Cookie Tong

Yes, Joony! I saw Buzkashi!

2006-01-05T12:26:00.000+04:30

Buzkashi was amazing but I didn't finish writing about it my book or diary or whatever it is, so I can't "put it up yet." So hopefully next week. But let it be known that it was both as awesome and disappoining as could be imagined. okay so just don't worry about it, geez.

Danes winds

2006-01-05T12:22:00.000+04:30

Sometimes when I'm down, I realize that the problem is just that I need to hear some dirty bass accompanied with some super nasty beats and have someone remind me that, "It's party time" or something similar. But nobody hear ever reminds me of that. So I started having my own parties during class sometime.

Today I was accomplishing continuous goals.

2006-01-05T12:14:00.000+04:30

Today I was reading this poem, sort of, actually it was a list of jobs, which if we were being honest wiht ourselves, really just ought to replace all poetry, and I were a poet I would really try to have a "lists of Jobs" stage that art historians or whoever could talk about later. Anyway it had some really good sections.

That time you had that awkward moment with that bird.

2005-12-29T12:38:00.000+04:30

We heard rumors that tommorow there is a buzkashi match near the central bamyan bazaar. If you are totally out it then you don't realize that this is the awesome chance of a lifetime. Buzkashi is basically this kind of polo with a headless goat carcass. Its supposed to be really violent too. I think we are going to go and I can't wait! Thats all for this week because I had to make a report for WORK!

Sorry, No chickens bodies available

2005-12-22T11:32:00.000+04:30

Aww man
i was gonna write all this sweet stuff, but we have to buy some cookies and gear for our class christmas party and a chickens legs for christmas dinner (no chickens body was available). Really I don't know if i can handle all this updating pressure.

"We ain't go no money! we ain't got no time!"
I've been making up a lot of sweet dialogues and songs for our english class and then making the students sing and dance and say whatever words i want them to say. Of course i have to use real words due to my concisence and the other teachers, but whatevs. I might video tape some of this if i can get some battery power and if i stop feeling awkward and rich about waving a video camera in village kids faces.

All these sweet things are happening in my life that you totally don't know about, which is too bad, but my time here is almost finished (bout a monf, less actually) and then another in korea and then its back in your TLC arms and your TLC made for tv movies and your TLC Cds.

I was thinking about how I will fit in with everyone, and i am sure it will work out fine. the only problem is that the things and names that I say that Jake hates have all changed to things reconizable only by me. Instead of nate reed I say ghulam Ali or Khuda dad. Instead of "singing mice" I say singae? Pashtu for "how are you" Instead of say hey myon, I say chang hyun. Excpet I usually say these things in my head. But all things work together for good for them that love the lord, so I guess i'll be fine and jonny rice will be screwed.

Also I had this dream about owens and we were trying to find these awesome snacks and jake wanted this dried fruit and me and aaron senter and andy and erica wanted this huge car sized peice of french bread and we got in this huge fight and then i don't rmember what happened but now i want to eat a sandwhich real bad and they don't have those here.

Matt why don't you change your wedding date a week earlier. I'm going to ask till you give me an answer.

Long long Ago...MEN of making bike have a DREAN

2005-12-15T12:50:00.000+04:30

This is the real date: 11.19.05

When i lived in granshakh some people had this bike called, "Star Plan Shuttle" and the above was its slogan written on the bike, capitals and mispellings included. I love that bike like i love this junk mail i just got from "forrest Tom."

Also there is a brand of crackers in Pakistan called, "Peek Freens"!!!!

Today while I was playing this weird and confusing version of bachee ball (Chor Maghz or four brains) with walnuts this UN truck drove by and I am pretty sure it was being driven by ben newton.

Also I learned that Tupchi means "place of shooting guns" good news

Time! its dimes time!

First Day in Tupchi!

2005-12-08T11:36:00.000+04:30

What kind of Ghosts live in mountains?
This is beginning the series of catching up on old things which were not posted. I am not starting at the beginning I am starting with my current life here in Bamyan, Afghanistan. I will also be throwing in a bit of business from the Kashmir Earthquake. The Cast has changed, Joony went back to Korea, Young Mi and Chang Hyun Came from Korea. Hee Eun is still in Kabul, Chul went to Pakistan. The Dates will all be wrong in order to have them appear at the top of the blog and later I will change them. or will I? And Matt don't worry I'm coming to you wedding, I'm just angry its August 5th and not the week or two before.

I miss Hee Eun. and Joony. and Andy Senter. There's a big jump in continuity here from well before Peace Camp (August) - Vacation in Pakistan for a 15 days - Earthquake in Pakistan for longer - Moving to Tupchi, Bamyan. That's okay though its mostly lies anyway.

Today was the first day, I guess in Tupchi (the village in which we now find myself, "doing my thing"). The first real day anyway. Everybody, Hee Eun (dang), Chul, and Amanullah left to go back to Kabul or elsewhere. Our first night alone here. After they left (shoot), We played Soccer with a bunch of boys from the refugee camp (naowbat) near the school, trying not to kick the ball of the mountain or into a minefield (not true, this side of the river has been demined, but its sounded good huh? See all lies). It was great. I didn't realize how much Granshakh had scarred me (you didn't either, when the blog left off I was just introducing it to your ways, I will fill in the blanks later, for now if you want to know about it go see the movie dogville) But so far no one has hit me, pushed me down a hill, stolen from me, called me an infidel or told me I was going to hell. I guess I was expecting it, but here they all seem to be kind and like me. And they are all impressed by my Farsi speaking abilities (bad move, I always come on strong and then later they try to talk to me fast of difficult and we all lose).

I am of course running out of internet time. Its spent most of my time reading about the CPT kidnapping and Corpus Christi the play

So I will leave you for this week with some items.

1. Today we me with the teachers and they cared about the students and about education. One of them called me Ustaz (teacher). In Granshakh the teachers called me Bacha (boy).

2. The view from our house is continuosly destroying the view from all houses and making those houses feel clumsy and foolish.

3. The Snow capped mountains are slowing coming here for a visit. In a month they will arrive.

4. The Last three nights in a row, I've dreamt of earthquakes. The Last one everyone died except Joony. Hee Eun was crushed beneath the ceiling while lying in bed. I didn't tell her that.

5. This internet cafe (the only seven computers in the whole province with internet access) is slow but surprisinly faster than kabul. Its cold as darren's boulders though and my hands freeze like frozen gold.

6. The guy at the gas station where we get deisel for our oil lamp signs the reciept, "love" in english.

Dang times up. I still have so much to write. I hate the internet. and time.

