Name: Benjamin David Thornley
Best Trip Memory: Our time in the car with W________ as the guys headed to the Grill By. So much fun and laughter!
Most Fun Trip Memory: Playing with the kids at Barek Aub. Exhausting, but a blast. Those kids are so awesome!
Funniest Moment: When the team kept asking about the “Waxinations” at the clinic in Barek Aub just to hear them keep saying “Waxinations.” (they can't pronounce V's)
Low Moment: Staying up all night throwing up and going to the hospital for Food Poisoning, and watching, on the verge of vomiting, the nurse dig around my arm for a vein…not on anyone’s fun list!
Wow Moment: Seeing the children’s burn clinic. Tore my heart out…I had to take a little walk after that.
How I was challenged/what I learned: More than anything I am encouraged by the work being done here in Afghanistan and I learned that we can make a difference, maybe we can’t change everything, but those communities that are being helped through SOZO’s projects have hope because of what SOZO is doing here. I love these people!
Name: Katie Kohrs
Best Trip Memory: Meeting a lady that my friends on previous trips to other countries knows. And talking with the Women of Hope ladies and brainstorming how I could get involved.
Most Fun Trip Memory: Taking pictures of Barek-Aub kids and then being mauled so they could all see what they look like.
Funniest Moment: Julie nonchalantly walking into the room and just plopping herself on top of me. Much laughter, and possibly some snorting resulted from that.
Low Moment: Dry nose, and stressing about if I was going to have to work the night that I came home.
Wow Moment: Also meeting the lady that my friends know, and being invited to come back to see her in Herrat.
How I was challenged/what I learned: I learned a lot more about how I am supposed to use my gifts, and where to channel those.
Name: Lee Lagomarcino
Best Trip Memory: Guys night with W___ rolling in the Toyota Prada to Grill by. W___ was on a roll cracking jokes and telling stories in typical W___ fashion.
Most Fun Trip Memory: The meat distribution and picnic at Barek Aub. Kids are kids regardless of where you go, and it was a blast playing with the little ones.
Funniest Moment: Gotta copy Ben on this one, I laughed like a little kid during this episode… When the team kept asking about the “Waxinations” at the clinic in Barek Aub just to hear them keep saying “Waxinations.”
Low Moment: Getting stuck in traffic on Wednesday was probably the only time when I had a little concern about things. God is good and we were just fine.
Wow Moment: Taking in everything in Barek-aub and then the children’s burn ward later in the week. I’m still processing the day at the burn ward.
How I was challenged/what I learned: It’s been a long process (to me anyway), but God has continued to show me what gifts he has given my and how they might be used.
Name: Ed Downing
Best Trip Memory: A ton of little kids tackling me at Barek Aub as they tried to demonstrate their strength to the American guys.
Most Fun Trip Memory: Despite my severe lack of dance skills, I think my most fun moment was doing Afghan dancing with the Sozo staff. It was amazing! I think we even managed to teach the staff a thing or two by the end.
Funniest Moment: Umm…sort of a no brainer for me. Falling off the camel, hands down. I’ve learned that humps are on a camel for a reason and you should always ride on the back of the hump to maximize safety.
Low Moment: The low point of the trip would have to be getting food poisoning. After throwing up all night, spending the night on the bathroom floor and going to the Kabul hospital, I would have to say it was a pretty clear winner of the trip “low moment.”
Wow Moment: All of the experiences with the kids at Barek Aub take a close second, but I think my “wow” moment came when we were in Istalif and had a chance to take in the countryside. It is such a beautiful country, and the view alone is something that will be in my memories for years to come.
How I was challenged/what I learned: Pardon the trite expression, but I think I’ve learned just how fortunate we are in the U.S. To watch a country rebuilding after years of oppression is just plain heart breaking, and makes me thankful for the little things.
Name: Julie Teresia Smale
Best Trip Memory: Simply going to Barek Aub and playing with the kids and just loving on them!
Most Fun Trip Memory: Getting to ride the camel, although it should have been ‘getting to sit on a camel’, but ‘getting to ride’ because she just kinda took off.
Funniest Moment: We all sat around one afternoon and made new words to popular songs. Like ‘Back that Burka up’, ‘Pretty tan for an Afghan’ and ‘He thinks my Burka’s sexy’
Low Moment: It was on the way back from Istalef and we were just driving through the mountains and looking at the beautiful scenery, when we saw another group of green flags. We had seen them flying around Kabul, but this time it was just so real. There was one area of land just COVERED with the flags and it just broke my heart.
Wow Moment: Going to all of the hospitals and visiting the ladies learning about burn safety and then seeing the kids who had already been affected by burning. The Wow would be just the awe of how real it was… not just pictures, but real children.
How I was challenged/what I learned: It was so hard for me to hold my tongue. He has revealed so much to me! He has shown me my extensive heart for children all over the world.
Name: Mark David Lorence
Best Trip Memory: It was definitely getting to see all of the staff members show their true selves at the Staff Party. I had a ton of fun getting to learn how to dance from the staff and seeing them bust a move. It was amazing to see the other side of the people who had previously just been business. It definitely helped me to build tons of relationships with the staff.
Most Fun Trip Memory: It’s a tie between getting to play with the kids at Barek Aub and seeing Ed fall of a camel. It was great just getting to play volleyball with some of the kids, even though they tried to spike the ball on me and only me most of the time. But it was equally as great to see Ed riding the neck of the camel as he fell off.
