"BamORama" (some really cool pics craig sent me)

Jen wrote me some time ago and suggested some of my pictures would be great to send in to National Geographic -- well, the pictures below are taken by a professional photographer who went on the last training mission out to Bamian. Now these are great. The ones on top are of the team who went on the last trip. Down at the bottom are my favorites. My pictures? I like them too but they aren' t THIS good. Bottom line is that out there it's hard to take a bad picture with subjects like these. It's an amazing place.

Craig makes the AP news photos...

Hey all...check out this link to see Craig on Yahoo news... :)

Unbelievable

I got word today that my journal is on its way back home. Yes -- I left my journal in one of the most far-flung places I've ever been to. I left it deep in the Waras District and in the furthest clinic we visited weeks ago. I had some time so I took it inside a building and sat down to write and draw. But how can one sit in a place like that and be absorbed in your own thoughts? There's just too much going on, too much to see, too many people to meet, questions to be asked and faces to see. I hadn't even started to write before I started talking to one of the nurses and moments later the journal was forgotten in a small room. Journals are for recording experiences -- not for missing them!

I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would see that journal again.

I got an e-mail today from Becky -- the rep for a Seventh Day Adventist non-governmental organization that funds some of the clinics and hospitals out in Bamian. She told me she had my journal and wanted to know where I was so she could get it to me! I'll have it in a few weeks. It will have to be hand carried from person to person to get to me but we've already got the route figured out. There's no pony expres here! I can't believe it but it will be coming back to me.

Too COOL!

What is cooler than having a F-16 fly just over your head as it takes off to go out on a combat mission? I get to see them take off all the time...most every morning while I'm running around the airfield. The come in twos. It's amazing to watch from the side -- as soon as they lift off the ground they have this amazing accelleration and whoosh! They are GONE shooting off at sharp angles to the mountains. It's even cooler when they fly right over your head. Too cool.

Time Warp

I've been to Mexico, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Jodan, China, Korea and I think in all these wanderings I've seen some places that felt like I'd travelled backwards in time. Nothing compares to these remote regions of Afghanistan. How far back in time? Pick a date -- any date. There are truly places that are lost to time.

Remote valleys bordered by combinations of steep cliffs, talus slopes and scree hills. It's late Summer and amazingly there's lots of water. It's as if the land is so hard it rejects hydration. Through the harsh landscapes water runs to irrigating the few strips of flat arable land. Here, where poppies are not the norm, wheat, barley and potatoes are staples. Amazingly, on the steep slopes I occasionally see sprigs of wheat -- so thinly separated and far apart that even when ready to harvest it's barely discernable.

Every part of the environment is used. Every person works hard. There is no such thing as garbage. When talking to one of the shura leaders I commented on how beautiful the landscape was and he said, "You should see how green the mountains are in April". They were stark rock as I saw them so I asked what he meant. He replied, "The children have already picked all the grass so they aren't green anymore". He wasn't kidding. While we were travelling around we'd see persons of all ages up on the steep slopes -- and I could see the piles of bundled grasses and bushes. I'd see children, adults and old men lugging the bundled grass down goat paths to be piled as fuel for winter. On top of the adobe walls of homes buffalo chips (Donkey-dung pies?) were stacked so high it looked like the owner was trying to fuild a new story on the house.

The one metal tool I saw repetitively used was the sickle . Men and women squatting in the field and cutting wheat one handful at a time. Ultimately it would all be laid out to be worked by a team of donkeys working a circular pattern to separate the wheat from the stalks. There's no shortage of wind here so even in the valleys they can throw the grain and stalks high into the wind together allowing the wind to blow the lighter chaff away and the heavier grains to fall to the slowly growing pile below. How far back in time does this go?

We drove for hours each day past this scene over and over again. It evokes images of biblical symbols -- the threshing of wheat to separate chaff on the threshing floor of the temple. Mount Moriah, the scene of Abraham's test of sacrificing Isaac, was ultimately to become the location of Solomon's temple and the temple is surely the finest symbol foretold to sift the good fruit from bad. Timeless symbols in a timeless place.

