Graffiti and Zombies Part II

They're up to something in that church... I know it.

Must be a seance or something. 

I thought I had dealt with all the issues involving graffiti and zombies in the first post, but clearly I was wrong. We still have things that go bump in the night, and I keep on stumbling across works of art splayed out across segments of t-wall. 

Imagine walking home late at night in the dark and suddenly this pops into view from around a corner:

He's a mean one.

It's very startling. Not sure of the history of this seven-foot-high mural of the grinch, but I often see people playing cards around that table he's looking at - so he's not so off-putting that people don't want to hang around him.

Every once in a while I'll come across an odd bit of activist-graffiti:

In 2007 a crack logistics unit was sent to Kandahar Airfield to serve as suppliers for 904 EAW. These soldiers promptly formed as a team and served the detachment to their highest abilities, today still required by the government, survive solely on subways and burger kings. If you have a problem, if no one else can supply it, and you can find them, Maybe you can hire:-

Veterans needing jobs is a very serious issue...

Sometimes it's good to see some old school slapstick to break the tension:

The flag says (phonetically)  "tok" - I assume this is an onomatopoeia like "bang".

Driving by the Army Corps of Engineers' compound one day, I catch a glimpse of the mother-load out of the corner of my eye. It seems in their courtyard they commissioned the Michelangelo of Afghanistan to paint their murals.

The mother-load.

Who is spending their time making these under-appreciated works of art? It's not like the nature of Kandahar Airfield is very conducive to artists for hire. I'm surprised that the odd soldier out there with artistic ability is willing to spend their time working on things like these when they're not busy with their military occupation or disparately clinging to every moment of free time that they get. If you're out there, artists, I appreciate you.

Night-time Dancers

At various times, while walking to my room from work, I pass these groups of people.They don't notice me, because I'm not one of them. It's like something out of The Sixth Sense. They're like the dead in the sixth sense. I speak of course, of the salsa dancers.

In their own little world.

I must've made it clear by now that there is very little to do here outside of work, play video games, exercise, eat, sleep, watch movies, read, and write a blog that people claim to enjoy. I'd probably turn to things like salsa nights and karaoke as well, if I weren't working 12 hours shifts every day of the week...

It does look fun...

I work right below an office of lawyers, and when I asked them what they typically deal with they said there's the usual stuff... and salsa night. Apparently if you get 18-20ish-year-olds together and organize a night of a very physical-contact-centric dance some people are going to claim sexual harassment.

We unknowing can only look on in envy.

A crowd always forms around the salsa dancers. Dancing is a spectacle around here. Not many people have a reason to dance, which is why, I suspect, that they organize salsa night to begin with. People need to unwind and why not salsa dancing to help them do it?  ... Maybe because of the lawsuits is why not? But I'll leave that to the powers that be.

Dancing being a spectacle, you can imagine my surprise when I saw this:

Hundreds of dancers!

There was a breast cancer fundraising dance-a-thon a couple of weeks ago. It definitely side-tracked me from my route to my room because just look!

Hope they raised a lot of money.

Karaoke

Monday night at KAF is Karaoke night at the MWR tent. They draw a regular and decent-sized crowd. On one of the last nights Mike Champion was in town a bunch of us went to see what it was like.

Pretty legit with the whole stage thing.

Lyrics for all to see.

Taking pictures with the flash on has a very predictable problem associated with it - note the reflector-belt.

Glorious Cuba can only benefit from watching others sing popular songs.

...Also I really love Karaoke.

Did you know Karaoke means empty orchestra? Isn't that hauntingly poetic?

Go Michael!

Michael is kind of a celebrity at Karaoke night. He even had a request one time. The best chance I have at having that sort of notoriety around here is being known as beard guy - and there are plenty of those. There's even a guy with a handlebar mustache walking around... How can I make my mark?

TGI Friday's

Let's go to TGI Friday's!

There is a Friday's here. I haven't been to every restaurant here yet by any means, but this one has been the best so far. There's a lot to be said for going somewhere that feels like home, and I've never even been to a TGI Fridays in the states. It's basically just like Applebees or Chilis... they're all the same, as far as I can tell: Plenty of flair on the walls, novelty chock-full-of-sugar drinks, and pictures in the menus, which are sometimes used to tell secrets:

Secret menu time.

One wouldn't normally think to take pictures in a TGI Friday's just because it's a TGI Friday's, and one would even less likely think to take pictures of someone taking pictures of someone in a TGI Friday's, but in Afghanistan it's normal. 

Picture within a picture. 

I think I ate too much.