CPTers kidnapped

2005-12-02T13:07:00.000+04:30

Next week I will begin posting on my life here in bamyan either starting from pakistan earthquake or the present. However this week I would like to ask you to pray for some fellow CPTers who have been kidnapped in Iraq. Two of them were present at my training, one being a trainer (on the right) and the other assisting (bald on the left). I won't take the time to post indepth here as others have already done so. For more information please visit my friend Justin's Blog. http://www.justinalexander.net/
or of course, the www.cpt.org website has much information about it. Please pray for them.

see ya

2005-11-14T12:48:00.001+04:30

22,000 dollars have been raised! Tommorow I am going to a village in Bamyan for two months. See you there.

Pakistan Earthquake Emergency Appeal

2005-11-03T17:36:00.000+04:30

Friends and Supporters,

I am writing this letter from Pakistan which is currently in the midst of an enormous crisis. As most of you know, on Oct. 8, Northern Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) administrated region were struck by a 7.6 earthquake. Maybe you have heard the numbers. Over 55,000 dead and counting, over 70,000 seriously injured and counting. 3 million people homeless, 800,000 without any shelter whatsoever. 10,000-12,000 schools destroyed. In some districts such as Muzzafarabad (the capital of AJK) and Balakot over 90 percent of everything has been destroyed. Whole villages have been wiped from the map. The destruction and loss of life has been tremendous and terrible. But the emergency is far from over.
The current situation is on the verge of another disaster of even greater scale. The areas affected are largely small villages and towns spread out across a huge and mountainous area. Most of the roads connecting these villages to support have been destroyed by the earthquake and continue to be re-blocked by rockslides and aftershocks. Estimates are that about 30% of the affected area has not even been reached yet. That’s an estimated 200,000 people nobody knows anything about.
What is known is that in 3-5 weeks heavy winter snows will completely seal off the majority of the affected area. 55,000 people died in the earthquake, but many times more will die if they do not receive food or shelter before winter begins. While there are many needs, the largest gap and biggest emergency is in shelter. Currently an estimated 210,000 (at minimum) winterized tents and shelters are needed and are needed fast. These would cover about 2 Million people. 2 Million people that will all die if they do not receive adequate shelter in the next several weeks. Let me repeat that: 2 Million people that will all die if they do not receive adequate shelter in the next several weeks.
The situation is desperate. No one was ready for this, no one knew the scale. And the international community failed to respond with compassion. In the wake of other disasters around the world somehow we forgot to care. Donations were made, many too late and too small. Maybe the people affected are remote, from places we have never heard of, maybe they are a different race and speak a different language. But their children still cry because they don’t know where their mother is, Parents still cry over children crushed to death beneath concrete slabs. And they will all freeze to death by December.
There is still time to save thousands of lives. Donations are needed to purchase tents and shelter for these people. We (The Frontiers) are collecting donations in hopes that we can support at least two villages completely with adequate shelter to last till they can rebuild in the spring. I will not soften my words. If people do not donate, thousands of people will die. The people are here, the organizations are here. The money is not, the tents are not. If we can get enough money for 600-700 tents, 600-700 families (or what remains of their families) will not die, will have a chance to restart their lives next spring.
Time is limited. This is an emergency. Please help the people of northern Pakistan.

Thank you
Paul-Philip (Paco) Michelson
Pakistan Earthquake Shelter Coordinator
The Frontiers

Questions? Email me:
paulphilipmichelson@yahoo.com or Afghanistan@thefrontiers.org

or Call:

+92-301-533-7749 (Pakistan Cell)+93-79-047-351 (Afghanistan Cell)

In animal hands

2005-05-21T15:25:00.000+04:30

Afghanistan Animal Count! Fox: 1 (beguiling and charming prince of moderate scale, perhaps it would not be presumptuous to claim him rascally, even)Turtles: 1 (dead) (but that means they have them here!)Crabs: 1 (because crabs are shellfish, they aren’t hallal (Islamic kosher) so the village people hate them and don’t touch them)Hedgehog: 1 (dead)(Really! I was surprised too. But there it was, dead on the river bank)Birds: uncountable (at least 6 or 7 varieties including this stork like bird) (whoah right now I just had déjà vu of some other animal list)Cats: 42 (only in Kabul) (the Villagers say that they are here but I haven’t seen them)Frogs: 50-60Cows: 4 BillionCamels: Maybe 6 or 7. (Most people don’t have them in the north, except the nomads or as they are called here “cuchi”)Goats and Sheeps: 2 BillionDonkeys: about 30 (donkey’s faces are so awesome!)Turkeys: AWW YEAH! Maybe 15 or so, including baby turkeys, including this one really confused turkey that came into our room this one time.Chickens: a couple millCat-Dogs: 3 or 4 really weird dogs that act like cats and climb these huge walls and one doesn’t have any ears.
Boring Lizards: 1, it was so boring
flamboyant and kind lizards: 1 so bright and beautiful!

Taking it to the streets

2005-05-20T14:07:00.000+04:30

Yeah! today was a day off and nice one at that. hey man nice one! I got up at 7:30 am and Joony and I and Alim and his really cute 4 year old son (this guy we met who stepped on a land mine a couple years ago and runs this mine vicitms group)(so scary with the four year old and four people on one motorcycle) all rode together on his motorcycle to go to the bagram hospital. But we were too heavy for his motorcycle so about half way there we met up with this wedding caravan and rode on the roof of their van filled with colorfully dressed girls and load iranian music with a seemingly excessive amount of drums. Then we got off in some town because they asked us to pay and we did not want to do that. Then it turned out we sort of broke alims motorcycle with our weight, so we had to stop at a mechanic (which in farsi is prounounced Mr. E or kind of like mystery said slowly, i'm serious its awesome! and some times people say they are Mr. E to me and I love them!) but luckily it only cost one dollar to fix (its afghanistan) and we had the best tea of our life while waiting. then we left his son with a friend. and drove to the hospital. He got hooked up with a date for some surgery and then we rode back. On the way back we stopped at his organization's small office and everyone took off thier prosthetic arms and legs and hands and showed us and told us how the leaders of thier province were crooks and steeped in nepotism and wouldn't help them at all or give them any kind of compensation for their injury. There are about 400 people in their union and they all have these tiny serious looking headshot photos in this big plastic bag. They want me to contact the American Army and get them some help. I don't know about that but I hope we can assist them in some way.

On the way back home we stopped at Alim's house and drank about 7 glasses of tea. We saw his village (Kharukhsi) which is part of Granshakh and near Rogamati (my village) but is more beautiful and more poor, in this valley by the river. Then we got on the motorcycle again but it got a flat tire and we had to walk a couple miles. When we got back home I helped our neighbors build this wall.

