...from Afghanistan: Kids

On Wednesday morning I visited a boys' and girls' school in the town of Udkheyl (pronounced ood-kell) to hand out backpacks filled with school supplies.

I've been out on humanitarian missions before, but I think I enjoyed this past one more than most. It might be because I'm leaving soon or maybe because I've had a year to develop a fuller view of this culture. Whatever the reason, I felt more privileged than anything to be a part of it.

Kids in general are just beautiful, and Afghan children are no exception. I've seen them all year around Camp Phoenix's walls, in downtown Kabul during missions, and at the bi-weekly bazaar that comes to post. They seem almost pre-conditioned to ask for things - chocolate, pens, money, water bottles... At a young age many of them learn to sell goods to haggling buyers, using phrases like, "for you my friend, only eight dollars."

Five, six, and seven-year-olds will rummage through our trash for empty bottles, cardboard, and other miscellaneous items. They play barefoot and chat as they organize the trash into piles, the same way American kids might clean up their toys in their den.

The sight of burned children is common in the winter due to the needed in-home fires, and both sanitation and health care are all but unheard of, increasing the chances for infection and illness with little chance of treatment.

I think because of these things, it doesn't bother me that the children can be demanding and even sometimes conniving. At first, I think most of us were indignant upon discovering that the children here will tell a person what they want with no thought of please or thank you. They will say, "Give me chocolate!" or Give me water!" But I doubt that etiquette means very much when survival is not a given.

With such things in mind it was exciting to be able to see so many children getting an education at the school on Wednesday. Thanks to the donations of communities back home, we had about 1200 backpacks to distribute (Go Florida!!!).

The school was a walled-in complex at the edge of the town. Buildings which served as classrooms ran along each wall with one stand alone building in the center of the complex, next to an outdoor basketball court. The floor between the buildings was dirt, not paved, and the buildings were either plywood b-huts - which the U.S. Army built, or they were adobe looking buildings. In one corner where there were no buildings, two large tents and one smaller tent functioned as make-shift classrooms, while additional classrooms were out in the open.

If the school were a clock, we started at about four o'clock with the youngest students and handed out the backpacks one room at a time, counter clockwise. In the first group of classes the teachers would say something to their class, and all the students would jump to their feet when we would walk in. The students stared at us silently as we placed backpacks on each desk. For the teachers, who had just as little access to such supplies, we had special bags with more pens, pencils, and paper packed in them.

The order and silence of the first rooms quickly dissipated as we moved on to classes of older students. In one class of boys where the teacher had stepped out, we saw the height of the day's chaos. I was standing in the middle of the room, while another soldier handed me backpacks. This was a very bad idea. All of the boys were simultaneously shouting, "Howareyou!Howareyou!" while from every direction they were reaching for the backpacks in my hands. I would hand out two or three packs then, while I turned to get more from the other soldier some of the boys would hide their new backpacks in their desks, while others would run to a different desks to get another backpack. After getting about halfway through the room the soldier with me said, "This is the last room we do without a teacher in it." I nodded and made my way out of the room to get our interpreter.

As soon as our interpreter walked in the room and started shouting short phrases in Pashto (the local dialect) the room fell silent, every boy sat down, and a couple of them revealed the backpacks they'd hidden. To a boy that had been very quiet and polite we gave a particularly nice pack. The interpreter explained that the boy was being rewarded for being respectful. As we walked out of the class room I said to the other soldier that I hoped the polite boy wasn't going to get beat up at lunch time.

We made it to more than half of the classrooms before we ran out of backpacks. Somehow, the teachers and students seemed to understand that we just didn't have anything more to give. The school administrators were more than grateful and shook all of our hands and thanked us before we left.

I hope you enjoy the pictures (click to enlarge). For anybody who is interested, you should be able to copy the pictures directly from this site to your own computer; and for all who donated backpacks, crayons, pens, pencils, and paper, THANK YOU! I hope some of the pictures can say so much more than I could ever say with words. I will have a photo album of the trip up soon, so keep a look out for that, too.

Comments

Scott, our son, we are so proud of you. Thank you for faithfully sharing your experiences and outstanding photography so that we can catch a glimpse of your world. Thank you for courageously serving the USA in compassionate missions as well as military missions. We love you! God keep you.

Posted by: Mom & Dad | June 08, 2006 at 10:59 PM

Dear Scott: I look forward to each blog you post. They are always interesting and well written. I now have a different perspective on our role in Afghanistan thanks,in the main, to you. The media seems to take great delight in reporting only the bad news. Very rarely do we see or hear of the good people like you are doing. Thank you. To me, you represent the best this country has to offer and I'm sure your kindness and goodwill will be remembered by these children and their parents for a very long time. God bless you and keep you and your fellow soldiers safe.

Posted by: Ellen Morris | June 10, 2006 at 04:55 AM