Funniest Moment: Definitely Facebook stalking certain individuals to read their outlandish notes and 1,000 applications such as “What is your intelligence?” → ‘You have slight mental retardation’ , “Are you smarter then a 5th grader” → ‘You about as bright as a box of crayons’, and “What underwear are you” → ‘A thong’
Low Moment: Hearing “Naan for you!” 20,000,000 times at breakfast that and leaving
Wow Moment: Seeing the well and all the construction in Barek Aub was pretty amazing. The last time we were there, there really wasn’t anything other then tents. And now there is a school and a clinic being build, as well as a well that is bringing life to the village. The water from the well is bringing clean water to these people, and it doesn’t taste to bad either!
How I was challenged/what I learned: Probably just having to look at the ideas and media that our culture exports and what it makes us look like. I had never realized just how far reaching our media was until I heard American rap on Afghan radio and learned that one of the top shows with kids here is WWE: Smackdown. We are instantly assumed to share the morals of the things we export and we lose integrity with those we are building relationships with.
Name: Nichole Marie Hutchins
Best Trip Memory: Getting off of the plane and seeing old friends. I was amazed that many of them remembered me. It’d been a year so I was very surprised.
Most Fun Trip Memory: I think the most fun part of the trip was building relationships with people. Whether it was Barek Aub, the Flatiron team, the SOZO staff or the people at the school, it was so neat to interact with them and just love on them. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, you can always spread love with a smile or a hug.
Funniest Moment: While at the party, the women were not able to dance with the men so we sat in the back and ‘translated’ the Dari into how it sounded in English. Fun phrases like “The elephaaaant had an orannnnnggggeee.” and “I came here. I came here. I’ll be over there soooooonnnn.”
Low Moment: I would have to say that today is my low moment. I am so sad to leave these people I love. It may sound cliché but I feel so comfortable here that it is like a second home for me. I can’t wait to return.
Wow Moment: I would have to say I have two wow moments. The first being when we rounded the mountain and saw Barek Aub, I almost cried. I could not believe that it was the same place and was so amazing to see how much progress had been made in the last year. There were actual homes and pumps for water. The school is well on its way and the foundation for the clinic is being worked on as well. The second wow moment was visiting the burn clinic and seeing the two children burned by the landmines. It was so heart breaking.
How I was challenged/what I learned: I have been challenged to be even more active in the restoration of this amazing country. So many good things are going on that people are not aware of. There are so many little ways that people can make a huge impact.
Name: Marcus Jon Baney
Best Trip Memory: The last day at Barek Aub, hanging out with kids, playing soccer, and just getting to hang out and love on them.
Most Fun Trip Memory: Several outlandish dance parties set to sweet Afghan music.
Funniest Moment: A UN representative lady asking us what we were doing at Barek Aub very condescendingly, and Jordan informing her that we just passed out a bunch of raw meat and we were going to sing songs. She was quite dumbfounded.
Low Moment: The burn unit at the children’s hospital.
Wow Moment: W____ opening up and telling us about his life and struggles and really diving into the idea of community with us.
How I was challenged/what I learned: This trip just reaffirmed my absolute love and heart for this country. This place will always run thick in my blood, and I love the people with everything that I am. The biggest challenge will be bringing the need for more funding for the children’s hospital back to America.
Name: Jordan Carter Burgen
Best Trip Memory: playing with all the kids at Barek Aub all three days we were there. Especially Alligator Hands. I don’t know if you’re supposed to have favorites, but he was my favorite. Sue me.
Most Fun Trip Memory: Brutal butchering of 2 bulls followed by dismantling them into a thousand pieces.
Funniest Moment: the incredibly old camel guy peeking out from beneath his camel
Low Moment: seeing the kids at the burn clinic and their families
Wow Moment: seeing the kids at the burn clinic and their families and hearing the president of the hospital saying he needs more support for them and knowing that I have the power to go back to the USA and raise it
How I was challenged/what I learned: Afghanistan is without a doubt my second home and I will do anything for the people here. Also just getting to know W____ much better and hearing his story and troubles.
Name: Jonathan Ronald Albertsen
Best Trip Memory: I would say that it is a four-way tie for best trip memory. (1) M___ and the guys from the staff calling me over to eat some berries, it was at this moment I realized M____ knew my name, (2) cheering W____ up and taking a guys night to “grill by”, (3) having W____ share his story in the guesthouse and his struggles in the car, and (4) any time we went to Barek Aub, specifically when we played with the kids. I already miss Alligator Hands and M____.
Most Fun Trip Memory: Riding on Camels! And the really young guy who was herding them. He was old enough to have glasses.
Funniest Moment: Listening to W____’s blatant lies, like when he told us that wearing glasses is a bad habit and when he told us that you can identify that a man is wearing a berka by which foot they start with (men always start with their right, women always start with their left)
Low Moment: Seeing the some of the kids at Barek Aub, it reminds me of how good we have it in the states. Also, seeing the kids in the burn clinic that were burned from a land mine.
Wow Moment: Having W____ share his burdens with us on the way back from Barek Aub, it made me realize how fortunate we are for the community and support that we have at home.