Alim is a really awesome dude although I wonder how much the metal in his face and eye from the landmine affects his brain. He literally never stops talking for the whole 2 hour motorcycle ride. And most of the time he was just asking me if I was good or okay. About every 15 seconds he would turn to me and say, "Khub as?" and he wasn't just saying it he always expected me to give an answer and would ask me until I did. And when he wasn't saying that he was saying, "Chetor Kunem?" which is kind of like saying, "but hey, what can you do?" as in, "I've got no money so I can't buy this thing i want...but hey, what can you do?" and he always called us the wrong names even during other people calling us the right names. He calls me Kecko or Kacki and Joony, Genom and Junum. He also kept asking us if we were friends. He's probably like 40 years old. It's good [Ed. later we found our that Junum means friend in iranian farsi, and that kacki means dirty and kecko means gay, but i don't think he meant that as an insult i think he really thought those were our names, and also I think the metal has effected his brains]

Bin laden jokes!

2005-05-17T14:07:00.000+04:30

Everyone's favorite jokes here are to (a) point at someone and say he's Al-Quaida or Bin Laden or Mullah Omar (Taliban leader) or to (b) point at someone and say they are from some otther country than Afghanistan, such as Germany or Africa (which apparently they think is a country). I didn't think Al-Quadia and Bin laden jokes would be cool here but apparently they eat em up like hot hot heat.

what?

2005-05-16T14:07:00.000+04:30

I expected to play a lot of soccer here in the village but instead for some weird reason they all love volleyball. what a weird choice. dang

I am Zarif Nijat: itelligent,handsome ,powerful and friendly

2005-05-14T14:07:00.000+04:30

That title came from the auto-fill thing. I love other humans and their ways! I love their ways!

Today I went hunting with the commander! (yes my life is really so awesome that I can say like that and it be the truth!)

At 4:30 am the commander's body and voice arrive in our room informing us that we are going bird hunting. Last night he said 5:30 but these numbers are not those numbers but different ones. But it doesn't matter and the commander walks so very fast! I can't believe his speed! (Joe and steven, how come we never talk about speed?! Do you realize about speed!?)

As we run/walk many guns are heard around the valley. 4:30 must be the hott time for shooting small animals bodies with metal and whatever else we have on hand. Soon we enter a grove of trees (Is this a grove? what does a grove really look like? do you think this is that word?) and we meet about 10 other villagers crouching behind trees and bushes with guns and in some cases muskets (really! those muskets! rev war baby!) looking like mujahadeen, the 70s and 80s guerilla fighters of Afghanistan. Boys and dads are bonding in the hunt for deliecious bird snacks. I wonder what kind of birds we will kill and kill well and hard? Soon guns are firing again and some birds go down bad. But these birds we shoot are so small like sparrows! And some guys behind me are firing really innappropriately loud guns for shooting such small tasty friends of earth. I go to watch some guy reload his musket. He is pieces of cloth! Soon my brains remember that it is 5 in the morning. I go to sleep. I wake up again to innapproapriate loudness. A few feet away some boy is getting yelled at like some boy is invarialby getting yelled at during all occasions like this. Maybe when he was cutting off the small birds' small heads he made some cutting mistake. I wonder when we can go back home and to sleep. I don't think the commander has killed any birds yet. I decide to pick some nice flowers. There are some really nice flowers here! I pick four colors. Finally around 7:30 and 3 hours of hunting we leave, the commander didn't get anything but on the way home he takes to birds down with cheap shots as they were sitting on the ground.

Kites for missing dogs and dog bag kites

2005-05-13T14:07:00.000+04:30

It's 7:30ish in the PM, I'm wearing a self-made turban, the wind sweeps across this field because no one can come up with a better verb for wind activity (so I might as well say, "the wind is engaged in wind activity.") and once again I can't believe my beautiful crystal knife of a life!

Also there is so much wind here always engaging in wind activity. and silence. windy silence and wind science and wind slice silos, all try to work it out. It's real real nice. It's peaceful. and nice. Last night I had the most peaceful BM of my life. We go to the toilet in this field and at night the wind is there residing in its stead and making do with what it can, folding itself into triangles of half space and half sound and cool cool air and then this amazing sky shows up with all these stars, and there are no dogs with their dog attitudes and dog faces and this BM I was having, which I had, was like a dream.

Today I taught the Alphabet to a man with six fingers.

2005-05-11T16:14:00.000+04:30

Seeing as how we are staying at the commanders house, thier family has decided that we own them some english lessons. So we taught the commander, a man with 6 fingers (ED: as it turns out a common village occurence), and three of C-dog's sons the alphabet. I am not sure how often we will do it, but tonight was kind of fun. Also, as you can imagine in your mind's eyes there is a very little light at night here (that is after the two hours of electricty from 8-10 from the town generator shuts off). So you cannot even believe the stars they have here. I mean its so beautiful it looks totally fake. It looks like a planetarium or a movie company logo. But its more beautiful and more fake!

Some Birds

2005-05-11T15:32:00.000+04:30

I am now so far behind on my blog that instead of posting some valuable information about my life, I will post this most amazing story that I aparently wrote April 27th but don't remember writing at all:

"Some birds came here, to this very cave."
"Cave or Cove?"
"What?"
"Cave or Cove?"
"Oh, 'Cove' actually"
"Yeah, that's what I thought."

First Day in the Village

2005-05-10T15:32:00.000+04:30

As advertised above, today was the first day in the village. The village is a beautiful tetherball of quiet nicities. The mountains are as beautiful as all get out. Right now I am writing this in the "teacher's lounge" at school here and all the teachers are staring at me and talking about things only vaguely understand, mainly the parts about me writing. Anyway we sat in on a class and then we arranged our room. Our room is pretty nice. Actually its too nice. It even has some carpet and paint on the walls. We had to end up living at the commanders, which is a little fancy (by poor village standards) because the commander is rich (by village standards). We didn't want to live there because he is too rich and also because there is a bit of a power struggle going on and we didn't want to live with the powerful people, but only the commander has final say on where we are staying and everyone else is too afraid to go against that (and also don't really want to help that much)

Anyway after school we arranged our things and said goodbye, which was sad. Just when I was finally getting used to the people and the surroundings in Kabul I have to move and adjust to somewhere new. I miss friends both old and new and mainly this one girl I know. But I will adjust again soon, like the sweet claims adjuster that I am.

So after everyone left we met these two guys, Zyat and Farhad and we looked at this english textbook together and at Zyat's various expired IDs. (everyone seems to have some kind of expired ID or passport that they carry to show you proudly).

We also cooked dinner. Our room always smells like gas and onions and gas all the time because we cook and live and do everything in our one room which which smells like gas and onions. We cook in the far corner of the room (the one that doesn't have the mickey mouse, beijing 2008 cabinet in it), so that corner helps our room to smell like gas and onions from our small gas burner and our smaller onions. Sometimes we open the window (actually all the time, its hot!), but sometimes the wind blows in a tremendous amount of dust (actually all the time, its hot!).

