From Kevin Miller - October 16, 2008

Greetings My Friends,

I must first apologize for neglecting to write for so long. I cannot believe that over four and a half months have already passed since I left Wisconsin for training at Fort Riley, and it is even harder to believe we have been in Afghanistan for two months. The fact that time is passing so quickly for me is a good sign and a sign that we have been very busy. Of course, that is also my excuse for not writing; though I could probably have been sending brief notes periodically. I will try to make up for this with some longer, more detailed e-mails over the next few weeks.

I have included in this e-mail a number of people who asked that I stay in touch while deployed as well as most of the people in my e-mail address book and a few other acquaintances whose e-mail addresses I was able to find. If anyone receives this who would not like to receive future updates, please let me know and let me apologize in advance.

Let me first tell you that any hardships I am facing being so far from home are minor compared to what my wife is going through back in Wisconsin taking care of the house and kids. Many of you have been helping in numerous ways and for that I am eternally grateful. If at any time you are saying a prayer for my well-being, say several for Katherine. She is probably at greater risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder than I will be. We are learning that an eight-year-old who misses his dad brings his own sort of terror to the home front.

Though there is a lot to catch up with, I want to begin with just some general information and observations about Afghanistan, its people, the culture, etc. – which several of you have asked about. I have shared some of this with a few family members during my regular correspondence; so for you this may be repetitive, but I hope you won’t mind and I may have added some new insights and information. I will also be sending a link to one or more on-line photo albums with pictures related to what I am writing. You are all welcome to forward this e-mail to others whom you think might be interested – as well as the photo album links. I had really wanted to start a blog that anyone could go to anytime for regular updates and pictures, but clearly that didn’t happen. And if anyone receives this from a forward and would like to be added to my list for future updates, let me know and I’ll be happy to do so.

Okay, enough with the excuses, explanations, and general babble. Let’s get to it.

Most people’s image of Afghanistan comes from what they read in news stories – whether in the paper, magazines, on-line, or on television. These typically will show pictures of what definitely appears to be a third-world country that is very poor and out of touch with most modern conveniences and technology. And you will see a number of my pictures that present a similar perception. Of course, you will also see pictures and read stories that reflect significant violence and danger. None of these present the entire story. Hopefully I’ll be able to broaden your outlook on Afghanistan.

There are, without a doubt, some strange things to be seen around here, but there are some really cool things about being here, too. Where I am stationed is probably one of the best places in Afghanistan in a lot of ways. I am working primarily in the City of Jalalabad. It is one of the larger cities in Afghanistan with a population of about 170,000. It is located in Nangarhar Province along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Highway A1 runs through the city on its way from Kabul (the capitol of Afghanistan) to the Torkem Gate and Khaibar Pass and continuing on to Peshawar, Pakistan. This is the primary border crossing from Pakistan and, therefore, the main route for any products going between the countries. Jalalabad, or JBad (our typical way of referring to Jalalabad), is at about 1,800 feet elevation and has a climate much like Florida.

All of Afghanistan is in the same time zone, which is 9 ½ hours ahead of Wisconsin time. There are two official languages in Afghanistan – Dari and Pashto. Dari is very similar to Farsi which is a version of Persian. Pashto shares some words with Dari, but is also fairly different. More educated people tend to speak Dari and that is also the language in which official business is typically conducted. However, the area in which we are located has a significant majority who are Pashtun and they pretty much all speak Pashto, so that is the language most often used.

Some things in Afghanistan do seem really third world – you will see pictures of donkey carts, overloaded cars, trucks, and busses, sheep, goats, and cattle on the roads, etc. – yet the people in Jalalabad seem to live pretty well overall. And the Afghans here seem to really support the presence of the United States military. The kids often give us thumbs up as we drive by, people seem to be respective of our presence, and there have been very few incidents of violence near our location or within the city here.

The truth is that many of the people here use cell phones constantly and they enjoy a number of other modern conveniences. However, much of the city (and the vast majority of the country) have no dependable electricity, so they can't make use of many things they might otherwise be able to buy. In most respects, though, the Afghans with whom we're working are not that different from us. We have great rapport and enjoy joking around about things (usually through our interpreters). There are cultural differences to work through (such as Ramazan which just ended), but they are not easily offended and are generous about not expecting us to follow all their customs and such. For example, we tried to avoid eating and drinking (even water) in their presence during Ramazan because they can't eat or drink between sun up and sun down. But they often offered drinks and such and tried to insist that we accept because they know we are not Muslim and therefore don't need to follow the same rules.

All that we are seeing and experiencing does make me better appreciate our country and way of life, but not just because of what we have. What I realize is that Afghanistan is going through now what we went through 100 to 200 plus years ago. We had to have people with vision who settled our country and fought for our independence. Then we had to have leaders who would stick to their principles even when that was very difficult – such as in the fight against slavery and when choosing to fight the Civil War rather than let the country split apart. We had to have Americans who would sacrifice everything to preserve our country and our freedom. Afghanistan is going through that right now.