How I was challenged/what I learned: I was challenged in a lot of ways. My heart was broken for the kids at Barek Aub, but it was refreshing to see all the things that are being done out there at that camp. Each time I come to Afghanistan, more is being rebuilt and changing. People are being changed on this staff and are being brought to Him. It is a praise and a blessing to see the things He is doing in these people. I also learned the value of community. I saw how lucky we are to have the people around us to love and support us. How lucky we are to have people around us to share our burdens and frustrations with. The last thing I’ve been challenged with, is to again completely surrender what He wants for my life. I was reminded again that I must look to Him for direction and seek His will for what He wants for my life at all points in my life. I love this country and cannot wait to be back again.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Womit, Womit and more Womit! (V is pronounced W here) Last day in Afghanistan...posted a bit late
Well, the team’s health has taken a turn. Four of the guys have started hanging out in the bathroom a little more than they like. Three of them ended up going to Cure International this morning as they needed to get some medication to get their womiting under control before we leave in the morning. The rest of the team headed out to Barek Aub to play with the kids and spend some time praying for this city. We walked up the mountain to the reservoir for the city’s well. While up there we began our trek down the mountain into the town itself. It was a great time of prayer for these people and all of the amazing things that will happen in the future. One issue that is facing this camp is that the government is taking a very long time in deciding where the roads will be located. This is severely delaying the laying of the pipeline for water to the camp. Please pray for the government officials who are making these decisions, that they will quickly come to a wise decision that will make water much more accessible to the refugees.
We headed home and found the guys feeling much better so we packed up and headed to the Intercontinental Hotel for dinner at an outdoor grill. It was beautiful to look over the city that we have all come to love and take a few moments to pray for the leaders, the people and the future of this amazing country. We are all determined to use the gifts and resources we have been given to help them in any way. We hope that you will join us in the journey.
“Greater things are yet to come. Greater things are still to be done in this city!”
Nichole Marie Hutchins
We headed home and found the guys feeling much better so we packed up and headed to the Intercontinental Hotel for dinner at an outdoor grill. It was beautiful to look over the city that we have all come to love and take a few moments to pray for the leaders, the people and the future of this amazing country. We are all determined to use the gifts and resources we have been given to help them in any way. We hope that you will join us in the journey.
“Greater things are yet to come. Greater things are still to be done in this city!”
Nichole Marie Hutchins
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Ice cream anyone?
Today was one of our more sober days. We headed out to watch some of the burn prevention classes that SOZO is teaching in clinics and hospitals. Burns are something that plague this country. While attempting to make do with what little they have, safety is often an after thought. However, the thought is that if they can teach the mothers while they are in the hospital having their children, they can begin to try and stop the cycle. They also work on things such as breast-feeding and nutrition. All of the clinics we saw were for women so the guys spent a lot of time in the car. Felt sorry for them in the heat. The final place we went to was a children’s hospital. There were children there as young as a few months old that had rolled into heaters and fires. One boy had his entire body burned and lost both of his legs due to a propane gas explosion. It was so sad to see him under a tent because he could have nothing touching him due to the pain. So sad… The most difficult part of the visit to the children’s hospital was seeing two children beside each other shaking in pain from burns that covered their entire body. They were neighbors who were playing outside and got into a landmine. I couldn’t tell if they were boys or girls because their burns were so severe. Many children were there for skin graphs. After one year the children become eligible for their graph. One child was about the age of Ben’s son, Will. He had the graph put on and the skin was still so thin and the burn so deep that you could see the muscles below it. The graph caused his arm to be webbed at the elbow with more surgery to come to cut that area of skin.
Upon returning to the house we had lunch and just stayed at home most of the day due to some potential security problems. We are so grateful for our host and his protection of us. It was nice to hang out as a team with the staff of the guesthouse. I decided that we needed to start a count of how many times the ice cream guy went by the house. This man pushes a small cart with a barrel on it with ice cream. His token song is “Fur Elise” and makes me laugh every time I hear it. The girls were able to buy some items from the shop here in the compound today as well. The family of the man who had his brother –in-law abducted heard from him yesterday. He was given a one minute call to let them know he was alive. They do not know where he is so please continue to keep him and his family in your prayers.
The day ended with some of the guys building a tower out of water bottles and spending some time together. I can’t believe this trip is almost over. It makes me so sad to think that I have to leave my friends again. I wish I were able to stay longer to help with the amazing work that is being done here.
Please continue to pray for your health as we begin our travel home tomorrow.
Nichole Marie Hutchins
Upon returning to the house we had lunch and just stayed at home most of the day due to some potential security problems. We are so grateful for our host and his protection of us. It was nice to hang out as a team with the staff of the guesthouse. I decided that we needed to start a count of how many times the ice cream guy went by the house. This man pushes a small cart with a barrel on it with ice cream. His token song is “Fur Elise” and makes me laugh every time I hear it. The girls were able to buy some items from the shop here in the compound today as well. The family of the man who had his brother –in-law abducted heard from him yesterday. He was given a one minute call to let them know he was alive. They do not know where he is so please continue to keep him and his family in your prayers.
The day ended with some of the guys building a tower out of water bottles and spending some time together. I can’t believe this trip is almost over. It makes me so sad to think that I have to leave my friends again. I wish I were able to stay longer to help with the amazing work that is being done here.
Please continue to pray for your health as we begin our travel home tomorrow.
