Usual Suspects

Went outside the camp not too long ago. Saw the usual suspects. I thought it would be important to start capturing those images that are in my mind and share them with you all.

The crippled. Not a common sight in my town back in suburbia. Here it is all too common. Lots of it because of a generation of war. IEDs and the like do a lot of damage on their own. Here's a woman that lost her leg. She crawls (pulls herself) along the city street begging for money. I see her regularly. The next time you are grumbling about how tired you are, put this image in your mind.

Let's change the mood. Some really good guys patrolling the streets on my normal drive outside. In my mind this is the target of the whole "win the hearts and minds" strategy. Get to these guys, guys just like my own back home in suburbia and we win the war. We convince a new generation that there is a better life. These boys (and girls) are out working everyday. Most in the city actually go to school but only for 3 hours a day because they are so crowded that they run them in shifts. Girls in the morning and boys in the afternoon, depending on the grades. I often remark to friends here that mine are not even allowed to walk one mile to school through a safe neighborhood...even my new high-schooler. What a different mindset!

Ok, two more. Not sure why, but there are money changers on every corner. There they are carrying wads of Afghanis (name of the currency) just in case somebody is wanting to trade in some other currency. Not sure how they stay in the business since most of us can't go out enough to even spend any Afghanis. We eat, live and sleep back in our concrete camps and bring the vendors to us and we pay in dollars. Too weird. I'll have to get some more background and come back to you on this one.

Lastly, the cell phones are the bomb! No pun intended, I assure you. One thing we have done for this country over the last 9 years is give them a telecommunications network that was non-existent in the Taliban years. Now, on every corner you have guys selling the sim cards for whatever gadget you have, from Nokia to unlocked iPhones. Haven't seen an AT&T store and won't for many years. This guy doesn't need high overhead. He's out on the pavement with me.

More "suspects" to come...