Alan gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon on MP3 and I listened to quite a bit as we rode along each day. As I listened to chapters after the Nephites transitioned from Kings to Judges I was amazed and how much corruption and war occurred in just a few short years as the new form of government evolved. Brutality was common. Life was not sacred to the wicked; greed was a value. This doesn't seem to have changed much either. To make the government more basic here, families would have to be dissolved and anarchy ensue. Here, each family designates a family member to represent the family in the Shura, or council. Patriarchal. The councils meet to decide pretty much everything. Family, clan and tribe means everything. Loyalty doesn't travel further than one can see. Again, how long has this been going on.

It makes me wonder if elsewhere the pattern is the same but the scenery and technology is all that has changed.

Bamian Provincial Hospital and Bandemeir Lake

Jules tells me I had better get to writing some stories to go with all these pictures so here we go....
I'm sure I've mentioned in other posts that beyond my regular duties I do what I can to be involved in medical development projects. Two weeks ago I went with a team to a remote area high in the mountains to visit hospitals and clinics. We taught -- this is the big difference from past projects -- we taught doctors, mid-wives, nurses, lab techs. We taught about delivering babies, taking care of infants, diagnosing malaria and hepatitis, treatment of skin diseases and all kinds of things. It was a fascinating week. We got a lot of great things done. We learned a lot -- already we've adjusted our plan and will have our first centralized teaching progams starting soon -- as opposed to us bouncing around on the roughest roads I've seen for 5-8 hours every day and travelling all over the staff will come to us in a central location. And we had a great time! This first picture is a picture of me standing at Bandemeir lake -- it's a lot like Havasupai actually. Crystal clear blue water that you can see down about 20 feet. Limestone walls and travertine pools -- the whole lake is actually a travertine pool. This place will someday be a great travel destination for tourists if sercurity persists. For now there were a couple of tents nearby providing meals....one was even labeled as a hotel! Lots of day visitors were enjoying the sights. We were just passing through and stopped to take a look.
Now, down below are all pictures taken in the largest hospital in the Bamian Province -- the provincial hospital of course. While it is crowded, the facility needs much improvement, the results produced are not what they can be -- this is a huge improvement over what existed here just a few short years ago. The first hosptial photo is the post-partum ward. Six beds and cramped. Mothers and babies in the beds together. The second hospital photo is the operation room -- actually that's the room in the far back where you can see the actual table. The third hospital photo I took of the labor and delivery stats hanging on the wall in the hallway. You'll note the high number of deaths with delivery every month -- this is something we can directly work on. And consider this -- deaths with birth at home are much higher. At least now there's a hospital that does deliveries and they even have a female OB/GYN. Deliveries at a hospital have a much better chance than at home here. The roughest stat in Afghanistan has to be the combined risk of death to the mother at delivery and the phenomenal birthrate of 6.8 children per woman here. This gives every woman a 33% chance of death over the course of their lifetime. There's lots of work to be done.

people at Waras Clinic

More Waras Clinic Pics

I know there are a lot of pictures here -- but pictures just don't capture the place. These pics below are just some great terrain shots. We drove over a lot of mountain passes and through valleys. Beautiful and rugged. The picture of three poeple walking up a trail -- that is of the hills behind the New Zealand Defense forces base. We call it the Kiwi-base. They call it PT hill. Most all of the run or walk up and down it every day for exercise. It's nearly a 1000 ft. over 1.25 miles. I was sucking wind just walking -- at the base it's 8000 ft. No running for me. The last pictures are of myself and Eric Garges our preventive med doc. One just in front of a sign outside a clinic and the other has a basic Afghan version of "Just say no to drugs!"

Teaching at the Waras Clinic

This was my favorite hospital to visit. The primary purpose of our trip was to train the doctors, nurses, midwives and other hospital staff. This is an area that is completely inaccessable for the entire Winter. It's at about 9000 ft. elevation so the snowfall is heavy, temps are sub-zero for weeks on end and when Spring arrives torrential runoff makes travel impossible. These staff are out there on their own. We had a neonatologist to teach about premature children, delivery emergencies, etc. We had a Navy corpsman to assist in training in the lab. We had a preventive medicine doctor to assist in diagnosing and prevention of infectious diseases and we had two family practice docs. Dr. Hayes taught about burn treatment and I taught about skin cancer/conditions and about EKG's. This first picture has the three docs with myelf, my interpreter and a New Zealand Soldier. We all just sat down on the floor and talked. I'm pretty sure this was their bedroom. At any rate, these three were pretty sharp and things went well. It was a pleasure getting to know them and they were easy to teach. The tough part was sorting out what to teach them so we just got to talking about patients, presentations, conditions, etc. and found our way. The second picture is the same group. The third picture was a shot of the waiting area outside one of the clinics -- it was just the cooler, shady side of the building and all the mothers and their babies were gathered there. After training we always had some humanitarian aid to hand out and provided medications and supplies to the hospital.