Nichole Marie Hutchins
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
We Just Got Served!!!
Have you ever seen the movie “You Got Served”? If you haven’t, then you need to go out and rent it as soon as possible because Omarion’s performance in that movie is stellar. I think that despite it being #92 on the “Bottom 100 List” on IMDB, it is still one of my favorite movies and very relevant to today’s story.
Today was our day for Staff Appreciation and it was decided that we needed to have a cookout at the guesthouse. So a crew was hired to set up an authentic Afghan party house in the back yard using what looked like large blankets on poles and tables. We also had an authentic Afghan band come to play dance music before and after lunch. Now when I say “authentic” I really mean “authentic”. The band was made up of 4 people: one who played sitar, one who played a double sided bongo drum, one who sang and played this weird keyboard box thingie, and the other guy who just ran tech and sat there (integral part of the band). The lead guy sang with a RIDICULOUS amount of reverb on his microphone (which is the way that all Afghan music is played), and everyone else just turned their microphones up to 11 to rock out!
From the moment that the music started, we were instantly pleased to see our formerly reserved guards and drivers let their guards down to have some fun. One or two (our host being one of them) would systematically pick their fellow staff members out of the crowd in an attempt to get them to dance to the music. Now Afghan dancing is amazing because there is no real method to the madness. It is easy to pick up and there apparently is no real “correct” way to dance. This was awesome for us Americans because it allowed us to pick up the dancing very quickly. We figured out that Afghan dancing usually consists on a few steps.
Step 1: Place your left foot in front of the right and move them up and down very quickly.
Step 2: Place your arms straight out and slowly move them in what you believe to be an elegant fashion
Step 3: Make some sort of movement with your hands. Some popular ones are: “Turn the Light Bulb”, “Pull the Floss”, “Throw the UofL L”, or just simply roll your wrists.
*If all else fails and you are not able to follow these steps, just stick your arms out and spin around like a helicopter.
(For all of you who are standing up right now, following my steps, I am very proud of you! Please continue to practice your dancing and if we attend a wedding or party together, we will dance Afghan together!)
We danced for several hours (taking a break for lunch of course) and soon the party came to an end. We helped to pack up to tent and tables, and sat down to rest for the rest of the day. After a few hours, several of us took a trip to some of the local schools to see what is being done with burn prevention. We visited two girls’ schools where kids were being informed about burn prevention. This is something that I wasn’t aware was such a big deal in this culture, but apparently it is. The kids were told not to use faulty electrical sockets, how not to overload a surge protector, and many other things that commonly cause disasters in Afghan homes. Now since we were at girls’ schools, the men were not allowed in the classrooms, but that didn’t stop us from meeting a few interesting kids who were roaming the halls (I think the two kids went through about 10 wrestler names as their real names). It’s amazing to see how American culture has infiltrated Afghan culture. Kids here are just like kids at home, they love to imitate what they see on TV, and wrestling is HUGE here with boys. It really made me realize the lens through which other countries view us, and that is through the media that we export. It’s no wonder that people view us as a morally bankrupt country. When we export filth like WWE, which is full of violence, scantly clad women, and alcohol, we are instantly ruining our credibility with the people we come in contact with. Even if we don’t watch things like that, we are instantly assumed to share the morals of the shows that we export. But I digress…
When we returned, we were asked to gather and pray for a guard who had recently lost his brother-in-law to a Taliban raid. If all of you could do the same, it would be greatly appreciated because his family really needs your prayers. If you could also pray for his nephew who was taken, but released, in that same raid. It must be hard to know that the Taliban still has your father somewhere.
After that, we prepared to go eat at a local restaurant. We traveled out to “The Grill”, a local Lebanese restaurant, which was amazing. We had tons of delicious food, and that was the end of our day. It was a ton of fun, and I really don’t want to return home!
Marcus David Lorence
Today was our day for Staff Appreciation and it was decided that we needed to have a cookout at the guesthouse. So a crew was hired to set up an authentic Afghan party house in the back yard using what looked like large blankets on poles and tables. We also had an authentic Afghan band come to play dance music before and after lunch. Now when I say “authentic” I really mean “authentic”. The band was made up of 4 people: one who played sitar, one who played a double sided bongo drum, one who sang and played this weird keyboard box thingie, and the other guy who just ran tech and sat there (integral part of the band). The lead guy sang with a RIDICULOUS amount of reverb on his microphone (which is the way that all Afghan music is played), and everyone else just turned their microphones up to 11 to rock out!
From the moment that the music started, we were instantly pleased to see our formerly reserved guards and drivers let their guards down to have some fun. One or two (our host being one of them) would systematically pick their fellow staff members out of the crowd in an attempt to get them to dance to the music. Now Afghan dancing is amazing because there is no real method to the madness. It is easy to pick up and there apparently is no real “correct” way to dance. This was awesome for us Americans because it allowed us to pick up the dancing very quickly. We figured out that Afghan dancing usually consists on a few steps.
Step 1: Place your left foot in front of the right and move them up and down very quickly.
Step 2: Place your arms straight out and slowly move them in what you believe to be an elegant fashion
Step 3: Make some sort of movement with your hands. Some popular ones are: “Turn the Light Bulb”, “Pull the Floss”, “Throw the UofL L”, or just simply roll your wrists.
