Photos

I haven't been great about taking or posting photos because my life has been a lot more restricted on this trip. But the link below will take you to some photos from this week.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235464&id=7408617&l=81c12f2185

Sorry it has been a while...

Work has been nuts. You probably have seen the news articles about Karzai's decree on security companies, which obviously affects my work considerably. So just as my job is getting traction, the work is speeding up, all of a sudden we are in limbo. Should we keep going in the same direction? or scale back considerably in case we have to find ways of working without our security providers? Just creating contingency plans has become a full time job on our project. Throughout all of this, is the little-discussed fact that many of my good friends could be out of a job soon. So, it has been busy.

In other news, it rained today. It of course dried up instantly, but for a short period of time, the dust smell was replaced by a wet dust smell.

I also checked my credit card bill and realized that since I have now spent two months in a cash-economy, the only items on my bill this month are charity contributions, which made me feel warm and fuzzy.

Tomorrow is Saturday, which with our work schedule is really "Monday" so while my buddies back in DC are getting ready to go to all sorts of Halloween parties, I am gearing up for the begining of another 6-day work week.

Change of scene

Ah, flowers and trees and birds and fresh fruit! I have spent the last couple days at the compound of one of our subcontractors, soaking in all the normal-life. They have a lovely big garden with chairs and big cages full of parakeets. And they have a cook! Who uses okra and serves fresh fruit with every meal! It has been delightful.

In other unrelated news, a little sparrow somehow got into my room this morning, scaring the bajesus out of me. I told him he woke me up much too early and that I couldn't deal with the idea of dealing with him myself. Furthermore, if I had to call the housekeeper to take care of it, I didn't think either of us would be happy with that outcome. He was very reasonable and spent the next hour flying from my curtain rod to the top of the dresser and back, and then as I dozed back to sleep he somehow made it out the same air vent hole he came in through. Smart bird.

Dining hall genius

Nutella Bread Pudding.

And that is all there is to say today.

मुस्क्ले मेमोरी

Ok, so I don't know what is going on with my blog website, but it translated my title into Hindi and I don't know how to change it back?

Anyway, the title was supposed to be Muscle Memory because the sound of the jets flying overhead bring out a reaction in me that I blame on what few war movies I have seen. Imagine that "wheeeeeeehauuuuuuuuwooooshhhhh" going right over your head, and your muscles just clench up expecting the boom to come that would come in the movie. Except there is never a boom here, they are flown by our guys. I clearly don't understand sound waves either, because most of the time I can't figure out which way the jet is coming from, it just sounds like they are coming from all four directions.

I am posting a few photos of awesome things.

First is a bunch of French cheese and baguettes, brought in by a coworker from her vacation in Paris. I am not sure how long they were in her luggage, but they sure tasted good. Non-alcoholic beer washed everything down. Made for a good weekend.

Second photo is of the two best things I bought today. The little bus is a pen-holder and that is REALLY what the buses here look like. We call them jingle buses and they have bells along the bumper, absolutely hilarious. The can is a peach drink that has actual small pieces of peach in it, imagine someone chopped up canned peaches and served the syrup and chunks as a drink. Yum.

3 points to England

There is a British coffee shop on base that is responsible for today's point allocation.

1. Apple juice slushees: Refreshing, sweet, not electric-green. Just delicious apple juice frozen into a slush.

2. Curried chicken pies: Little puff pastries filled with chicken curry, not like a pot pie but rather rectangular so you can grab one on the go. Greasy and delicious.

3. Hot dogs wrapped in a long tater tot: I didn't actually try this, but the concept is brilliant. I can't believe an American college student didn't dream this up earlier. It is like taking an American staple, corn dogs, and making it even more fabulous.

My first photos of this chapter 2 of the blog are not really related to this post at all. The aunties assured me that they wouldn't get cranky at photos of me in body armor, and maybe it was mom all along who was squeemish and just blamed it on the aunties? Anyway, first photo is of me in my road trip outfit. Pretty cool, except that the vest has scratchy velcro that leaves long gashes on my arm when I take it off without paying attention, and snaggs my beautiful scarf I bought in Turkey. Oh well...

Second photo is from my short stint in Kabul. Proof of why life out here is not too rough; we can get Thin Mints in the stores?

They have quiz night here!

I am really quite easily entertained.

The team out here is great. As all projects seem to go, they are a mixed bunch, from Australia, Italy, Scotland, the Phillipines and the US. This is one of the hardest places in the world to do our job well, and yet everyone seems to be in a pretty pleasant mood and get along with one another. I am sort of filling in where I can since what I came out here to do has taken longer to get started up than we thought, but the work is interesting and I am learning.

All in all, life is just fine.

Update: trivia night was put on by the Brits and the questions were QUITE brit-centric. We found a young British marine and shanghaied onto our team to give us a fighting chance on any questions pertaining to British sports/tv/music. Combined with our resident feisty Aussie's liberal use of cheating off the blackberry, we ended up in 3rd place. Not too shabby.