Sometimes I just can't think of titles, at all

2005-05-09T19:34:00.000+04:30

Dang, I have a lot to post and talk about but things have been so busy and craayzeeee (whooaaaaaooah!) that I haven't had much time to write it all down. So sorry. I will try to get my act together. I also have many pictures but am trying and failing at posting them at various locations. But my life is beautiful as always and so are these donkeys and turkeys that are all over the village where I use my life. The only thing missing is that I feel like seeing a turtle but i don't know if they have those here.

Long Time no see, Long Tip Snowden on Ice.

2005-05-09T15:22:00.000+04:30

Yes, well its been a while since i have posted on this here blog. It's not that there aren't things to write about because there are pages and pages of goodies in my journal. Its just that its difficult to find the time to type these bad boys up. So apologize. And it looks like the same goes for this week as actually I wrote some things on the office computer but the USB jump drive we use to take files to the internet cafe became broken. So we all lose don't we. I bet you really want to know what is happening in the village huh? me too. Well I hope that soon all will be revealed unto your eyes. In the mean time keep it mean time. got it?

oh yeah until i do somethings i finally have a temporary site where you can see pictures of me hanging around afghanistan. but they are alittle older so there are no village shots. sorry brah!

site of glory: http://www.princeton.edu/~dmichels/paco

some of the pictures have some explanations. some of them totally don't. you win some you lose some I guess.

Crap

2005-05-08T19:27:00.000+04:30

Yesterday, in two seperate incidents my grandma died and the internet cafe we frequent was suicide bombed.

No one we knew was there but someone that someone knew was there. This just as I was telling my friend Justin that afghanistan is much more stable than iraq. Stable meaning on the surface as in there isn't an insane war raging. Underneath of course there are intense amounts of turmoil and tension, not just against foriegn occupiers but also among the many ethic groups. Pashtuns don't like Hazaras or Tajiks, Tajiks don't like Pashtuns or Hazaras, Hazaras don't like Pashtuns and Tajiks, nobody likes russians, some people like Americans, some people hate Americans. As a group no ones hands are clean after years of infighting, backstabbing, civil war, profiteering, occupation, 10 million landmines, Communism, power, money, greed, islamic extremism, terrorism, and "liberation."

But as people they are all just people, not stereotypes, not homogenous, not without love. They've got reasons for things. They've got good or bad reasons for good or bad things. They've got good or excellent reasons for bad or terrible things. They make/made/planned/paid for mistakes, They're sorry, they're not sorry, they're so terribly sorry, they keep making mistakes, they beat their wives, they love their wives, they think they love thier wives. They make carpets, They make teapots, they dig ditches, they teach science. They beat women to death for trying to be humans, They put people in gas tanks and shoot rockets into those people. They heal people at hospitals, they pray to a god, they write poetry, they sing, they dance, they lie, they steal, they grow beards, they grow animals, they grow old, they die young, they fail, they let down their parents, they rebuild, they destroy, they tear apart their bodies with bombs in internet cafes.

Brian's night on the tewn

2005-04-25T22:34:00.000+04:30

Sorry this weeks offerings are scant, I was lazy and not that much happened.

Today I ate at a the Turkish restaurant here in Kabul. Not too shabby. Ate my favorite kind of kebab (doner kebab) althought it was a little bit different and I actually like the French Algerian version better than the Turkish version but they are close. My friend joony ate it and also realized its tender taste and delicious melody of desire with which it carved a niche in his back.

Also our upstairs named (peter baek) is sort of rich compared to us and he has a tv tuner on his computer ,so yes yes yes we get to watch some beautiful afghan tv (actually just once so far) and the best show so far, is of course, the hop. It contains the most beautiful music videos with the most beautifully mustached men singing of their heart felt desires for the forbidden Turkish, Iranian, Indian, Pakistani, tajik, uzbek, Fill in the central asian blank woman, of their heart felt desireocity. And let me tell you it is sooooooooo goooooooooooooood. Also we watched part of this most excellent Iranian movie. I couldn’t understand it because my farsi/dari is still quite limited but it seemed to be about these one sinister guys in this car and then this guy and these two girls on the phone. My kind of movie I think.

I have been listening to a bit of Air recently and I was reminded again how weird it is that they are allowed to be cool. I mean I think they are great but I don’t think the general indie community's fathers listened to enough Vangelis for them to realize just how close Air is to that sort of thing, Kitaro, Shadowfax and mostly Vangelis, so super close to Vangelis, Air is teetering on the edge of being sigend to windham hill (new age music hotshot label, although not host to their closest kin Vangelis). But I kind of like Vangelis so it doesn’t matter.

Furthermore, Last night we had a small house party for our new office for some other Koreans we know and we had this awesome Korean barbegue chicken.

Man oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man.

2005-04-23T22:25:00.000+04:30

Whew! Got sick there for a couple days, had some nice lying around on the back of my body on top of the earth thinking about sharp pain, not about “some boats” or whatever well people think about because I can’t remember what they think about because I am not one of them, I am not well, and I am not one of them at all. There is a good deal of Sharp sharp pain right now like a well placed (perhaps well meaning but its doubtful) shovel right there in the middle of the ol stomach. Mmm yes. Thanks. And also some most excellent diarrhea which is always fun when the toilet is all the pleasant way outside and doesn’t allow you to sit down as squatting is the way in which it enjoys despite your protests or those of your knees (hands on your knees, hands on your knees, one hop this time).

Furthering the dumbness of those several days is that we were invited by some rich guy to go out to eat at this fancy restaurant (most well named “the perfect restaurant”) at which we (everyone but me) enjoyed some weird but delicious pizza and several amazing kabobs and some nice rice. I had a tiny bit of each (just enough to know the food ruled) and a 7up (which was actually nice, I am always game for a 7up. yep.

Oh Chan, Oh Chan, Mirror!

2005-04-21T16:02:00.000+04:30

There is this part in Rick's Hold (this song that Joe and Steven and I improvised once in a basement) where I’m singing “the palace is for knowledge the palace is for love" and "hey buddy come on in the palace" in this real dumb voice and then Joe says this really cool “all right” in a background-of-some-live-jazz type of way. It's a real good moment.

And then later when I say, "and that’s when the palace burned to the ground" there is this most beautiful chord which immediately follows and its so beautiful, and the palace burning is so beautiful and such a peaceful disaster.

Also there is this baby that lives upstairs of our new apartament and this baby, this baby has the most awesome vampire lung collapsing scream like an insane lion bird sucking all the blood and skin off your body with intense force and replacing it with pure evil and sometimes I think that if I had to die, that probably the best possible way would be for this baby to devour me.