*If all else fails and you are not able to follow these steps, just stick your arms out and spin around like a helicopter.
(For all of you who are standing up right now, following my steps, I am very proud of you! Please continue to practice your dancing and if we attend a wedding or party together, we will dance Afghan together!)
We danced for several hours (taking a break for lunch of course) and soon the party came to an end. We helped to pack up to tent and tables, and sat down to rest for the rest of the day. After a few hours, several of us took a trip to some of the local schools to see what is being done with burn prevention. We visited two girls’ schools where kids were being informed about burn prevention. This is something that I wasn’t aware was such a big deal in this culture, but apparently it is. The kids were told not to use faulty electrical sockets, how not to overload a surge protector, and many other things that commonly cause disasters in Afghan homes. Now since we were at girls’ schools, the men were not allowed in the classrooms, but that didn’t stop us from meeting a few interesting kids who were roaming the halls (I think the two kids went through about 10 wrestler names as their real names). It’s amazing to see how American culture has infiltrated Afghan culture. Kids here are just like kids at home, they love to imitate what they see on TV, and wrestling is HUGE here with boys. It really made me realize the lens through which other countries view us, and that is through the media that we export. It’s no wonder that people view us as a morally bankrupt country. When we export filth like WWE, which is full of violence, scantly clad women, and alcohol, we are instantly ruining our credibility with the people we come in contact with. Even if we don’t watch things like that, we are instantly assumed to share the morals of the shows that we export. But I digress…
When we returned, we were asked to gather and pray for a guard who had recently lost his brother-in-law to a Taliban raid. If all of you could do the same, it would be greatly appreciated because his family really needs your prayers. If you could also pray for his nephew who was taken, but released, in that same raid. It must be hard to know that the Taliban still has your father somewhere.
After that, we prepared to go eat at a local restaurant. We traveled out to “The Grill”, a local Lebanese restaurant, which was amazing. We had tons of delicious food, and that was the end of our day. It was a ton of fun, and I really don’t want to return home!
Marcus David Lorence
Monday, June 2, 2008
Did he just wash out berries down stream from where the girls are washing their feet?
The last two days we have been going to Barek Aub to work with the IDP camp, but today we switched it up. Recovering from dust inhalation, camel falls, and sore dancing muscles, we set out for our day. Once again we decked out in our Afghan attire and “hit the tires” as W______ calls it. We headed about 1 ½ hours out of Kabul to a village called Istalif where SOZO has been working for a while. We were able to tour the clinic, an old bombed out hotel, as well as the schools. We even got a chance to just relax under some trees and eat afghan “cherries” (Not really cherries at all, they were what we call Mulberries) that were washed just downstream from where the girls were washing off their feet…just another one of those things you just can’t think about for too long, you just go with it. There are plenty of those around here! They were still delicious! Some of us even risked it and broke one of the most tried and true travel rules and drank some of the stream water when the staff told us is should be fine. It was great and none of us are sick…yet.
We then had a little concert out at the boys school, Marcus on the guitar and Jordan Burgen playing an old metal bucket like a djimbe. Because the school there is more conservative, the principal wouldn’t allow the kids to dance like out at Barek Aub after we encouraged them to…oops. The guys also had to take a brief intermission as the call to prayer blared over the village, and our translator got all worked up and told them to stop. This concert didn’t last long after that as the principal said the kids had to go home for lunch before their parents got worried. So we packed up the guitar proceeded to buy an exorbitant amount of blue pottery (what Istalif is know for) at the market, ate some sketchy ice cream and headed back to the guesthouse for a late lunch.
After lunch, some of us went to Chicken street to be ripped off on overpriced trinkets that we would never buy in the US, and some stayed back at the guesthouse and played soccer with W______’s 8 year old son. Lee got beat repeatedly at one on one, shaming our team and our country. The Chicken Street “Best Find Award” goes to Jordan Burgen, who purchased an old British military helmet with all sorts of metal pieces stuck to it, some chain-link neck protector on the back, and two large ram horns coming out the top! Trust me, this description does not do it justice! INCREDIBLE! He got an amazing deal on it because it was the same shop that a few years ago Jordan Paskitti was struck by a falling metal shield off of a wall sending him to the hospital. Having a much better memory than me (my wife is saying Amen), the shop owner recognized Jon and asked how Jordan’s head was.
After dinner, the boys headed out on the town with W_______ to get us some ice cream to bring back for everyone. We crammed all 9 of the guys in W________’s SUV, blared traditional Afghan music and watched some sort of stunt car show on a little antenna tv in the car while W_______ quite speedily and skillfully maneuvered us through the chaos that is Kabul at Night. After buying an obscene amount of junk food and ice cream, we all packed back in and headed back to the guesthouse where we watched the last episode of Lost on Jon’s computer that took him about 4 days to download from here.
All in all, it was a fun and exciting day getting to see Istalif again (much greener than in 2006 when I was here last), and spending time with W______ , his son, and the SOZO staff.
Benjamin David Thornley
P.S.-I love you Lindsay, Will and Anna! Thanks for all you who are helping take care of my beautiful family while I’m gone!