Unfortunately, the many wars that took place over the past thirty years here have devastated the country's infrastructure. There is so much work needed to build a highway system that will promote trade, establish reliable electric power for individuals and in order for businesses, manufacturers, etc. to be developed and flourish, and for clean water to be available throughout the country.

There are also many people who are looking to get out of Afghanistan in order to enjoy the benefits of places like America. Many of the interpreters – native Afghans who have learned English – are looking to move to the U.S. after they've worked for the military and/or contractors for a couple of years. They are, of course, better educated than a lot of Afghans so they have things to offer the country here, but they also want to benefit from their better education and it’s hard to do that here. And in truth, they are already giving back by serving as interpreters because they tend to be at greater risk by helping the Americans and coalition forces. Although here in JBad the risk is not as great because most people are pro-government and coalition; there are many places where that is not the case.

My accommodations are very nice compared to what I was expecting – and actually even compared to what I had at Fort Riley. There, and every place en route to here, we shared large rooms with many other people (around 150 other people in the case of Manas Air Base). Here I currently share a room with only one person and also have a TV, DVD player, and wireless Internet, so it's pretty cool. The down side here, compared to Fort Riley and the other places we stayed, is that I am not with my closest friends from the Wisconsin team. I share the room with my commander, LTC (Lieutenant Colonel) Passet, and while we get along just fine, he cannot be treated as a friend or the same as other colleagues. The only other person from our team stationed in our precise location is MSG (Master Sergeant) White. He keeps more to himself, though we also get along fine. I work great with both of them, but it’s not the same as having friends close by. I must also say that very few of the military folks in Afghanistan have quarters as nice as ours, so we are truly spoiled in that respect.

Having a television, you are probably wondering what there is to watch. We do have cable here and it’s primarily what's call Armed Forces Network (AFN). It's like a dish network for the military, with a variety of channels including something like three movie channels, ESPN, a couple that play syndicated shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother, several news channels including CNN, Fox, BBC, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera. Yes – Al Jazeera. It's actually a pretty high quality news network. It does have a European focus with the news scrolls including more European and Asian stories than we would usually get in the U.S, but that is true of the other news networks as well. They are Eurasian versions of what we would get in the U.S. To get a better feel for Al Jazeera, check out their website (http://english.aljazeera.net/).

My impression of Al Jazeera, before coming here and actually seeing it, was based on clips shown during other broadcasts in the U.S. – especially David Letterman, who of course was very selective and put a humorous spin on things. The anchors and reporters are all English speakers from various countries and continents. So far, I’ve not seen any real bias for or against any country, nationality, religion or anything else. They actually had very extensive – and seemingly objective – reporting from both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

There are a couple other channels of interest. There is an HBO channel, but it tends to show older movies and has commercials – I don’t get that exactly. We also have MTV, Discovery, National Geographic and – you’ll love this one – a fashion channel. I think it’s actually in another language (I think the only channel in our system not in English) and it seems most of the time to just show various fashion shows with models going up and down the runways. I’ve never left it on long enough to see what else is on it. Some of the channels do run periodic commercials that are in Hindi or Urdu, I think. They appear to be Indian.

Now, in our first quarters here at our current site (these were tents divided into four separate rooms), I had a TV in my room with some sort of Indian cable system. There were a small number of English speaking channels, but most were in Hindi or Urdu. This seems to be the same set of channels that the TV’s get at the Police Headquarters where we do much of our work (more on that later). Some of the offices we visit have TV’s. They have several channels that just play music videos or movies with a lot of music and singing, but they tend to all look alike to me – usually a sort of flowery romantic scene with an Indian flavor. There also appear to be Indian game shows, soap operas, and comedies as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan news channels. There are sports channels that typically have soccer, rugby, or cricket. One of our interpreters was trying to explain cricket to me, but it’s rather confusing.

I was able to watch the Packers beat the Vikings on Monday Night Football, but it was Tuesday morning here. The game started at 3:30 a.m., but I got up to watch it. And there was a Brewers game on live one night because it was a day game. I did not stay up to watch that, though it was nice to see them get into the playoffs.

Besides the niceties mentioned above, we have a gym. It’s outside under a tarp and has a limited amount of equipment, but there’s enough to get a good workout. I was not getting there very often the first few weeks, but I’m trying to do better. I’m also trying to watch what I eat. There isn’t a huge selection of food at each meal, but the food that’s served is very good and there are almost always several things I like. Consequently, it is very easy to eat too much. I’m not certain, but I believe I put on several pounds the first few weeks after we left the U.S. and now I’m trying to take it back off.

That’s probably a good start. I’ll stop now and continue in the next few days (Inshala – now there’s a good word to know; it means, roughly, “God/Allah willing” and is used regularly when planning things or “promising” things). I certainly don’t mind hearing from anyone with updates on things going on back at home, work, or wherever, though I won’t likely send long replies back if I hear from too many folks. Look for another e-mail soon with a photo album link.

Kevin

P.S. I'm sending these e-mails as blind copies so no one has to worry about their e-mail addresses being sent to people they don't know or forwarded to yet other people they don't know; I realize that means you can't tell who else received them and, therefore, who to forward them to, but I trust you'll figure it out.
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