, and meet with the provincial engineer who works for the governor. It was pretty sweet...MRAPs are nice rides! I may have to get one when I get home. Not sure if I want to get the one with the 50 caliber machine gun in the turret or the grenade launcher. We had one of each out today.

Here is a picture of the bridge project we went to see. As you can see the current bridge is having some difficulties. The river bed is dry, but in the spring the snow melt turns this dry river bed into a raging torrent. So raging, in fact, that it has caused the damage to the existing bridge.

Today I felt like I was doing the work that I came to Afghanistan to do. I was working on projects that can really make a difference for Afghan civilians.

The wall we inspected is one of the last pieces of an Agricultural institute that will help teach local farmers about different techniques to maximize their crop yield, irrigation techniques, as well as ways to store crops to prevent spoilage. The area around here is a high apple producing region and part of the Army's initiative here is to teach the locals what else can be done with apples: saucing, juicing, etc. A number of cold storage sites have been built in the last few years and more are planned to prevent this resource from going bad.

Slugger is also working towards procuring ambulances for the 11 clinics that have been built in the region. They are working with various NGOs, and USAID, and others to to figure out how to make this happen. Purchase should be finalized in the next few weeks. It is pretty amazing to watch as the Commander doesn't say "how" to do something or "who" to talk to, he just says..."there is a need for 11 ambulances, get it done"

And the best part about the day...nobody try to shoot us!

Airborne

First things first, here is a picture of the MRAP that was on the compound the other day.

I moved...unfortunately, though, it was not by helicopter. I just got a ride in your run-of-the-mill armored 4-Runner while wearing body armor...just another normal day.

I'm at forward operating base (FOB) Airborne. It is SW of Kabul by about an hour. It is a mountain base, we're at about 8000 feet.


The drive here was pretty crazy. It was a 2 lane road, drive as fast as you want, pass whenever you like. One of the vehicles that is pretty common around here is the old toyota minivan that was a bit boxey...don't remember what it was called. But they are taxis here and everywhere you go, you see about a dozen people crammed in to them. The side doors are always open so they can get some ventilation into the van. We passed one that only had about 5 or 6 people in it, but it did have 2 full-sized goats in the back taking up the extra space.

One of the things that I'll never get used to is the over-whelming poverty here. On the drive yesterday, we were stuck for a bit in a traffic jam and there was a little boy, probably about 11 or 12 years old, walking between the cars with a brush in his hand and a big water jug strapped to his back. He was offering to wash the windows of anyone stuck in traffic. It is sometimes very hard to see. But several times during the drive, I did see kites being flown. Kites were out-lawed under the Taliban...so it was nice to see them being flown.

So for the next month or so, I've been loaned to one of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT). Everyone on my team is part of the military, mostly reserves...except for me. I sat in on a daily briefing the other day where we briefed the Colonel on what everyone on the team was working on. This team is focused more on making positive changes in the lives of the local Afghans. They are building bridges that can link communities and economic opportunities. The commander spoke about wanting to connect villages so everyone can have access to the centralized provincial government. He also spoke about doing things to model democracy. One of his ideas is to have some of the different offices hold weekly staff meetings in one of the nearby villages so that Afghans can see what democarcy and open governance can look like.

It is very different here from back in Kabul where our focus was primarily on building things for the Afghan Army and Police. Here it is about bridges, OB/GYN clinics, schools, highways, and governance centers. It is different work and I'm looking forward to having a few weeks here to help in any way that I can. It should be interesting.

Petting Zoo

Today at lunch we are having a petting zoo!

Slightly different from your conventional petting zoo, this is an opportunity for us to get up-close and personal with IEDs (improvised explosive devices). It is a seminar about how IEDs have evolved over the years here in Afghanistan. It also gives us a chance to see what the enemy is using as a means of attacking US soldiers. Should be pretty interesting. I'll take some pictures.

They are bringing in an MRAP for us to check out, too...which should be really cool. MRAP stands for mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle. Here is a picture of a typical MRAP.

It should be one of the more interesting lunchtimes I've had in awhile.

7-weeks to go

The countdown has officially started.

2 things that I wanted to do while I was here is shoot a machine gun and ride in a helicopter. With only 7 weeks to go, the odds weren't looking good.

But...it appears that things may be looking up in this area.

I may be heading out for a little while to assist the army with construction assessments at one of our bases in Afghanistan. From what I've been told, everyone that gets to this base...goes by HELICOPTER!