We then had a little concert out at the boys school, Marcus on the guitar and Jordan Burgen playing an old metal bucket like a djimbe. Because the school there is more conservative, the principal wouldn’t allow the kids to dance like out at Barek Aub after we encouraged them to…oops. The guys also had to take a brief intermission as the call to prayer blared over the village, and our translator got all worked up and told them to stop. This concert didn’t last long after that as the principal said the kids had to go home for lunch before their parents got worried. So we packed up the guitar proceeded to buy an exorbitant amount of blue pottery (what Istalif is know for) at the market, ate some sketchy ice cream and headed back to the guesthouse for a late lunch.
After lunch, some of us went to Chicken street to be ripped off on overpriced trinkets that we would never buy in the US, and some stayed back at the guesthouse and played soccer with W______’s 8 year old son. Lee got beat repeatedly at one on one, shaming our team and our country. The Chicken Street “Best Find Award” goes to Jordan Burgen, who purchased an old British military helmet with all sorts of metal pieces stuck to it, some chain-link neck protector on the back, and two large ram horns coming out the top! Trust me, this description does not do it justice! INCREDIBLE! He got an amazing deal on it because it was the same shop that a few years ago Jordan Paskitti was struck by a falling metal shield off of a wall sending him to the hospital. Having a much better memory than me (my wife is saying Amen), the shop owner recognized Jon and asked how Jordan’s head was.
After dinner, the boys headed out on the town with W_______ to get us some ice cream to bring back for everyone. We crammed all 9 of the guys in W________’s SUV, blared traditional Afghan music and watched some sort of stunt car show on a little antenna tv in the car while W_______ quite speedily and skillfully maneuvered us through the chaos that is Kabul at Night. After buying an obscene amount of junk food and ice cream, we all packed back in and headed back to the guesthouse where we watched the last episode of Lost on Jon’s computer that took him about 4 days to download from here.
All in all, it was a fun and exciting day getting to see Istalif again (much greener than in 2006 when I was here last), and spending time with W______ , his son, and the SOZO staff.
Benjamin David Thornley
P.S.-I love you Lindsay, Will and Anna! Thanks for all you who are helping take care of my beautiful family while I’m gone!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Did Ed really just fall off a camel?
If there is one thing about Aghanistan, there never seems to be a shortage of material to take in. The day began with the team re-living some of the stories from yesterday....We had the chance to spend another amazing day out at Barek Aub.
Donning brand new shower kameez's and headgear we approached the day with a whole new look. Once we reached the camp, we began distributing the meat to all of the schoolchildren. Instead of having a picnic solely for the children, it was decided that passing out bags of meat for the entire family would be a better way of serving the community. The people of Barek Aub currently rely on food distributions for their meals and normaly would receive things like rice and other non-perishables. Meat is an extremely rare commodity out at the camp and receiving a bags of beef for the family would have made for a great meal that night. After we finished distributing the food, we had the pleasure of getting a visit from a pleasant woman working with Save the Children. I think its safe to say that she will only realize how fortunate the people of Barek Aub are to be working with W___ and his staff at later date. Once that meeting was finished, a couple of the Flat Irons guys rallied the kids together for a time of music and dancing. With Marcus and Jordan on the guitars and one of the locals providing the percussion, this quickly turned into a dance party displaying all of Kabul's latest moves. In fact, all of the men from the team (sorry ladies) had the chance to display a blend of American and Afghani choreagraphy with Ben taking the cake with the injured bird routine never seen before in this country. It will live on for years to come. At some point in the day, a few soccer balls made their way outside for some soccer/volleyball/rugby games. After losing about 300 arm wrestling matches to the boys, we proceeded to take a tour updating us on all of the progress from the camp. It was so encouraging to see all of the progress being made at the camp with a new school and new clinic in the middle of the construction phase. As Julie had described earlier, both of these services are operated out of homes, and to have the larger, dedicated buildings will be a blessing to the camp as the population continues to grow. W___ concluded the tour with a trip to the deep well that appeared to be completed and functioning quite well. A few members of the team had the opportunity to sample the well water are still doing well! All in all, it was another great day at Barek Aub. Despite the obvious language barriers, we still had a great time connecting with the kids of the community and just having the chance to spend time with them.
We didn't make it to far out of Barek Aub before W___ flagged down one of the local shepherds with one of his camels in tow. After a brief negotiation, the camel was on the ground ready for its first passenger. Going one by one seemed to be taking a little too long for the camel's liking, so we proceeded to having two passengers at the same time - one in front of the hump and one behind. When it came time for Ed and myself to ride, we made it onto the camel w/o out a hitch, but the dismount got a little interesting when the camel lowered itself and Ed had nothing to grab onto. The scene resembled a bad rodeo with the camel eventually getting the best of Ed, but I must say that he did a great job of trying to staying on as long as he could.
The day ended with a trip to one of the military bases for a service. As tiring as the day had been, it was great to rejuvenate with a group of like minded people.
If there is one that has made this trip what it is so far, it has been connecting with the people. From interacting and learning from the Sozo staff to playing games with the children, it's very apparent that this is an extremely special group of people and it has been humbling to have received such a warm welcome from everyone.