Oh hey man, Just pouring some different colored liquids into inappropriately colored glasses...

2005-04-20T15:54:00.000+04:30

And hey, what is going on with track 10 on the sun kil moon cd? Its so good and then at like the 4 minute mark or so, these stupid orchestra strings come in like it’s a Vanessa carlton song, It doesn’t ruin it but its just like what? And then maybe you realize that he knows something you don’t and you wonder what that is. And then you try to love those strings but you don’t yet, but then again you’re only 23.

Today I got this really nice green tradtional afghan bag. It’s maybe more of man purse, but its very nice and it even has bits of shiny plastic or glass sewn into it. It was a delayed birthday gift because my friend Joony’s birthday was a few days ago and he got one too, so they didn’t want to ruin it for him all bad-like on my birthday.

I had a series of three dreams the other day in church, the first one I was sorting these different sized cans, and I kept changing the order and it was really important, and then another were I was doing the same with bags (I have really been loving bags, lately and sometimes thinking about them all the time. I wish all my dreams would be about bags), and then a third where I was eating this just incredible blueberry and some other berry yogurt, that was the best yogurt I have ever had and I really want some now but I can’t get that here.

Speaking of church there is this international church that meets at random times and places every friday, so I have been going to that. It's actually a little bit boring and also I haven't made any friends there yet because I'm not good at doing that like that. But I'm trying. my strategy is to stand awkwardly alone somewhere looking confused and hope someone asks me a question, but they don't or at least not yet.

Ladle the salsa into either pint or half pint jars. You should end up with 4 or 5 pints, in pint jars, or 8 to 10 half pints, jars.

2005-04-19T15:39:00.000+04:30

Actually, I seem to be having these bouts of nostalgia, mostly for things that aren’t real which is I guess mainly what nostalgia is. Its like how when you listen Stars of the lid: Tired Sounds of, or Sufjan Stevens or anything good, really, you get this longing for a place that doesn’t exist or maybe does but I’ve never been but I miss it anyway. And I really do miss America or really these weird flashes of generic Americana I keep having, you know things like bad representations of Mississippi delta blues or just someone with a nice haircut saying that phrase.

My brains keep being filled with these really bad tourist commercials for big cities with a saxophone and some city skyscape at night and then some laughing, old but not too old (say 60s) white people, and then a medium close up of some sizzling shrimp in a pan being tossed in the air for some reason, and then a too tight shot, completely awkward and artificially staged way to eat with your friends shot, of some black people and some white people (more white people though, but hey whose counting? God?) and one asian and/or one latino (doesn’t matter what kinds), laughing but not really, and they obviously really wouldn’t be friends but their love for the plain color no-logo shirts and khakis they are wearing have brought them together, and then for some reason there is more food thrown in the air along with some ice which is also thrown in the air, they accompany each other in being thrown in the air, thrown in air together at last, they are thrown in the air, thrown in the air, thrown.

And then there is a Lincoln town car commercial with all its suits and deserted downtowns and black cars and everything is dark in that sophisticated way that investment bankers/big and tall models/Gillette spokesmen enjoy. (speaking of Gillette, I had a dream in which Gillette featured an important part and it was a really great dream to tell someone but I can’t remember it. but you would laugh) and then there is an applebees or chilis commercial which is like the bad city commercial except without the saxophone and involves a lot more red.

Speaking of red! I really wish I could watch the movie, “In the mood for Love.” by Wong Kar Wai. If you haven’t seen it yet, and I know you haven’t, you need to find, rent, buy, steal, download it immediately. IT'S AMAZING! IT'S AMAZING. Please, you don’t understand, I can’t even believe its real, that’s how good it is, and last time I saw it was last july and I still think about it all the time, that’s how good it is. Wow. Please go. Its hard to find, I know but you need it for you life and for your eyes. Please go now. I really think you should go. No, I think you just should go right now.

IDC Back in Action, Live Spring Break '02, Sikeston MO!

2005-04-17T15:29:00.000+04:30

I’m getting more used to being here and away. I am not so sad as I was at first although, sometimes thoughts keep crossing my mind, things to say things or jokes or words or root words or prefixes added to colors or names of candies or birds, or well placed objects or awkward guys carrying heavy loads, that I want to say to someone and sometimes I do say it and sometimes its understood and sometimes we have some huge bouts of laughter, enough to fill three bags. But other times I don’t feel I have anyone to say it to and writing it down doesn’t work, isn’t the way to go about it, doesn’t reflect it at all. You had to be there you see or something like that kind of deal. So instead they hover in my mind and I wonder whether to laugh or to think about something else and then maybe both happen and it is swept away never to be told or heard outside the bounds of brains, or more appropriately: my brains bounds.

I was listening to a lot of sun kil moon or mainly just the first two tracks really, but I’m unsure how, if you have any capacity for sadness within you, you could possibly listen to “carry me Ohio” or the cassius clay song and not feel some very heavy pressure in your organs and then think about some kind of video collage of over the rhine photography, you know like driving on some flat Midwestern road and then a worn out porch with a worn out dog, and maybe something burning and then different old peoples faces, mostly wrinkles and sometimes a hat, and then an old girls school photograph from 1918. This all makes your heart feel tied to some heavy bags of rice, until you learn to how to make it not feel like that and then they are just some darn good songs. This was easier back in the old US, sheltered by friends, hearts enlarged by nine or sometimes nineteen. Then if it was even there I could quite handily beat it back or neutralize. But sometimes here its too dangerous.

I becoming less and less shy around these new friends here, which is good, because as you may know I have a large box of joy which can be filled and spilled upon others, But it needs to be coaxed and encouraged by those around me, I need to bounce my face off the bodies of my friends, be carried as well as carry. I can be a shiny object floating in milk or a maybe even a brick with legs and detective hat, smiling, standing almost upright but actually if you pay attention, leaning at a slight angle. But I need others that know me to push me and bring me around and color me badd. I am not good at doing things alone and I kind of doubt that is the way its supposed to be anyway, at least for me, but I like to apply the things that are for me to everyone. Alone doesn’t work, isn’t healthy for my brains or hearts or brain’s hearts. Next time I go somewhere I’m not going to go there alone. But for now it is like this. I’m probably supposed to learn something from this actually, and then come back more prepared and better equipped with a firmer handshake and an upgrade from the silver boots to the gold boots, with an increased ability to jump or make pleasant comments or identify different trees.

But I’ve made friends and I’m not really alone anyway. So whatever. Like I said I’m getting better and quite adjusted. But I need to explode not just cope.

Bacha, Ech Paisa Na Darum : I don't have any money, Boy.