Thanks to all.

It has been interesting leaving the combat zone, going home and coming back. It’s the extreme contrasts between places that have me constantly thinking of home and family. I’m sure in a month or two Afghanistan will become routine and even the humanitarian pediatric clinic at the Egyptian hospital will seem ‘normal’. But today, the differences between here and home are so vivid in my mind that I long for being with you all again.

I am so grateful! Grateful for family, grateful for freedom, grateful to know that God lives, grateful for the opportunity to serve and grateful to be alive! For 18 days I was at home with Leigh Anne, Kerrigan, Lily and Joshua. We went out to eat, saw movies, played games, laughed hard and often fell asleep together exhausted. We had some quiet times at home alone. We went to the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama with Jimmy, Lisa and their children. We all came together with our extended families and met in the temple to have Joshua sealed to us. We gave him his blessing and we had lots of time to just be together as a family.

When it was all done I got on the plane and came back to Afghanistan. Back to the combat zone, security issues and bleakness. I’ve left home where the future is full of unlimited possibilities for my children -- to this land stifled by time and circumstance, causing what I would consider a hellish future for my own children to look like a bounteous and blissful future to the parents of Afghani children here.

It makes me appreciate our country and our culture – and it makes me miss you all very, very much. Thanks for all the sacrifices you have made for us. Thanks for coming out to Tennessee and giving us all such a great experience. I can’t wait to see you all again.

Afghani Egyptian Docs

This was taken at a conference where Afghani docs, Egyptian docs and US docs all got together to talk about common problems here in Afghanistan like tuberculosis, leishmaniasis and problems with getting immunizations distributed for diseases like polio and measles.

Egyptian Clinic Pictures

more photos of the clinic

With what we are trying to do I've really dedicated a lot more time to the Egyptian hospital. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd be developing relationships with Egyptian doctors. Truthfully, I really enjoy these docs. We have completely different views on a lot of fundamental issues. Democracy, freedom of speech, women's rights, morality and modesty are all common topics that we talk about and differ on -- but medicine brings us together. We sit down and go to work to take care of people. Below are a few pictures of Dr. Shawqi and I in the pediatric clinic

new photos!

These are a few more pictures from the Egyptian Hospital. Every time I go there it is a completely fascinating, terrible, funny, sad, frustrating and yet fulfilling experience. The mothers all wear burka's and rarely will lift one up to talk to me (not that I can understand very much). It's odd as can be to talk to somebody who is all covered up even if there is a little grill to look through. The children are sometimes afraid of me and at other times are fascinated -- but for the most part they are just like kids back home. They smile and grin. They cry and are afraid when I try to examine them. I am always dying to take pictures but as soon as I pull out the camera the scene always changes. The girl in the middle has scars from a disease called leishmaniasis. It's often called the most neglected disease in the world. 22% of Afghani's have scars from the disease. She had the misfortune of having three lesions and thus three scars on her face. The last picture is just of the outside of the peds clinic on a male day when the crowd is really small.Usually it's tough to even get to the door.

more adventures of little bear!

Well, Little Bear has been busy. It was time for yet another Anthrax shot and Little Bear helped me out by delivering it for me! It's all good though -- nothing like a BACON BANDAID to make me feel better when it was all over. Will I ever get another of these? Who knows...


I've avoided doing any shopping at all but the othr day I dropped into a rug store to check out the rugs. We could use something to go on the new wood floors at home, eh? There are a lot of nice rugs but none bought on this day...never had quite enough red in them....


Now this last picture is a bit like a sail. In fact, I call it the, "Sail"! Our Command Sergeant Major had some of the Soldiers build this -- it's a large version of our unit symbol but it was not quite finished yet when I took the picture. It really is humongous! And the wind blows like mad here and the 'sail' is facing right into the wind. It really is pretty cool. I'll get a picture of the finished project later.