Wow

We are not allowed to take photos on base, but I don't even think a photograph could capture how dusty it is out there today. It would be all one color. I was already feeling under the weather, but I took one look outside and decided I was leaving my bedroom as little as possible today. On the bright side, the wind that blew in the nasty dust-cloud that has enveloped my live really brought the temperature down.

Of course the week that my stomach is giving me trouble, the meal hall produces the most delicious cheese and onion pasteries.... I cherished every bite and am now in my bed paying the price. Rice and toast for me for dinner.

In other news, I am rediscovering my love of nerdy BBC miniseries. One summer in Zambia when I was a kid, my parents and I were obsessed with "The Private Life of Plants" which is as thrilling as you might imagine. I now have on loan "The Private Life of a Masterpiece" which is kind of like high school Art History class meets reality TV . Nerd alert.

Still stuck on melons

Ok guys, I just needed to show you this photo. Driving through the city yesterday my mouth was watering and I was repeatedly cranky about the lack of melons in my life. Oh, and okra too. Evidently it is also in season and was on every streetcorner and I can spot that delicious green shape from 10 meters and through 2-inch thick glass.

I didn't see a melon stash quite as impressive as this, but there were a LOT of melons to be bought. Just not by armored-vehicle-contained-Anna.

Forgot one

Add sushi to the TOP of my "can't get in Afghanistan" list.
It was the first thing I ordered when I got home the last time and I expect it will be the top of my list this time too. Hmm. How did I go from a girl who wouldn't touch seafood to one who eats obscene amounts of raw fish on a regular basis?

I will add one more Anna-observation in this post, which is that I sound like an idiot when I am around too many non-American accents. My brain picks up on the different vowels and inserts them in my own speech and I have no control over it. No one notices when I say "yeah" vaguely like a Kiwi or Aussie, but I need to watch myself in longer sentences because I am sure I sound like an moron when my halfsie accent slips in. Then again, has anyone heard Madonna or Gwenneth Paltrow speak recently? They do it too...

Melon Season

I am not the best supporter of the "Local Foods Movement" in DC. I tend to go with whatever is most convenient or is the best cost. I am, however, livid that I am living in the land of the most exquisite melons you have ever seen but am eating bland, mushy nasty excuses for melon at the DFAC that taste like they took the slowest boat possible from California. When I was in Kabul they had fresh melon at every meal. And mangos from Pakistan? and pomegranates (which will be fully in season down here shortly)? I can't even describe them. They were perfect.

Come on military! Just let a few trucks of produce through the gates. I am sure you have a way of differentiating between cantaloupes and bombs...

In the land o'dust

Hi all,

So the cat's out of the bag, I am spending most of this most recent assignment in Kandahar, but that is JUST FINE. I have the same security as before, only even more beefed up. If the Aunties won't be cranky, I may post a photo in the getup they make me wear whenever we travel...

I am living on Kandahar Air Field (check out Rachel Maddow's piece on what living here is like, quite accurate) Everything is various shades of beige, and intolerably hot during the day; I go through two bottles of water just walking to the general store and back. But it is quite nice at night and three of the things I miss most while in Afghanistan are readily available (bagels, bacon and good coffee) so I am quite happy. It is a dry base, so the fourth and fifth items are still out of reach (red wine and gin) but we survive.

The base is a space the size of Disney Land filled with 30,000 or so international military personnel and contractors. They have dining halls of all sorts of nationalities (going to the S. Asian one tonight, will report back later) and I am thoroughly baffled by the "street" names. "All American Way" and "Screaming Eagle Blvd" Seriously guys? We ask the entire world to fight this war with us and then we make them live on cheesy American patriotic titled streets? I am embarrassed to be honest.

The general stores (PXs) here are hilarious. They are also split up by nationality and I will share some select humorous facts:

-The French PX has a pastry shop inside where you can get 'un cafe' and a variety of croissant.

-The Canadian PX is full of Hollister t-shirts and surf shorts (really?) Next door is a Tim Hortons (I felt like I was in an episode of How I Met Your Mother) ie, where I will get my bagel fix.

-The American PX has "Afghan Sports Club" t-shirts for sale as well as about 20 copies of the last season of Vampire Diaries and a huge romance novel section (really? How fast is THAT merchandise moving guys?)

Anyway, that is probably enough of an introduction for now. I am going to go drink another three bottles of water and try to get this dust out of my nose. Love you all. -A

Back in DC

Hey all,

For anyone who missed the memo, I arrived back in DC on the 24th. All of my photos from the trip can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2178318&id=7408617&l=cfd3064410

-Anna

More lessons

So I think I mentioned in a previous post that I got my housemates to play the board game I brought with me? I lied. I was embarrassed that I brought this stupid game all the way across the world and couldn't find a SINGLE person who would play with me.