2005-04-14T15:29:00.000+04:30

Furthermore our team coordinator was driving and then he bought a hawk for about 50 cents from this kid alongside the road and we were going to have as a pet but then he realized on the way home that didn’t have any kind of cage or anything to put in and then felt bad about putting it in a cage anyway and so he let it go. But we talked and I think that we can get a pet hawk for in the village! A pet hawk! A pet Hawk! Hawk! BOOYAH! Then people will come to us and say, "That’s a pleasant bird." and then we'll say, "Thanks it’s a hawk." and they will say, "I know." and I will say, "Me too, I also know in addition to you" "Yes I know about your knowledge powers. They're legendary." "Yes I know its that way because I was born with these lips." "Yes, they say your real live lips are dipped in gold and scented with basil." "Actually they are scented with apples." "Oh they didn’t tell me." "Yes I know." and then we will give high fives and go about our business.

A common afghan name for men is "Gul Bacha" which means flower boy. Also I hear that there is a kid in the village named Milk boy!

2005-04-12T15:18:00.000+04:30

We visited our friend Hashim’s house. In case you had any doubt, Hashim is a beautiful man, and he also likes to give lots of hugs and kisses during greetings. Afghan greetings are incredible routines and they say several paragraphs worth of nice words for greeting. Actually we have two friends named Hashim and they are both steadfast and kind of heart, dancing lightly in place.

His house was the typical home of average afghans, just some mud and dirt and very bare for most of the house and then a guest room filled with cushions and blankets and rugs. And his Children! Beautiful namers from a milk covered Island! His youngest daughter, Habibila is the most beautiful combo every of Emma Gayed and a beautiful beautiful troll doll. For real, Joe ,this is really it. We’ve found a toddler that is an actual troll doll. So amazing. He also fed us this amazing food that was even better than our friend Ismael’s food. (In his face!)

I felt guilty though seeing his house and then staying in the nice office we are currently staying in. But soon we will move to a new office that is less fancy, although still better than his living conditions. But then I will soon move to the village and live in a house like Hashim and bathe in a river and wipe my butt with my hand and water (maybe). More on my feelings about the poverty here later perhaps.

Landmines are not a nice time or a nice dinner. Do you wish to have a nice dinner or a nice time? please choose one.

2005-04-09T15:07:00.000+04:30

We went to Bagram, today (a city north of here, that is near the village I will live in and also a US airforce base.) It was great to see the country side and get out of the city, (I like the city though). But it was also sad because everywhere you go and look there are the forboding signs of the white and red marker stones indicating areas where landmines are. And Afghanistan, being the most heavily mined county in the world (estimated 5-7 million mines), means those stones are everywhere. Also its a little scary because there are always kids running around. In the Kabul province alone there are still about 150-300 landmine accidents each month. In the country side there are so many people missing limbs or with prosthetics. Its ecspecially sad to little 5 or six year olds with crutches missing a leg or an arm or both.

Then I was like, “This is the best time of the best moment in all the time being awake.” So we rose and we were like, “Yeah, it was this beast!”

2005-04-07T15:01:00.000+04:30

And I was telling all these lies, okay? And well, I…would just like to have a nice time at the pond.

We got another dari teacher, today. So now we have two. They will alternate days.

She is very nice. Her name is chamilya or something. She feels a little awkward because she has never taught any males before (this is Afghanistan you know) but there is one girl (Hee Eun) in our group so it is okay to teach us. But she won’t come if Hee Eun won’t be here. But anyway I am excited to learn it up learn style and learn it up bad. I am a bad night at the dave and allie’s house. And I am excited to learn. We have homework now, which is funny and like school, but I actually like it. I think because I know it will be useful and I want to learn to speak dari. Bad nes! (dari for, "not bad")

I Wat Thiw Fosie! I Wat Thiw Fosie!

2005-04-05T14:45:00.000+04:30

So, maybe you are wondering what a typical day looks like here for me. Well, for this month I am not teaching or doing much work other than studying history and culture stuff and most importantly learning the language and also developing the curriculum we are going to use. So anyway here is a typical day:

6 or 7 am – Wake up. that’s right. Early central. Wake up at 6 if you are breakfast duty, 7 if you are not. If you are breakfast duty one of you beautiful jobs is to walk down the street to our little corner bakery and get some nice fresh warm nan. Its so good. Our bakery is amazing, It’s the best nan I have had here.

8 am - After breakfast we have a morning meeting, which they awesomely like to call “The Opening Ceremony.” This is when we discuss our plans for the day.

9 am - Then usually we have Dari class from 9 to 12. This is five days a week. Khub as.

12 noon - We go out to eat for lunch. We often try new restaurants although we have a couple favorites. My favorite is this one where we get “salads” (French fries with some veggies) and palaw (delicious rice with these grape things and lamb but the grape things are good not gross like it might sound) tika kebab (because it’s the best kind) and sometimes we get this egg stuff and of course nan and fanta or Miranda or 7up. All for about $1.50 each.

1 or 2 or 3 pm – The schedule in the afternoon is more flexible. We either run errands, meet people, work on our peace school curriculum or all three. Sometimes we don’t do anything and take naps. Sometimes, like recently when we are moving into a new office, we go and buy a sink or a stove or something. Sometimes we play soccer.

6 or 7 pm – Then if you are on dinner duty you prepare dinner around 6 and then we eat around 7ish.

8 or so pm - We have a meeting after dinner. We talk about what we did and whatever we want to say.

9-9:30 pm - we may have a little bible study. Sometimes this is earlier, sometimes we don’t have it.

Then we do whatever (read, talk, watch a movie, lie down very still) or go to bed. It sounds kind of packed and sometimes its is, but this is Afghanistan so everything is slow paced and so are we. So everything is pretty flexible and there is always time for some naps and some downtime and what not.

Amen.

And that’s when he handed me a picture of some afghan children and some japanense business men, standing, smiling, awkwardly in front of a gold lexus.

2005-04-04T14:33:00.000+04:30

“These my relatives. They visit japan for 15 days. That’s a 2003 lexus.”

Today we went and visited some friends of our team leader, Chul. Ismael and his family. He lives with 5 of his 8 brothers and 3 of his 6 sisters. Many of those are married so there are about 900 hundred totally amazing kids running around the house. Khamel, Shaeed, and Bilal were the coolest, and also this other kid that I don’t remember the name, of who was the awesomist gentleist shyist boy in the whole universe. Whenever I try and remember his name all that comes to mind is “Roshan” but I doubt that’s it because that is the name of the cell phone company here.

Also, and this is cool in afghan culture, not weird, he, one of his older brothers, and a sister are all married to the same family of 2 sisters and a brother. Also they were all cousins to start with. Pretty nice moves. They fed us an insane meal, which was the best food we have had here yet: rice, dumplings, all this stuff I don’t know the names of. And we drank some zim zam. zim zam zim zam. zim zam.

