Trivia Night

I love trivia night. If the pub-trivia-nights of the world had a joint ad campaign, I'd be on the poster. So when I had the opportunity to go to one of the British coffee houses on post for their weekly trivia night with a few friends, I took it.

Hard at work proving who knows the must trivial pieces of knowledge.

The trivia night here went faster than most places I've been. I suspect this is because the proprietors aren't too concerned with trying to get their patrons to purchase more alcohol as there is no alcohol!

No! No! No! THIS answer goes HERE, THAT answer goes THERE. Got it??

We lost in the end, but playing with people from so many different countries made it a little interesting. It seemed like there were representatives from every English speaking place represented here on KAF. At one point the host asked a question about what the top of a nail was called and he pronounced nail "nowl" - and people were joking about it the rest of the night. 

I'm very much looking forward to my next pub-trivia-like event, wherever it may be.

Better luck next time...

Cigar Night

A few weeks ago we had a cigar night after Havdalah at our friends over at the US Army Corps of Engineers compound's cigar porch.

Welcome to The USACE compound!

I'm not an expert in virtually any vice, but the peer pressure got to me and I'm told they were very good cigars.

Welcome to the porch!

Frank is a phantom.

Tobacco is basically the only permissible vice on KAF.

 I realize the irony of my making comments about Mike Self way back in the day and how he looked like Fidel Castro. I am fully aware that in these pictures, with the big beard, and especially with the cigar, I resemble Fidel Castro. Just wanted to get this out there in the open, so nobody else thought they could point it out to me.

I'm telling everyone about this glorious revolution I once led.

Curse the infamous glare off of reflector belts!

Cigar night was also a good opportunity for some great looking pictures of good deeds being done. Benari had lots of comic books, and Avi knew of lots of people who had little time on their hands. Supply and demand at their finest.

Transaction complete.

The Holidays

Oh the weather outside is frightful... well, no, that's a lie. I can still wear short sleeves during the hottest part of the day, but at night it's consistently been below the freezing point, and I find ice on the ground as I walk to work whenever I have the early shift. All the same, the holidays are here, and it's been very evident since December started.

For instance I was walking to work early one morning when I noticed an inordinate amount of sweaty Santas walking away from the boardwalk as I approached. The Santas per sq. ft. increased steadily as I walked to work until I came across an army of santas!

It turns out there was a Santa/Christmas 5k benefit run that morning.

There were a lot of Santas.

The Education Center's halls were then decked:

Andrea and Muhammad decorating the tree.

I put up a little Hanukkah display as well.

Then we took a professional grade seasons greetings picture from the KAF Education Center.

Seasons Greetings from the Kandahar Education Center

Then Hanukkah came!

Good God! Is that what I look like?? I've got to shave!

The first night we did a more formal thing and lit many Chanukiot, but we had a pretty good turnout every night of the holiday! We even had latkes on that Friday night!

We sang some songs.

More singing.

Told the story of Hanukkah.

The focus was far greater on Christmas around here as you can imagine. One day I came across this flyer:

A flyer for a service inside the zombie church!

As I've explained before, I very much enjoy seeing how other people pray, and observe their religions, so when I saw this flyer, and with my fixation on there being an actual church here on base with a steeple and everything, I resolved to attend that service.

Conveniently, I also had the whole KAF schedule of religious services for December 24th and 25th delivered to me through the mass emailing system we've got here, so I also resolved to attend the Catholic midnight mass here that Saturday night.

Makeshift Altar with communion chalices.

When I told him I was going, my roommate and the new Text Examiner here, Bert, decided to come with me to the midnight mass. It was a nice service with a lot of focus on praying for world peace and juxtaposing those prayers against the backdrop of our locale.

Finally it was time to face my fears, and go to Romanian Church.

Who knows what I'll find on the other side of that barbed wire fence? Romania is where Transylvania is located...

Oh... this doesn't look too scary... I assume that means Merry Christmas.

So far it looks like a regular old church... no zombies to speak of...

Oh wow... not at all what I was expecting. 

The history of the Romanian Church on KAF.

I've been to a bunch of Eastern Orthodox churches in Bulgaria, and I know some of the traditions behind Eastern Orthodoxy, so it wasn't entirely alien to me. Some things are pretty obvious like the serious focus on iconography (the little paintings of all the saints/disciples/representations of god/angels seen in the picture of the sanctuary above). One interesting tidbit is whenever you see a picture with someone holding a model of the church you're standing in, that's a picture of the people responsible for the construction of that church being honored in a painting.

I assume they didn't actually dress like that, but maybe they did?

I didn't stay for the whole service, but that, too, was very nice. Then it was time for lunch and something caught my eye on the way in. Take a look:

Did you catch it?

Oriental bar! Clearly someone way up in the pecking order of whoever is in charge of what we eat around here was thinking about the Jewish residents of KAF, and making the oriental bar an option allowed us to celebrate according to our ancient traditions.

Once again in the DFAC we were treated to the artistic culinary decorations like the vegetable bouquet and so on.

And there you have it!

Happy Holidays from Kandahar!

Microcosm: A Study of Life on KAF through Film and Television

Imagine, if you will, a community. This community consists of people from all over the world. There are barely any members of the community under the age of 18, or over the age of 60, with the vast majority of its members falling within the ages of 20 and 40. There is no unemployment. Obesity is extremely low. The passport ownership rate is nearly 100%. Men outnumber women 8 to 1... maybe by even more.