Lee Thomas Lagomarcino
Donning brand new shower kameez's and headgear we approached the day with a whole new look. Once we reached the camp, we began distributing the meat to all of the schoolchildren. Instead of having a picnic solely for the children, it was decided that passing out bags of meat for the entire family would be a better way of serving the community. The people of Barek Aub currently rely on food distributions for their meals and normaly would receive things like rice and other non-perishables. Meat is an extremely rare commodity out at the camp and receiving a bags of beef for the family would have made for a great meal that night. After we finished distributing the food, we had the pleasure of getting a visit from a pleasant woman working with Save the Children. I think its safe to say that she will only realize how fortunate the people of Barek Aub are to be working with W___ and his staff at later date. Once that meeting was finished, a couple of the Flat Irons guys rallied the kids together for a time of music and dancing. With Marcus and Jordan on the guitars and one of the locals providing the percussion, this quickly turned into a dance party displaying all of Kabul's latest moves. In fact, all of the men from the team (sorry ladies) had the chance to display a blend of American and Afghani choreagraphy with Ben taking the cake with the injured bird routine never seen before in this country. It will live on for years to come. At some point in the day, a few soccer balls made their way outside for some soccer/volleyball/rugby games. After losing about 300 arm wrestling matches to the boys, we proceeded to take a tour updating us on all of the progress from the camp. It was so encouraging to see all of the progress being made at the camp with a new school and new clinic in the middle of the construction phase. As Julie had described earlier, both of these services are operated out of homes, and to have the larger, dedicated buildings will be a blessing to the camp as the population continues to grow. W___ concluded the tour with a trip to the deep well that appeared to be completed and functioning quite well. A few members of the team had the opportunity to sample the well water are still doing well! All in all, it was another great day at Barek Aub. Despite the obvious language barriers, we still had a great time connecting with the kids of the community and just having the chance to spend time with them.
We didn't make it to far out of Barek Aub before W___ flagged down one of the local shepherds with one of his camels in tow. After a brief negotiation, the camel was on the ground ready for its first passenger. Going one by one seemed to be taking a little too long for the camel's liking, so we proceeded to having two passengers at the same time - one in front of the hump and one behind. When it came time for Ed and myself to ride, we made it onto the camel w/o out a hitch, but the dismount got a little interesting when the camel lowered itself and Ed had nothing to grab onto. The scene resembled a bad rodeo with the camel eventually getting the best of Ed, but I must say that he did a great job of trying to staying on as long as he could.
The day ended with a trip to one of the military bases for a service. As tiring as the day had been, it was great to rejuvenate with a group of like minded people.
If there is one that has made this trip what it is so far, it has been connecting with the people. From interacting and learning from the Sozo staff to playing games with the children, it's very apparent that this is an extremely special group of people and it has been humbling to have received such a warm welcome from everyone.
Lee Thomas Lagomarcino
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Afghanistan is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're going to get. You're gonna want to read this!
Where to start?!? I have no idea.
Today was amazing, beautiful, playful, dusty, windy, meaty, funny, entertaining, relaxing, and wonderful!
Lets try and start at the beginning and I will try not to leave out any spectacular detail!
This morning started out after breakfast with all of us piling into two vehicles ready to take on the world! We all went out to Barek Aub to pass out school supplies, which we organized yesterday. Driving down the road, coming around the bend right after the line of mountains, we spotted it. In the middle of the vast desert there stood a small village of mud houses where there used to be only tents blowing in the wind. That’s right, this is the same the community which used to be a group of people simply placed outside the city, on the other side of the mountains, barely surviving by living in flaps of fabric held up by sticks. And now there are houses all around, a small school meeting in a house, the outlines for a nice school building and health clinic, and so many smiling children fighting for our attention we cant help but instantly fall in love! We drove up and the ones who had been there before immediately saw the difference between last year and this year. We drove up to the school and the kids instantly turned around, starting smiling and waving at us. They got all lined up and we got to pass out the school supplies. Afterwards, we stayed around and simply played hand games, arm wrestling and anything they could think of to get our attention while some of the guys got a tour of the building site for the new clinic. The kids are so precious… I want to take a few home, but I’m not sure how customs would like that. Sadface ☹ There are so many more things I could say about this place, but that only covers half the day and little did we know… the fun was just beginning!
After lunch is a totally different kind of story. Let me start with the lunch conversation involving someone saying something about a cow, something about killing it, and something about the women not wanting to watch. Well that started a commotion involving everyone getting up from the table before they were done, girls going and getting their charters so they can join the boys outside. Although we were slightly distracted by holding some guards’ guns (obviously not loaded, well supervised and with the safety on) and taking pictures, the Afghan men carried on with their call of duty and officially sent Mr.Cow to his happy place. As weird as this sounds in the US, we have to remember that there is not a Kroger on every corner. This is how they get their food here. This was done so we could pass out fresh, safe meat to Barek Aub with no fear of contamination since the market place meet is a bit sketchy since it hangs outside all day in the sun. This was followed with us opening our own meat packing plant with an all inclusive (by boys only) dance off to Michael Jackson hits and random techno. Jordan Burgen’s band is now famous here in Kabul as well. This dance off was our “thrilling” entertainment as we bagged the meat and put it in the freezer for the families of Barek Aub. We laughed more this afternoon than the rest of the trip combined! So fun!