Well last night there was a bit of an incident in town, and my security team wouldn't let us go to Salsa Night. Oh no! What can we do to entertain ourselves all evening? Settlers of Catan!!! The game is like a combination of Risk and Monopoly and we had a nice group of 5 play. All were new except for me, and I assumed my victory was certain since there is a rather steep learning curve.

Unfortunately, I did not take into consideration that I was playing against 1. a renowned international trade economist and 2. an amazing agricultural trade economist. Oops. Number 2 won pretty quickly.

I don't think anyone was hooked, and I bet we don't play again while I am here, but at least I wasn't embarrassed when everyone was bored silly after I have talked it up for the past month.

Nickname update

We can now add "Anna Spanner" to the list (it only rhymes if you are British) and "Miss Missy," which differentiates me from Martha who is "Miss Miss"

Speaking of which, I realized how boring it is going to be to go back to a country where everyone has the same accent. Making fun of how Jim says "water" (that's been funny for 4 years now...) is nowhere near as funny as making fun of how a Brit says "Your-I-Nal"

And secondly speaking of which, Martha leaves in a week and I don't quite know what I will do with myself. She has been such an integral part to how pleasant this trip has been. Professionally she focuses me, stops me to think about priorities for the day and resources I can tap to get things done. Away from work, she is one of the most fun people I have ever traveled with and is always ready for a game of pool when I get stressed out. She strikes a perfect balance between enforcing healthy behavior like a Russian Mother (drink lots of water, and it should always be room temperature) and encouraging terrible behavior (Vodka must be drunk warm as well, and with a pickle) We are already plotting how to get another assignment together, preferably in Kabul again.

Cravings

I could really use a BLT today. Or a glass of Cabernet that doesn't cost 8 dollars and taste like water...

"Learning from the life, hardworking, honesty, tolerance and creativity are the values I want to be decorated with"

That is the opening line of my favorite resume of the day. I think I will print it out.

Life has been good. Our team is starting to come together and it is really fun to see which of the people I have hired have turned out well. I had a hunch about our accountant and he has proven to be a rockstar who isn't at all timid about contributing his opinion on non-financial things as well.

It is funny that they only thing I have really missed so far is starbucks and my favorite leather boots. I can't think of any modest-Kabul-friendly outfit that would work with knee-high leather boots, so it is probably best that they stayed at home.

We had dinner at my friend's house a few days ago, it was amazing. His family was in town from up North and his mother and sisters were fantastic cooks. It was really nice to have a family dinner. You can see photos from my previous link to Facebook.

In other news, you might realized that I am having a fabulous time here, and wondered how it could even get better? Well the other night Murphy pulled out his guitar and we had a ourselves a singalong. He and Martha tend to like the 80's stuff more than I do, but he pulled out a Jason Mraz song or two so "Anna Montana" was quite happy. I am frequently reminded of the fact that I am the youngest person around, and the nicknames I have picked up, "Annie Banannie" "Anna Montana" haven't helped matters. As of last night I was called Pocohontas, but I doubt that will stick.

Happy holidays!

Sorry for the long gap in posts. Between much celebrating and a shortened week to get everything done that needed to be done at work, I haven't had much time to put pull my thoughts together in a blog.

Christmas was a lot of fun, we had a Christmas Eve party at our house, with Posole and dumplings made by our Nepalese staff. It was quite a mish-mash of food, but of course was amazingly delicious. Christmas lunch was at the other company house, and we had just about everything you could want, turkey, ham, stuffing, cornbread pudding, sort of a French Onion casserole.

Martha and I were in charge of the pies, though our attempts at making the crust ran into some problems. Finally, our brilliant cook (a guy about my age) stepped in and made his own crust for us. After looking in every single expat grocery store in town, we established that there was no canned pumpkin in all of Kabul. So Chef picked us up a "pumpkin" at the market. It certainly looked nothing like a pumpkin, but we figured that any hard squash would do the trick. So we hacked into this huge squash, wrapped half in tin foil, figured out how to work the oven, and popped it in. Nearly 2 hours later, the squash was mostly cooked. As soon as we tried scooping out the insides we realized that this veggie was much closer to a spaghetti squash and REALLY didn't look anything like pumpkin. Martha had the brilliant idea of putting it into the blender so that no one was picking spaghetti-like fibers out of their teeth. Ultimately it was pretty successful, tasted enough like pumpkin pie for all the gringos. I made the apple pie, and with Chef's piecrust made a very pretty laticework top.

Boxing day we had another little party, the weather was great and we decided to BBQ. We had heard a lot of South African barbecuing pride from one of our team and he did his country justice. I contributed some grilled zucchini to balance out the massive amounts of marinated beef.

We had a very nice New Years, went to a restaurant and did some dancing, came home and did the usual playing pool until the wee hours. Today we are having a big New Years meal any minute now, ham and black eyed peas, mashed potatoes. Should be delicious.

Per usual, this blog is ENTIRELY about food, but if you want to see the photos, I am having a hard time posting them here, but they are all viewable on facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2178318&id=7408617&l=cfd3064410