I may get that helicopter ride afterall. I'll keep you posted.

Maybe when I'm there, they'll have some spare machine gun ammo for me to burn. Fingers crossed! Either way, the countdown has started for my flight out.

National Sport

Recently, they started sending out emails to those of us working on our compound that have a Dari word of the day and something about life and culture in Afghanistan. Here was today's, about Afghanistan's national sport.

Afghan 101: Buzkashi (بزکشی)

Buzkashi, meaning "goat-killing" is the Afghan national sport. It is team sport played on horseback where skilled riders grab a goat or calf from the ground while riding a horse at full gallop. The goal of a player is to grab the carcass of a headless goat or calf and then get it clear of the other players and pitch it across a goal line or into a target circle or vat. Competition is typically fierce. Prior to the establishment of official rules by the Afghan Olympic Federation the sport was mainly conducted based upon rules such as not whipping a fellow rider intentionally or deliberately knocking him off his horse. Riders usually wear heavy clothing and head protection to protect themselves against other players' whips and boots. The boots usually have high heels that locks into the paddle of the horse to help the rider lean on the side of the horse while trying to pickup the calf. Games can last for several days, and the winning team receives a prize, not necessarily money, as a reward for their win.

The game consists of two main forms: Tudabarai and Qarajai. Tudabarai is considered to be the simpler form of the game. In this version, the goal is simply to grab the calf and move in any direction until clear of the other players. In Qarajai, players must carry the carcass around a flag or marker at one end of the field, then throw it into a scoring circle (the "Circle of Justice") at the other end. The riders will carry a whip, often in their teeth, to fend off opposing horses and riders. Horsemen are frequently carried away and in their excitement they will bump, hit and jar opponents. When they return, they are usually bruised or have a broken limb. Sometimes, they choose a site for pitch near a river and a few horsemen conspire to drown their opponents. The Afghans play for very high stakes and take the game very seriously. It is not uncommon for riders to continue in the game with cracked ribs, broken limbs and various head injuries

Buzkashi is often compared to polo. Both games are played between people on horseback, both involve propelling an object toward a goal, and both get fairly rough. However, polo is played with a ball, while Buzkashi is played with a dead animal. Polo matches are played for fixed periods totaling about an hour; traditional Buzkashi may continue for days, but in its more regulated tournament version also has a limited match time.

Buzkashi continues until a team is announced the winner. At the end of the game, a horse race is arranged which is known as 'paiga' . Horses used in paiga races are different from those meant for Buzkashi. Younger boys are not allowed to participate in such races because race horses are not saddled. Some ride their mounts bare-back and others use a thin saddle blanket.

Pretty interesting, huh? I'm starting a league when I get back to Portland.

I'm Back!

I'm back in Afghanistan...but I'm in a great mood!

I have less than 60 days until my deployment is over. It is a great feeling. I know it is getting close because I already have to start filling out paperwork to leave. There is light at the end of this tunnel!

I got back from R&R a few days ago. This time, adjusting to the 12 hour time change was a little bit rough. I had a couple of sleepless nights. Finally, the other night I popped a few Benadryl before bed and was out for the count...all night long.

One weird thing, I went on R&R as a 36 year old and came back as a 62 year old. I have to get up to pee at least once every night! It is really annoying.

R&R was great! We had a wonderful time in MN and WI. I can honestly say, I hardly thought about Afghanistan. It was very relaxing. We swam almost every day and had a great time seeing family and friends. I cannot imagine a better way to spend a vacation...it was really wonderful.

But, I'm back in the promised land for just a couple more months. What I've been promised is mountains of work, heat, and sub-par food.

But, nothing could sour my mood today...I'm planning a backpacking trip for me and the boys for a few days when I get back. I'm pretty excited to be done.

R&R

I have a ride to the airport.
I have a flight out of Afghanistan.
I have a flight that brings me back Stateside.

It all starts tomorrow morning, I can't wait!

Water Update

So we performed our experiments.
We put 2 thermometers in the freezer overnight, nestled between 2 water bottles.
This morning, the thermometers both read 23 degrees. That is not a typo...23 degrees.
And the water in the bottles was not frozen.

We were able to take a water bottle out, un-cap it and it would stay liquid. We put in a thermometer to check the temperature of the water and crystals immediately started forming on the thermometer...but the water was at 23 and then started climbing when crystals started forming. The thermometer wasn't at a different temperature than the water, but the introduction of the thermometer was enough to disturb the fragile state of the supercooled water and start the crystal growth.

