Dirty Place

Kabul is a very dusty and dirty place. When you go outside, the air stinks of exhaust from the diesel generators that power the villas in the neighborhood. Remember that public electricity is only available for a few hours every 2nd to 4th day. At night, now that winter is here, it also smells of wood fires too. Because Kabul is surrounded by very high mountains, called the Hindu Kush, the pollution doesn't float away. It is very dusty here too and most streets are packed dirt. In the photos you'll see a boy sweeping the muddy street behind his house. I took that today through my staircase window. He's standing in a very shallow puddle. I suppose his mom sent him out there to clean up a bit. Yuck. The other photo shows my carpet after I packed away my rug, which I shipped home today. That rug only lay there for about two months. I know the cleaning ladies vacuum my room about once a week. Extra Yuck.

Christmas Cake

Check out the pretty cake we got for our Christmast party last week. We held it for our Afghan employees. It had to be early because the Ex-pats began leaving for their R&R 2-week vacations. Me and two other fellows are staying here over the hollidays to hold down the fort.

Folks from far and wide sent all kinds of gifts, which we bagged for each Afghan employee to share with the children in his family. Many of the families included kids from newborn to their early 20's, all living under one roof.

Treasure Chests from Pakistan

A store on Camp Eggers sells these elaborate chests, which are built in Pakistan. They come in sizes 18", 24" & 36" wide. Some have drawers on the front side. Some have secret compartments! All have inlaid brass and hand carvings. You can order them with your name inlaid too. Aren't they beautiful? The prices range from $95 to $250. Small price to pay, huh?

December 7th

Coincidentally, my father's father, Earl Mundy Sr, shared his birthday in history with the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was born considerably earlier than the tragic day, so he has first rights to be remembered when the date comes around. Here he is photographed manning his general quarters station, starboard side aft 20mm gun mount. Grandpa was the ship's cook and was stationed in Alaska aboard his boat, USS YP-92. There's a lot more to a man than the war he served in. What I recall best, aside from his outstanding bowling record, is that he was a very peaceful man in all my visits to his home. On some other computer, I've got a photo of him and my dad and me and my little brother. You can see that we all inherited our handsome looks from our Irish roots!

Also, coincidentally, my dad's birthday preceded the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki by exactly 1 year.

Also, coincidentally, my wife's dear mother was born exactly some years prior to September 11th.

I do hope that no other tragedies befall this world on anniversaries of my family's birthdays. Let someone else share the phenomenon! Still, I think we can look at any of these events as being a turning point in world history that lead to much goodness, if only that it united peoples across generations, faiths, ideaologies and political boundaries. The silver lining.

If you want to see what happened on your birthday, or who you share it with, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_7 and just replace the date in the link with your own.

Our Visiting Jeweler

Every Friday or two we get a visit from a jeweler. Not unlike the rug dealer, he brings his whole shop into our villa, spreading out his handcrafted delights for us to handle and inspect. Among the many items of personal decoration he has some decorative boxes clad in Lapis Lazuli and other fine stones. They are made of brass sheet metal inside and have a felt bottom. They cost about $35-$60. Would you like one? I'm going to buy one soon!

He also sells handmade purses. I didn't look to closely at these, except to snap this photograph. What could you expect from an insensitive man, who's wife has bought surely her share of purses and diaper bags in a short decade.

Finally are the jewels. Again, I really can't say much about this stuff. Photographed are rings and loose gemstones. My favorite is the Tourmaline, with it's gradient from green to violet. Do you have a favorite gemstone? Ask, and I shall find out if there's a deal here!

Shalwar Kameez

Remember that Afghan suit I bought in Dubai? Well, that has a name: Shalwar Kameez. At our Thanksgiving party on the Villa rooftop terrace, there were four Westerners who wore their traditional Afghan outfits. I put mine on when I saw that two of our guests and our office leader wore theirs. I also had a hat.