"That’s an interesting item."

Furthmore we found an office to move into. Its up on the mountain side (not television mountain unfortunately) but it has an incredible view. Its real big and cool and its also the cheapest we could find at 250 bucks a month. Not bad for the capital, cause all these rich NGOs are driving up the price of living. Which sucks for afghans.

Also, we started learning Dari today. Some of the pronounciations are hard for Koreans and the teacher likes my pronouciations, so I am a sweet dari teacher's pet.

and then we met some really nice divers

2005-04-02T14:10:00.000+04:30

There is a cola drink here called zim zam. And did you know that the Korean version of teletubbies they have different names and a different song? Bo instead of po, no tinky winky either.

So, we have been talking it up about geranshakh, the village I will be moving to in about a month. Apparently we are going to buy a Chinese bicycle, because to get supplies and some food, we will need to bike 1 hour to another village every couple days. Haha! 1 hour of biking. And if you know the sweet roads here in Afghanistan, they are the worst non real roads ever, even in Kabul the capital, and I am told they are far worse in the village.

Also, apparently we will bathe in a river near the village and in the winter not bathe, or maybe only once every two weeks when we come to Kabul.

More importantly for those of you who know how much I love my stuff to be stolen, apparently most of my stuff will be stolen as in the past large quantities of stuff have been stolen during the peace camps. One time they stole everything in one room including the floor mats and sleeping bags and pillows. So I am excited about these theft prospects. I want all my belongings to be stolen and then have nothing for the rest of the time and then die! Hahaha!

Also there will be donkeys and sheep and goats and camels there. And a commander! Aaron and Bryce and Karson, the commander is in geranshakh! And apparently the kids there have knives and ak47s. and grenades. And bombs. And sometimes they fish with them. The just chuck the grenades in the river and then blast out the fish. sounds good to me.

Oh Television Mountain, Whose Towers flash with light, wrap your beautiful steel arms around me, you my broadcasting lover.

2005-03-30T18:38:00.000+04:30

Today is my birthday!

Alright!

This morning in honor the day I burst forth from¡¡the womb, from dark unto light, we had some special bibimbap (amazing Korean rice stuff) and some Korean birthday soup! Nice work on the food traditions Korea, nice work.

And my team surprised me. They said that it was the Korean custom to invite others out to dinner and then pay for the whole meal yourself on your birthday. Then they said we were going to this fancy restaurant that was ten bucks a person. (I only make 30 bucks a month so I was going to have to spend more than a month's pocket money on dinner) But first they said we were going to a meeting with some NGOs. So I was still glad that I was born but just barely.

But instead guess where we went? That's right! To the top of Television Mountain! Upon reaching its blessed zenith, we had a look around and I took about 100 pictures (of which all are completely terrible as the setting on the camera where set for low light and I didn't change it back so they are more washed out than something that is really washed out)

(Sitting next to me right now is this man with the most beautiful voice speaking very slowly and gently in broken english with a slightly canadian/german/afghan accent about his friend who "says the funniest things." His voice is SOOOOO GENTLE! You should hear how he says "My house!" You should hear how he says EVERYTHING!!!! I LOVE THIS MAN WITH ALL OF MY BEING!!!!!! I WISH I COULD STAND UP AND YELL ON THIS TABLE! I WANT TO TAKE HIS BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL VOICE AND PUT IT IN A SMALL, SHINY, JEWEL ENCRUSTED BOX AND THEN PUT THAT BOX IN A SMALL BASKET AND THEN MARRY THAT BASKET!)

You could see all of Kabul from the top of television mountain (and almost none of it from the top of my pictures moutain) Then they had bought an afghan almond cake and some donut things for me which we ate. Earlier they also had said that couldn't find time to get me any presents but then that was a lie too as they totally did get me presents like jerh mensants. I got a jar of nutella and some Chinese tea chocolate and because they think its so funny that I actually like to drink water, a whole case of water. So we had a little party at the top of television mountain. And as we ate the earth was very nicely formed around our brains and as we walked our arms swung slowly by our sides.

Then they said they were just kidding about the paying for a fancy restaurant custom thing and we went to a kebab place for some cheap delicious kebabs. We ate some chicken kebab which were just okay, but it was good to get another kebab under my belt. Tika, shami, and chicken are the most popular so that's what most places serve and its difficult to find the other kinds. But I will not give up the fight.

We still haven't formally started language learning (Dari, roll the "r" when you say it), We are still looking for a teacher. We went to this popular school run by the NGO, IAM (international assistance mission) but it was too expensive for classes and didn't fit with our schedule and all the popular kids made fun of my lunchbox. Hopefully we will find a teacher in the next couple of days

My friend Joony, really likes the song "the lonely shepherd" (that pan flute song made popular by ol' Quentin Tarantino, you know, "do do do...do, do do..." like that). This is lucky for both of us because I happen to love Georghe Zamfir (the romanian pan flute master from whom the song was born) and brought a bunch of jams with me. So I introduced him to Zamfir and also to some Ennio Moriconne.

Whoah, now I feel better.

2005-03-29T16:07:00.000+04:30

Okay so there was little lonely breakdown there yesterday but now I feel better, actually what i wrote in my journal was much longer than what i posted but it was little overboard and pathetic and poorly written, so I gave you the cliff notes, plus my time here in the internet cafe is almost up. I will get more pictures up soon but it takes forever and I never have enough time. aaaaagggghghg!

The food here continues to be good. I have now tried 4 of the rumored ten kinds of kebab. One is a little gross I think it is liver or something. So far Tika Kebab is the best with Shami Kebab coming in a close second. At home we have been eating a nice korean-afghan mix of food. Rice, soup, potatoes. I have been drinking a lot of fanta and tea. mmm.

A really good thing about being here with a korean group is that the "essential treats" we brought from home are ramen and kim (this delicious seaweed). So the other night we had a nice ramen dinner with korean rice. We always eat rice whether korean or afghan. Mmm rice.

I want to swim in Joe's grandma's pool

2005-03-28T16:18:00.000+04:30

There it is. This has never happened before. I miss america. Actually I just miss my friends in America. Although today I kind of missed everything. My house, being a kid, summer, grass, pick-up trucks, high school, wal-mart (maybe not), but mainly my friends. But I will feel better soon.

Lover u Ever

2005-03-27T16:18:00.000+04:30

That title was in the "automatic fill in" provided by the ol web browser.

Well, Well, another day another Eastbay. Went out to eat and had some more delicious kebabs. Our friend Hadi said that there are ten kinds! So far I have just had one. Can’t wait for all of them. That’s mostly what we eat here. Kebabs, Nan (bread), and Palaw, delicious afghan fried rice stuff. And then we also eat some potatoes.