So 32 degrees is not the freezing point of water! I did a quick internet search and found out about some "scientists" in Israel that were working on this.

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123376191

Scientists in Israel?!? A bunch of morons in Kabul did the same thing.

I'll be in MN in a couple of days, free to take meetings with any scientific institutions that are looking to add this big-brain to their staff. Nothing less than a senior management role, of course...and stock options.

Nerds and Water

Ok, this is going to get really nerdy, really quickly...fyi.

There is an interesting thing that happens in our office related to water bottles. We have a mini-fridge where we store water bottles and other stuff. The top part of the fridge has a little freezer part. It can be seen in the photos below.

The freezer is at such a temperature that the water gets nice and cold, but the water does not freeze. However, sometimes I can take a water bottle out of the freezer, bring it to my desk, set it down and the water inside will freeze and crystallize without me doing anything. I do not open the water bottle so the seal is intact the water just freezes. Some photos of this can be seen below...the water always freezes from top to bottom...most of the time. It may not look like it...but the water is freezing to slush.




Other times, the water will not freeze up...however, if I take the water bottle and lightly bang it against the side of the table or shake it...this action starts the crystals forming. I think that if I smack the water bottle on the edge of the desk, the point of impact will be the location at which the freezing starts...but I'm not sure. Experiments forthcoming.

Again, this is all without opening the water bottle.

Ok, as a bunch of nerds, we're trying to figure out WHY it happens. Initially we considered that there is a change in pressure from the fridge to the office because we're at altitude...6000 ft. We debunked this for a couple of reasons...the fridge is not a "pressure vessel" but also because the pressure inside the water bottle can't change that drastically because the seal does not get broken and the bottle does not noticeably change in size.

The mechanical engineers believe the whole process is somehow related to dissolved gases in the water. Since I don't know what this means, I have to disagree with their theory. This is a very common response from scientists...if you don't understand something, it must be wrong. I've vehemently disagreed and went so far as saying that it is the dumbest thing I've ever heard...they knew I was joking.

Coming from a chemistry background I think it has to do with activation energy...the energy required for a reaction to take place. For example, with water if you add enough heat to it...it boils. If you remove enough heat...it freezes. My thought is that the action of shaking the bottle releases enough "heat" from the system to start the water freezing.

The mechanical engineers also believe that the water is somehow already below the freezing point temperature when it comes out of the freezer...but for some reason it doesn't freeze.

We're having and experiment tomorrow at 0700. We will put 5 bottles in the freezer tonight so they will be nice and cold by tomorrow morning...and we're going to try to figure this out. We have thermometers and everything all ready...very methodical.

It may be tough to sleep tonight...my adrenaline is pumping...the excitement...you can cut the tension with a knife around here! Good thing that we're getting "danger pay".

2 more days of work until R&R!

Rockets, Mortars, and Water Heaters

So a couple of weeks ago I got the following email...

"...would like for a structural engineer to come over to their villa and check out damage from an explosion (not from insurgents). They would provide transportation.
Not sure what exploded"

I got to go check it out, kind of exciting. It turns out that a water heater in a back bathroom exploded. The force of the explosion was pretty amazing. It blew 2 large wardrobes that were in the next room through the window and out into the yard. It also blew doors off their hinges that were 4 rooms away. Pretty intense shock wave. Structurally, the building was fine..the force tried to blow the roof off, but instead travelled down the hallway and caused some smaller damage.

It turns out that water heaters in the States have both pressure and temperature valves. Water heaters are supposed to stop heating when the water reaches a certain temperature...if they malfunction the water inside keeps getting hotter and hotter and eventually superheats and explodes...which is what happened. In the States the extra valve releases the pressure or turns off the system so no explosion happens. That is not the case here...no pressure release and temperature sensor failed...so...BOOM!

I also got an email yesterday about a police station that got hit by a mortar...and they inquired about structural damage and repairs. Picture is below.

The mortar hit the roof and blew some of the roof away. Surprisingly, the mortar did less damage than the exploding water heater. But this way, you can see what an Afghan police station kind of looks like.

I also got a email yesterday that a rocket hit a construction site somewhere else in the country and damaged a steel beam. It blew a section out of the beam and we have to design a fix based on some pictures.

A flurry of stuff to deal with, kind of exciting couple of days...breaks up the monotony of desk work.

Less than a week until R&R, I'm excited to get out of here for a couple of weeks.