We had 4 turkeys, including two that were fried, which had been delivered alive to us just two days before. They were a gift from the fellow in the black Shalwar Kameez. I heard he brought them over in the back of his SUV, and when the guard opened the gate, he just tossed them in. The male was totally eyeing our two pink flamingos. We named them Osama and Obama. Can't say which was the female.

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope I never spend another one without my wife and kids.

Missionary Work in Afghanistan

My niece Emily, who is one of the nicest and most interesting young people I know, asked me a question about missionary work in the church here. I wrote her a reply, then decided to post it here for your benefit. Please ask any curiosity you've got about this place or this experience and I'll keep it in mind as I ponder things to post here.

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The branch here has not got any missionaries in it, for we are not allowed by law to proselyte Christianity. This is a Muslim nation. That means that the national religion is Islam. There is no national religion in the US nor most Democratic nations like ours. Other religions are permitted to practice here, but they do not receive the benefits that Islam does. For example, 5 times a day there is a "call to prayer" broadcast throughout the city from large speakers on poles, not unlike the tornado sirens you have near your neighborhood. Each call is sung by a real singer somewhere and I'm not sure what he's saying, except it means that devout Muslims everywhere get away from their job for 10 minutes, wash their hands & feet, go to the bathroom (#1 & #2) if possible and kneel on prayer rugs to pray. If they cannot kneel, they stand and pray. It is unusual to consider praying publicly this way, isn't it?

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If you are a Muslim turned Christian, you have opened yourself to one more reason to be killed, by the way. There is an Iranian woman in the branch who joined while at BYU years ago and she has had death threats and even had an assassin sent to kill her, while she was at BYU! He didn't make it out of the airport though. Good thing, huh. She has since then translated much of the Book of Mormon into Farsi. She is the only Iranian convert that we know of.

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It is possible that we could have conversions occur among the Westerners here, so in that regard, we are able to enlarge the member pool here through discreet missionary work. There are about 450 LDS in Afghanistan. Probably 60% are soldiers. The others are just here to help, like me.

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I want you to know that my Muslim friends here (probably 30 of them) are kind, gracious and peaceful people. They are the sort of people you'd want as neighbors and friends. I love them all.

More Troops Please!

Following is my take on why Afghanistan needs more troops:

Afghans desperately want to catch up with the modern world. They want water more than 3 hours a day and electricity more than 3 hours every other day. They want internet service. They've got cell phones and cars and modern clothes. Otherwise this is a filthy, backwards place to live. The Taliban are still making life hell in all the provinces. This means farmers aren't able to ship their produce to other cities and countries. Any commerce between cities is extremely risky, yet the Afghans keep trying to do it. Construction projects are very difficult because of the threat to shipping building materials and workers along those roads.

If you are an Afghan employee of the government in Kabul and while traveling to or from the job you're stopped by the Taliban you're probably gonna die. If they find anything on you written in English, or even specialized equipment like a GPS, they will slit your throat. It is happening here. The Taliban are getting braver and braver and Afghans are getting more and more frightened. An Afghan cook was killed last month with a shopping list written in English by a Western friend who couldn't safely go to the grocery store on his own. The Taliban are mostly illiterate... they couldn't read it, but recognized the letters... His death was justified on the assumption alone that he was helping the Infidel.

The Coalition strives to establish the Afghan Army and Police to secure the nation, but it takes a while to build bases and academies for them, and training is tough when 90 % of the recruits are illiterate and most of the leaders have at one time or another given way to bribes and all kinds of corruption of statutes and standards.

The biggest problem here is security from terrorism and the Taliban is at the root of it. The Afghans despise them for abusing this county for 5 years causing decades of regression culturally and technologically. From 1996 to 2001 what were we doing in the western world? We were learning to implement the internet in our businesses. From 1977 to 2001 they were watching their proven irrigation and power infrastructure blown to bits. Just think of a nation without these resources, as well as without tourism! There are not enough taxes to fund the things the coalition is building nor the training being done. I don't know what they'll ever do about the absence of Afghan doctors here. They all left when the Taliban arrived and they probably won’t be back. Anywhere is better than here, if you’ve survived the wars and are now set up elsewhere.