So at KAF, TGI Friday's is the place to go for special occasions. They make a big deal of embarrassing people on their birthdays with a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne. The honoree is forced to stand on a chair and dance around while they sing a birthday song. I'd be embarrassed if it were me. We went to Friday's for Michael Champion's farewell lunch and he got the royal treatment:

"Celebration Drink" I think they called it.

Psychadelic Dancing

I must make it seem like I only eat at restaurants here with all the Tim Horton's and TGI Friday's talk. I've paid for a total of six meals while I've been here for over two months, a huge drop compared to my states-side record. 

NATO Forces

KAF is a NATO base. It's not just Americans. So far, I've seen coalition forces from Slovakia, Belgium, France, UK, Australia, Turkey, Romania, Kosovo, and Bulgaria. Definitely there are more Americans than anything else, but these other soldiers make themselves known.

Merukah!

This is the sign for the Romanian compound with the creepy church in it. Might as well say "Quarantine".

Every time I see a Bulgarian I want to talk to them, but don't. I visited Bulgaria as an Ohio State University International Affairs scholar back in 2008, so I know a lot about Bulgaria's history, landscape, and culture. But I know the conversation would go something like this:
Me: Hi! I've been to Bulgaria!
Bulgarian: Really?
Me: Yes! I've been to Sophia, and Plovdiv, and Nessebar, and Veliko Turnovo, and I know about Aleksander Nevski and so on and so on.
Bulgarian: Ok.
Me: Nice talking to you.

As much as it would be nice listing to a Bulgarian the things I know about and the places I've visited in Bulgaria, I think it's a conversation worth avoiding. Perhaps the urge will be too great and I'll have that very conversation some time - word for word.

Bulgarski?

Every time I go to the British compound's "Hero's Cafe" to get a bagel with lox, they're sold out. Their problems with restocking their lox stores aside, their cafe area is a nice place. Almost on par with the Tim Horton's the Canadians have. I'll continue checking in regularly in an attempt to eat some delicious, delicious lox.

The Royal Air Force has come a long way since the events of 1923.

What? Switzerland?! I thought you guys were supposed to be neutral! Oh wait, that's Denmark...

This is in the entrance hall to the building where the people in charge of KAF work. I had to go there to get my Flyer for High Holidays approved to post on the Boarwalk.

Slovaks are everywhere here. I haven't interacted with many of them, so I'll let Sarah Kemp's blog post about them suffice. Whoops! It was about Albanians... same thing, almost.

The inside of the Slovakian compound is guarded as though it were the nuclear launch codes.

There are too many of these country signs for me to take pictures of, so this'll be the last one.

What would one buy in a Canadian Store? Roots hoodies? Muskoka Bear Wear?

The Canadians are headed out of here, which is a shame. They're all very friendly, and on Canadian Thanksgiving we all got a great meal out of it. Also when they leave (which I'm told is going to be in about a month and a half) the Tim Horton's goes with them. This is a calamity! I should start a petition to keep them here. They have the best coffee and doughnuts on KAF. Maybe the Belgians will bring in a chocolate shop to replace it...

Skype

Being removed from friends and family within the military environment isn't the same as it was 50 years ago, or even 5 years ago. Now, you can talk to anyone you want in the world for free through the internet. It's incredible. Sometimes unbeknownst to my skype-chat peeps, I take pictures for posterity's sake - and thus this post.

This picture already prominently featured in an earlier post.

My Mom and Dad

Dad pretends to be a crotchety old man.

"Ilana smile for a picture", I said. This is what I got.

Grandma Lola learned how to use the computer!

Just kidding! Mom was helping her out.

Both Grandmas!

Willie and Dena say hi.

It's Seth! You know... from this post!

And Ari, he made it!

YAHHHHRRRRRRRRRRHRGHGHGHG - she's a pirate.

Sometimes I get put on hold when real life calls.

Jackie is truly honored to be chosen for this post. More on Jackie in a future post.

Anyway, skype and google talk have really changed what life "downrange" is like. Society has romanticized the notion of the "war buddy" for centuries, especially in American culture. I think skype has worn down that connection that soldiers have on some level. It used to be a soldier was in a remote environment like this and there was downtime (this is what I've heard and seen, I clearly wasn't in any war back then), they could write a letter home or maybe even talk on the phone for a few minutes and then the rest of their time they'd socialize with each other practically every waking minute. Now, the situation is if there's a moment of downtime that soldier can be in instantaneous communication with his or her loved ones often face-to-face, so he or she rushes off to the computer.

Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but that romanticized idea of a war-buddy may be a dying phenomenon for much of the military.