All of that being said, you would think the day is close to being over. Welp, fill up your coffee… its not even dinner time. After cleaning our hands and arms multiple times for fear of missing something we DIDN’T want to find later, (which I did…YUCK) we were off to the Kabul mall/hotel/”coffee shop” which only served Nescafe instant coffee and tea. It was a nice relaxing time to be able to sit and drink some tea and drop our charters from our heads and just be ourselves. It was a little odd for me personally because I felt completely out of place at the mall. Almost like we didn’t belong or we weren’t welcome. We were looked at funny for shopping and talking with men. I only saw a few females shopping in groups of two or three walking around quietly with their heads down, when everyone else shopping and sitting for coffee were men. Another fun fact about this mall was that each of the 8 perfume stores sold the same things and each smelled like the same mixture of potent feminine delicateness and masculine ruggedness. Back at the homefront, we all sat down for Afghan fried chicken, fries and of course nahn with happy cow cheese. I’m sitting here in the living room not an hour after dinner started and already half my team has retired for the evening while I’m still trying to process today’s events and trying to make it comprehensible for you. There were so many amazing individual moments today that made today indescribable, I can’t put into words my true feelings. One thing I can tell you, I will be back. And its not even at the half way point of our stay! ☺
Thanks to all of you who have been reading our blog including this one which is a novel with multiple major subjects. We look forward to hearing your reactions to our fun Saturday!
This blog was brought to you by the letter A, the number 10, diesel fuel, and holy cow (mix between happy cow and sporty cow). Oh, and Julie and Nichole ☺
A, 10, Captain Diesel, Holy Cow, Julie Teresia Smale, Nichole Marie Hutchins
Today was amazing, beautiful, playful, dusty, windy, meaty, funny, entertaining, relaxing, and wonderful!
Lets try and start at the beginning and I will try not to leave out any spectacular detail!
This morning started out after breakfast with all of us piling into two vehicles ready to take on the world! We all went out to Barek Aub to pass out school supplies, which we organized yesterday. Driving down the road, coming around the bend right after the line of mountains, we spotted it. In the middle of the vast desert there stood a small village of mud houses where there used to be only tents blowing in the wind. That’s right, this is the same the community which used to be a group of people simply placed outside the city, on the other side of the mountains, barely surviving by living in flaps of fabric held up by sticks. And now there are houses all around, a small school meeting in a house, the outlines for a nice school building and health clinic, and so many smiling children fighting for our attention we cant help but instantly fall in love! We drove up and the ones who had been there before immediately saw the difference between last year and this year. We drove up to the school and the kids instantly turned around, starting smiling and waving at us. They got all lined up and we got to pass out the school supplies. Afterwards, we stayed around and simply played hand games, arm wrestling and anything they could think of to get our attention while some of the guys got a tour of the building site for the new clinic. The kids are so precious… I want to take a few home, but I’m not sure how customs would like that. Sadface ☹ There are so many more things I could say about this place, but that only covers half the day and little did we know… the fun was just beginning!
After lunch is a totally different kind of story. Let me start with the lunch conversation involving someone saying something about a cow, something about killing it, and something about the women not wanting to watch. Well that started a commotion involving everyone getting up from the table before they were done, girls going and getting their charters so they can join the boys outside. Although we were slightly distracted by holding some guards’ guns (obviously not loaded, well supervised and with the safety on) and taking pictures, the Afghan men carried on with their call of duty and officially sent Mr.Cow to his happy place. As weird as this sounds in the US, we have to remember that there is not a Kroger on every corner. This is how they get their food here. This was done so we could pass out fresh, safe meat to Barek Aub with no fear of contamination since the market place meet is a bit sketchy since it hangs outside all day in the sun. This was followed with us opening our own meat packing plant with an all inclusive (by boys only) dance off to Michael Jackson hits and random techno. Jordan Burgen’s band is now famous here in Kabul as well. This dance off was our “thrilling” entertainment as we bagged the meat and put it in the freezer for the families of Barek Aub. We laughed more this afternoon than the rest of the trip combined! So fun!
All of that being said, you would think the day is close to being over. Welp, fill up your coffee… its not even dinner time. After cleaning our hands and arms multiple times for fear of missing something we DIDN’T want to find later, (which I did…YUCK) we were off to the Kabul mall/hotel/”coffee shop” which only served Nescafe instant coffee and tea. It was a nice relaxing time to be able to sit and drink some tea and drop our charters from our heads and just be ourselves. It was a little odd for me personally because I felt completely out of place at the mall. Almost like we didn’t belong or we weren’t welcome. We were looked at funny for shopping and talking with men. I only saw a few females shopping in groups of two or three walking around quietly with their heads down, when everyone else shopping and sitting for coffee were men. Another fun fact about this mall was that each of the 8 perfume stores sold the same things and each smelled like the same mixture of potent feminine delicateness and masculine ruggedness. Back at the homefront, we all sat down for Afghan fried chicken, fries and of course nahn with happy cow cheese. I’m sitting here in the living room not an hour after dinner started and already half my team has retired for the evening while I’m still trying to process today’s events and trying to make it comprehensible for you. There were so many amazing individual moments today that made today indescribable, I can’t put into words my true feelings. One thing I can tell you, I will be back. And its not even at the half way point of our stay! ☺
Thanks to all of you who have been reading our blog including this one which is a novel with multiple major subjects. We look forward to hearing your reactions to our fun Saturday!
This blog was brought to you by the letter A, the number 10, diesel fuel, and holy cow (mix between happy cow and sporty cow). Oh, and Julie and Nichole ☺
A, 10, Captain Diesel, Holy Cow, Julie Teresia Smale, Nichole Marie Hutchins
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