So, violence here is increasing monthly. I can barely leave the villa except to go to Camp Eggers. Two years ago Westerners used to walk downtown. Now I cannot walk outside the villa gates. Since I've been in Kabul, there have been numerous kidnappings and shootings of Westerners within a few blocks of here. Some of this is done by hungry Afghan gangs kidnapping family members of Afghan diplomats but also Westerners. Most kidnappings are not reported. Some of the bad guys believe the Taliban will pay them a bounty for killing. The Taliban is getting into the city center to show that President Karzai is not in control. The coalition countries are doing their best to provide a safe nation in which to flourish economically, which is the root of all success here in the long term.

Child of the Street

I have seen this boy many times at this location, on our way back to the Villa from Camp Eggers. He has a dirty rag in hand and is offering to wash our windows. Aparently he thinks the security guy sitting in the front seat promised to pay him "next time," because he usually comes right up to the car like this and says, "You promised!" What he really wants is some money, of course. But we cannot roll the window down... if we were to do that, we would endanger him and ourselves as well. It is a dangerous place to stop your car for any reason but traffic in the busy streets of Kabul. Stopping long enough to be recognized as Westerners would make us a target. Furthermore, the driver cannot pay attention to every vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian encroaching on the car. What if other kids thronged the car looking for handouts too? What if we rolled over the poor kid's toes? I riot would ensue. Very quickly we could be caught in a very bad and even deadly situation. Thus we have a no-windows-down policy. No handouts. The best we can do is smile or nod or wave. In this case I took his picture and imortalized him on my blog.

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You wouldn't believe traffic here... even at intersections, nobody obeys lights or stop signs and the only yielding being done is to avoid being hit. The clearance between our car and those crossing our path may be only a foot at a time. Thus we have an Afghan driver. Having a little collision between Afghans is no big deal. Every car has body damage. Traffic moves slowly, but it keeps moving and that's what we count on for our safe return from a trip out side the gate.

My Desk at the Kabul Villa

I cleaned up my desk today... I started a file folder rack for all the projects I've been working on. These include a Chinese Base Camp (think New Town for mine workers), a new Institute & ER at the National Military Hospital, a Branch School for recent graduates of the Army Boot Camp who need to learn a specialty, and facilities for the 5 Corps Support Battalions, which are spread around the nation attached to Corp Garrisons. Oh boy.

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On my desk you see my laptop with web-cam affixed for video-chatting with my family via Skype. Do you want to try it? I'd like to talk to you! On my screen you'll see a lovely photo of H highway in Clay County MO, looking west toward Liberty from near the golf course.

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And yes, you may notice I'm working on my Afghan look again. Hey, it's not really a beard, but for a 40 year old guy I think it is an ernest attempt. I've got 6 more weeks to see what becomes of it before I go back home to my family. Maybe by then I'll look like my Afghan peers... at least some of them. Many Afghans gave up on beards when the Taliban were vanquished. Prior to that time, their beards had to be as long as their fist or they could be arrested and thrown in jail for a week. Imagine that! These days a beard is a sign of a devout Muslim or a Westerner trying to mix in with the population. I would fit the latter case.

My Afghan Cook, Qayoom

I received this article today, created by my fellow Afghan architect, Zekria:


In MACTEC we have Afghani cook , who cooks launch for Afghani staff Engineers and Consultants.

He said something about Mr.Mick:

“When I met Mr.Mick for the first time in MACTEC’s villa in Afghanistan, he really attracted me. His beautiful face, appearance, behavior and good character kept me under his influence”. The cook said.

