Mon 25 Jan
Cultural Lesson #1: FOOD. It was an interesting and exhausting weekend. My assistant and I traveled again to see some of our Soldiers, but this time at a French base or FOB. It was an interesting experience. They have a French dining facility (defac) and the American Soldiers there complained about the food loudly enough that recently they established an American defac as well (small, and only for the US Soldiers). Let me explain why... the lunch I tried at the French defac consisted of something called "blood sausage" as the main entree. They also served mashed potatoes (not like mom used to make!), and breads and cheeses. We decided to stay with the bread and cheeses, and then we went to the American defac from then on. So the next day we tried the local Afghan restaurant (within the compound) for lunch. That was actually quite nice. Not very sanitary, but oh well. We had fresh kabobs (see picture). I'm not sure what kind of meat it was, but they say there used to be a bunch of cats running around there.... (no, I'm just kidding). It was goat meat. Seriously. I have had lamb kabobs here and now I've tried goat. Not too bad, and the rice was delicious. So if you ever get over here, I highly recommend the local restaurants as a change of pace. Better than French food, that's for sure!
Cultural Lesson #2: BATHROOMS. One thing that stands out to you over here is the difference between how sanitary Americans are compared to the local population. The difference is quite obvious in terms of showering (see my previous blogs on that subject) and also use of the bathroom (or latrine). OK here's your warning, if you have a squeemish stomach, don't read any more! I am attaching a picture of a toilet used by the local nationals on base. Notice that it does not have a seat, just a hole in the floor and a flush pedal. This is because the local men (and women) do not sit down to go to the bathroom, they squat. OK, so that's not too creepy, I can get over that part. But where it gets bad is they do not use toilet paper like we do. They use their hand and water instead! Left hand only. (That is why in the middle east culture you never shake with your left hand, nor do you use the left hand to eat. That's bad taboo if you do that. We had cultural lessons before we came over here about the proper use of the left hand). Anyway, we have had incidents of Afghan men breaking the public toilets because they were standing on them, not sitting. And they use the toilet paper to place on the toilet seat before they stand on it -- so they do not get their feet dirty! I'm not kidding here. So, when you're done cleaning yourself with your hand, you simply wash your hands with water (soap is optional). Either from bottled water, or in the sink. That's another reason they tell us to not brush our teeth in the sinks here! So as you can imagine, the public porta-johns are a mess, and my female assistant won't even go near them! Can you guess why? By the way, I wonder what hand the guy used to fix our goat meat??? (No, maybe I'm better off not knowing!) Gotta go, talk to you again soon...
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