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