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.

Kandahar Jewish Community Part II

Look at this flyer I made:

Awesome flyer, right?

I put it up all over KAF. While Warren was gone for on leave, people in our regular group had to step up to fill the void. I helped out by putting up flyers, and by making sure the food and cooking supplies that we have here remains kosher.

Being Jewish on KAF is easier than at most FOBs (once again, Forward Operating Bases). For one thing we have a bigger population and therefore more supplies and support. It's also just a larger base so there's more chance for overlap between cultures here. For instance the French PX and the British snack bar both have lox on their menus! Observe:

Seems like a reasonable price.

It was delicious.

Here are some more of the foods I'll go to when I get homesick.

I'd bet that this is more of an attempt at capturing the souvenir market and less of an overlap in cultures, but I see these around KAF all the time:

Kidush pourer thing.

I don't know what the Afghanis sell these as, but I've only ever seen them used for Kiddish wine at Jewish events. The idea is that someone says the blessing over the wine in the big cup, and then pours it into the holes in the top and siphons the wine into all the little cups on the bottom, so everyone can have some of the blessed wine. More pictures of those:

This one is more plain.

There are grapes on it, that means for wine, right?

OK, now I know I'm right, that's supposed to be Jerusalem on that cup!

As you can see from the flyer above, we only met for Rosh Hashanah on Wednesday evening, and then did our regular Friday night activities at the end of the chag. A non-regular attendee took a bunch of pictures and sent them out. Be prepared, the following pictures include some of the latest captured images of my beard. They may be shocking.

Preparing our "Kandahar Cholent" (it's made of whatever we've got) and matzoh ball soup!

Unpacking the Kiddush wine.

Tada!

Rickey lights the candles.

Shofar blowing.

Benari thinks, "He's going to faint".

Food!

Yummy.

At the other end of the table, a photo-shoot of Jacob and Avi takes place:

After dinner is over and all cleaned up, we have a little shofar jam session.

Shofar so good.

Shofar is hilarious.

Happy Rosh Hashanah from Kandahar!

Friday night, we had a turnout of exactly ten men show up to our Yom Kippur service. We went through the machzor and chose which prayers we'd like to focus on, say, or discuss. On Saturday we had a morning service where followed that same model. Our break-fast consisted of cakes sent by the kosher troops and the aleph institute organizations.

Sukkot is coming, and we're getting an actual Rabbi Chaplain. I hope it's as good as my Jewish experience has been here so far. Here's a picture of the Sukkah that I took around the second week I was here. I know it looks a little decrepit, but hey, there's a Sukkah in Afghanistan!

Almost forgot: Since my recent and auspicious mention in the Gross Schechter Day School Alumni Newsletter (which you can feel free to read), in which I discuss how helpful my Schechter education has been in allowing me to participate and help facilitate the Jewish service here in Kandahar, my mother has been encouraging me to also mention how important my experiences at both Park Synagogue and Camp Ramah in Canada have been in molding my Jewish knowledge. I might as well also plug my experiences at USY, the Siegel College of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Alpha Episolon Pi, The University of Vilnius's Summer Yiddish Institute, OSU Hillel etc. etc. etc.

Shout-out to Rabbi Rogozen, Michael Wolf, Rabbis Skoff and Marcus, Arlyne Bochnek, Amnon Ophir, and whoever the point people may be at those other things.