So anyway, It appears that I will be in Kabul till the end of April and then me and Joony (Joonhyuk, my teaching partner) will be going to our village, Geranshakh at the end of April and then be starting teaching May 1^st. So I am excited about that as right now it seems like things won’t really get started till we go there. Things will be much different and rougher there, from what I hear so I am excited for now, later I will probably regret saying that.

Good news! I am told there are turkeys Granshakh! Yes! Maybe that one turkey from amazing sports bloopers 2 will be there. Maybe Jay Johnstone will be there!

More importantly I did you know that there is a mountain here called Television Mountain!? Yes there is and you can see it from all over town and look up and say, "There's television mountain." and then someone else can agree with you about your statement. HAHA television mountain. Further good news is that my teacher partner and soon to be bunk mate, Joony thinks a lot of the things I think are funny (ie. Chicken Street, Television Mountain, this town called Charikar) are funny also. I don't even have to explain. Ah television mountain, making the world of laughter a little smaller.

Hmm what else? Oh yeah maybe you didn't realize it but most Korean's don't drink very much liquid (and sometimes almost none!). and if you know me you know I am a thirsty young man. But after much complaining we have started buying some cheap bottled water occasionally. We have to do that because you can't drink the water without boiling it, and in the office we are in we don't have any way to boil lots of water and even so it would be hot, not delicious and cool or at least pleasant and luke warm. I think they could easily get buy on one or 2 glasses of tea a day. But not me, oh no, no no no no no no no no no no.

I found this Abba Dvd in the office here. I realized I like more Abba than I thought. Ecspcially the song, "take a chance on me" mmm good. Also Most of the Koreans i have met, my team here included, even when they like other styles of music they can all gather round for some delicious korean ccm or adult contemporary. so most of the time this is awesome dream of so much korean adult contemporary, but sometimes i want to listen to something else. and so I do. I have been listening to a lot of erlend oye and damien jurado and stars of the lid. as well as some beautiful afghan music. when you walk around town it is always blaring all over the place.

I guess even radical Buddhist monks need their VCD’s of bootleg copies of 8 legged freaks.

2005-03-26T16:18:00.000+04:30

Today we got our car back. Some Korean missionaries had been keeping it for us. It’s a junky Toyota jeep thing from the 80s. Its totally the worst, and the roads in Afghanistan are insanely bad so driving is an awesome disaster from disaster station 8. But anyway it needed some heavy repairs so we spent most of the day doing that. They served us tea at the auto mechanic! It was great, tea is everywhere. I probably drink about 12 glasses a day.

Kabul is set up really interestingly. They have specific streets here. So to go the car mechanic we simply went to the car street (not the actual name), and the whole street is just mechanics. The same goes for fruit, and tires, and batteries and clothes. Its pretty cool although I don’t know how you decide who to go to once you get here.

More importantly! There is a street here called Chicken Street. That's not a translation, its Chicken Street in english. So all the time i get to hear people including the afghans saying "Chicken Street."

Tonight we watched some VCD’s (we watched mean creek, not too bad, predictable in but in only in the straw dogs sense, not as good as straw dogs, just reminded me of it). Korean’s sure like illegal downloads and it’s the best. We also found another stash of movies from the net, here in the JTS office. I guess even radical Buddhist monks need their VCD’s of bootleg copies of 8 legged freaks. So in our free time, when we have electricity, we often watch movies at night.

In general have electricity at some point during the day. If we have it in the morning then we usually don’t have it in the evening. And vice versa. Sometimes we get it all day. Those days are special days of joy. Sometimes the same goes for water. Although we do have a well outside in case we need it.

Let's smile together, I smiles all the time

2005-03-24T16:18:00.000+04:30

So today was our first full day in Kabul. We sold our old office last year, so we have to find a new one and are currently staying in the office of another Korean group (JTS – Join Together Society or Jung To Society, actually a radical Buddhist organization). They don’t have a project here anymore so there is no one here but us and their stuff. There office is actually a little too nice for us, (when we have running water, it is actually hot! And they actually have a sit down toilet!) but it is cool to stay here while we get going. Plus its big. And its furnished all afghan style which means tons of sweet floor cushions.

Anyway today we bough some nice traditional afghan clothes to put on our bodies. For me a black and white checkered scarf, and then two sets of shirts and pants, green and beiges for me. They are intensely comfortable, its like wearing some sweet PJ’s all around town. We also met with a bunch of Korean NGOs today. They were nice although we talked mostly in Korean which meant no understanding for me, but its cool I am used to it and kind of like it. Sometimes never ever talking in proper English or English at all is obnoxious but most of the time it is fun. I have this really stupid sounding voice now though as I talk with a slightly broken accent because that’s all I hear.

In China, I bought this pencil holder that has this bear named sweety bear and on it reads, "I want to be your friend. Let's Smile together, I smiles all the time."

When I was 7 or 10 or something my parents threw me a space themed birthday party

2005-03-23T17:41:00.000+04:30

We arrived in Kabul Around 11 am. The night before we were in Urumuqi, China. Urumuqi had some the best food I have ever eaten. Maybe best food in the whole world! Almost on par with Kosovo. Delcious Bread and Meat! It actually reminded me of Kosova a bit as it was kind of run down. It was a bit sad though as it also had that whole atmosphere of race-invasion-occupation tensions between the Han Chinese (what you think of when you think of Chinese people) and the Uhyger Chinese (the central asian natives of the area, who the Chinese conquered way back when). The Uhgyer people live in the poorer sections of town, and tend to have the worse jobs, although the whole place wasn’t doing so hot. One interesting twist however is that a lot of the Uhyger people looked kind of white so it was different to see them being the persecuted minority for a change.

Before that Beijingwas also pretty interesting. They have the most ugly, beautiful dogs in the whole world. I spent most of my several days there laughing in different dogs ugle faces! We stayed in a hostel which was pretty okay although it was my first contact with so many english speaking foreigners in a while. The whole place seemed to be filled with matt rickes if you know who that is. That's not a bad thing, just a statement. We also popped over to Tiananmen square and looked around. Also went to this palace called the summer palace. It wasn’t too bad, although it was a little ugly in winter. Guess that’s why its called the summer palace. Tianamen square was huge and impressive and daunting, however. We couldn’t go in the forbidden city though because it was closed for repairs. Guess that’s why its forbidden (oh oh!!!)

As for the much advertised and bragged about 2 day train ride from Beijing to urumuqi, it didn’t happen. The train was already full so we couldn’t get a ticket. So we had to fly. This was okay though because then we got to stay in Beijing for an extra two days and see more stuff, plus there was this Malaysian girl in our hostel room who had just come from Moscow on the trans-siberian express (7 days non stop!) and she said that after the first day its gets pretty boring. So in your face.