Day 164

Today had a little variety in it, which was nice.

Work was just work for the morning, up through lunch.  I don't recall doing anything spectacular this morning.  But around 1pm, the drive team came over to our place and picked me up, along with lots of soccer equipment.

I was pretty mismatched with respect to my uniform.  I was wearing the multicam pattern clothing, but my body armor is ACU pattern.  So I stuck out like a sore thumb.  But I got over it.  I also forgot to take the "Danimal" nametag off, so everyone was pretty amused by that.  They all wanted the funny story, but I didn't share :)

I was surprised at quite how bad the roads were in Kabul.  I think the vehicle was rocking about 15 degrees to each side as we went through massive potholes and bumps.  It was pretty crazy.  Not the most comfortable ride, and wearing body armor makes you a little more tired.  The ride probably took at least 30 minutes.

We got to the orphanage, and it was actually surrounded on all sides by big walls, with armed guards outside.  So I'm not exactly sure where they get their funding, but someone is taking care of this place.  But we ended up with quite a big crowd of kids around us.  First, Col Fenton helped distribute the soccer jerseys, soccer balls, some shoes, shin guards, etc.  Then we gave some candy and soccer balls to the boys.  They definitely tried to take all they could carry.  But they didn't look like they were wasting away, and they all seemed to have shoes on, except one kid was wearing sandals.

Some of them were excited to get their pictures taken, and I was called either "white face" or "white fish" numerous times.  Maybe both, who knows.  One of them also introduced himself as "Volleyball".  So there were definitely some amusing moments.  But it was really all just about dropping off the gear.  It was good to get out of the office, and socialize with a different set of people.  I've been around the people in my office so long that my tolerance is getting extremely low.  Pam and Rob are ok, but they're about the only ones I can stand to be around.  Rose isn't bad, but she's often just doing her own thing.  She also leaves in about a week, so it doesn't matter much.

Sigh.  But I will try to acquire some pictures from today's activities, and then post them.  A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.   But for now, I'm off to bed!