"My name is Qayoom and If I were able to talk in English Language I might pass lots of time with Mr.Mick to enjoy with him and share my ideas and what I have in my heart."

In our Afghani Language there is an expression: “Better to be poor but not without friends”.

My Lunch & the Table on which I ate it

This is a typical lunch, prepared here at the Villa by our Afghan chef. I'm the only Westerner that eats with them, though the office leader eats their food up in his office. Seen is a bowl of broth with a chunk of (probably) beef in the middle. I have added a few bits of bread that I tore off the pita beside the bowl. I love Afghan bread. Pita isn't the right word for it. It is like Indian Nan, or like a big pancake, but it has been baked rather than cooked on a skillet. Some of their bread is hung from hooks as it cools and the result is a long oval shape. Also in the soup are freshly chopped onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Yum! The Afghans tear up their bread and fill the soup bowl with it, then eat the sopping bread pieces with their spoon. Okay, some use their hands, but not me! Just beyond my soup bowl is a dish containing 3 portions of Pomegranite. The Afghans eat the kernels of the fruit, as we might, but they chew up and swallow the seeds as well. I have been learning to do this, against my preferences, in hopes of some healthful benefit. We have soup like this about 3 days a week. Other days we have dishes made mostly from either green beans or cauliflower. Desert is often plain yoghurt, which has a smokey flavor, or an apple or a banana.

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We have several tables here that are made in Paksitan and are heavily decorated with hand-carving and inlaid brass. See the details in the photos. I've been told I could get a set of 6 chairs and an oval table for about $500. I have no idea what it would cost to ship home though.

Falsework

Falsework is the temporary bracing that supports the construction of permanent structures like decks, beams and arches. My busy neighbors across the street are building falsework platforms on which they will pour concrete in a few more days. Notice all the "crutches" they have built to support the platforms. They are like stilts that brace the slender lumber members spanning from column to column. It appears to me as if it is cheaper to do it this way than to buy lumber of adequate size to support the concrete as it is poured and as it cures. Perhaps one just can hardly find lumber of greater depth than 2x4's. Some of the column forwork is deeper, perhaps 8 inches, but it is undoubtedly only 1" thick. An alternate to stilts or deeper lumber might be metal bar joists or even wooden truss joists.

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Amusing and mysterious as this project may be... one thing we're sadly sure of... the new building will block our best view of the distant mountains!

Pitiful Place

An Afghan Cemetery, taken from my window.

This and That

I took all these but the first two:

Afghan mother and child.

Afghan family transportation.

A skinny horse.

Merchant selling little boy suits.

Kabul streetscape

Carpooling

My neighbor's bunnies

The author

My New Rug

Here is the rug that I bought for my room. I like the green fibers with all the red. The carpet in my room is ultra cheap and thin. It is worse than office carpet. There's no pad beneath, just solid concrete. This new rug will make a big difference.

Handmade Persian Rugs

We have a rug salesman who comes to our villa on Fridays. We also have a jeweler, but I'll talk about his wares another day. I wish I had taken notes after all he told me today about these rugs. They are all handmade in either Afghanistan or Iran. His prices range from $40 to $4000. The 3 silk rugs shown above cost $1600 and have 1000 knots per square inch. They took 14 months to create! These are the finest rugs you can buy. They are not meant for standing on, but for hanging. I think they are gorgeous. Gosh, I want one. I hear you could pay 3 times as much for them in the US. Some folks buy them with plans to resell them when they get them home.

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There are many less expensive rugs. They are made of wool and camel hair, died with vegetables and fruits like pomegranites. Not all are red and oriental looking. Many are golden. I bought one today for my room for $160. See in the photos that some rugs have animals on them. One photo shows a closeup of the family's name who made the rug. This country was at war for 30 years, and the familiar tanks, guns and aircraft decorate the war-rugs. A man-rug for the man-cave.

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If you see something in my blog photos that you would like me to buy for you, please tell me and we'll make arrangements.