This is what the population of KAF looks like to me. I didn't perform a survey or anything, the data is simply drawn from estimates from my observations. Also, it's now been four months since I've been outside the 1-mile radius circle with my bedroom at its center, so I've become intimately familiar with the landscape within that circle. Some faces stick out - like the ones I pass at the same times every day.

Before I came here it was suggested to me that life here would be like Groundhog Day, because of the repetitive schedule. I'll sometimes extrapolate the deep thoughts I've had on that film into my experience here. For Instance: How long would it take for me to punch my equivalent of the Ned Ryerson in the face?

It would probably take longer than I'll be here so you shouldn't worry, KAF version of Ned-the head.

In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is trapped, if he tries to leave Punksatawney the snowstorm traps him there and no matter where he goes, he always wakes up at the bed-and-breakfast with "I Got You, Babe" playing on the radio.

Even if I wanted to, and I'm not allowed to leave KAF, but sometimes when I look outside the base into the haze of dust that limits the visibility I think that if I were to head straight out into that mist, I'd wind up face to face with KAF again not unlike the TV show LOST wherein whenever a character tries to leave on any sort of craft they end up back at the Island, or (another obscure reference) that movie Identity in which the multiple personalities of a mind affected by multiple personality disorder meet at a motel and kill each other off one by one. If any characters in that film tried to drive away from the lonely motel, they'd wind up back at the motel. What I'm trying to say is, it's an overused trope, but applicable to my situation. If only there were a giant unexplained four-toed statue here on KAF...

I sometimes get the feeling that when I do leave here I'll have a sort of time management superpower, at least for a few months before I get used to regular life again. I've often run the scenario in my head of being in a job interview somewhere down the road and the interviewer telling me that I may be asked to work at odd hours. In the scenario I just laugh at this interviewer, because no schedule of hours could be odder than the one I've had here.

My Brother-in-law Paul and I had this conversation online a few weeks ago:

Paul: What do you do on weekends
Me: What's a weekend?

Right now, the concept is mind-boggling. Do you mean to tell me that there are two whole days at the end of a week, with nothing planned out? At this point, the lengthiest amount of time that I've gone without working has been 18 hours. That was way back during the government shutdown, and that was probably a one-time thing. By my calculations, the total number of hours I will have worked in seven months will be the same as working one and a fifth years of a 40-hour-a-week job. I think I'll deserve a bit of time off, but will I be able to handle time off? I won't know what to do with my time. I may have forgotten how to relax!

I'm sure I'll figure it out. If the worse comes to worst I'll just watch Groundhog day a hundred times. I friggin' love that movie.

9/11

It didn't occur to me until a few weeks into my time here, that I would be in Afghanistan during the 10th anniversary of 9/11. If there was a way to tell little 8th grade Josh Kramer that 10 years later he'd be working with the troops in the war that was started as a result of 9/11 I think he'd probably be surprised.

Anyway there was a concert last night to celebrate and after havdallah in the CMC building me, Warren, Christy, and I went to check out the festivities.

Warren didn't stick around long - he and I were both there mainly for the comedian, only I was willing to wait for him.

The band's name was goldilocks or goldy locks or something like that. They were mostly a cover band and I guess not achieving the fanfare that they were expecting at first. As far as a USO show is concerned I guess it was what I was expecting... lots of we appreciate what you're doing out here (to the troops) and then they played music.

Lots of American flags...

Yet they pulled up an Australian soldier to make a fool of himself dancing on stage.

Hey look there's Benari!

Benari's military experience apparently involves the more peaceful type of shooting.

Have I not mentioned Benari? He works in public affairs for the army. I've told him he needs to work on putting out old school propaganda posters/newsreels in theaters, and I suppose he's working on it. I found out about Benari through his blogpost about meeting Jon Stewart when he came through Afghanistan just before I arrived here. We were wondering why he was missing at Havdallah and now we knew - he was working on this show. I took a few pictures of him taking pictures.

I'd classify this audience as whelmed...

It's not that they were a bad band, it's just that they were a little lesser known and it was hard for me at least to get into it. I'm not much of a concertgoer anyway.

Rock-on Goldilocks.

I say they add a new model to the army men toys. The camera pose!

Then a mosh pit formed.

The one guy really got into it.

Next, the commanders of KAF got up and gave plaques to the touring group and thanked them. Turns out another part of observing 9/11 involves the company that owns outback steakhouse sending dozens of chefs and providing steaks and bloomin onions to the troops. So representatives from those companies and the chefs came out and were recognized.

Finally it was time for the comedy relief. Andy Hendrickson? Yeah I hadn't heard of him either but they can't all be Bob Hope. He was pretty good, considering. I did laugh a bunch...

Of course he made a poo pond joke.

After a slight break, goldy locks came out for a second set and I was done and ready for bed.

Here's what it looked like from another part of the boardwalk.

Now, I'm not complaining about the steak and bloomin onion I had for dinner today, but I was surprised overall by the way 9/11 was commemorated here. Granted, there was a candle lighting ceremony over at the USO tent today, for most of the day as I understand it, but steaks and music? Hardly a mention of 9/11 at that concert? In the states I know there were ceremonies all over. What I had expected when I realized I'd be here for 9/11 was a solemn gathering with speeches from military leaders, a moment of silence and maybe some 9/11 inspired country music of which there was a lot. Instead we got "Sweet Home Alabama" and jokes about not enjoying reading... surprising.