Mob 2009 Blog

OK, I know that I’m not a great photographer, but I try.  Tonight, I just missed one of the most awesome shots I ever tried to get.

As the helicopters were coming in to land at ISAF, they shot their flares off.  I snapped the photo, but the settings weren’t correct (I didn’t have time to get them right.)

Here is the photo.  It could have been awesome!

I just thought I’d share!  8>)

Well, if you remember when I first got here, I started the “Moose Guide to Kabul Restaurants.”   Well in less than 3 months, I managed to get them all reviewed, and find some new ones!  In fact, some of the restaurants here are NOT cleared for Expats.

Here is a link to my original post…
moose-guide-to-kabul-dining

With nearly 40 restaurants in the guide, I have some conclusions.

The top restaurant is a tie between the Taverna Du Liban Restaurant and the Bella Italia Restaurant.  Both are top notch and you are sure to have a great meal in either of them.

On the other end of the scale is Everest Pizza.  It just recently reopened after a bombing a little while ago.  In my opinion, they should have stayed closed!  Over priced, under sized, and not the best quality must be their mantra.  It was an all around disappointment.

There are a few surprises in the guide, so be sure to waste some time reading the entries. Of course the link it is in the title bar of this blog.

For now, I’m still looking for more restaurants, and I’ll add them as I find them.  But I’ve started a quest for the best pizza in Kabul.  Right now, the Gandomac holds the top spot for thin crust.  AFC (Afghan Fried Chicken) is the top spot for, my personal favorite ‘doughy’ crust.  But there is a long way for it to be compared to back home, so I’m hopefully something will upset its rule.

There are some other categories, like “Best Bar” which would go to the “Martini Grill” which hosts a “martini bar” on Thursday nights.  But since it’s only one night a week and it’s invite only (an advantage of getting to know the owners of every restaurant in Kabul) I can’t give it top ranking.  That goes to La Cantina which was just recently put “out of bounds” by most security firms.  Hopefully, it will get put back on the safe list soon.

Best Indian food goes to Annar. This place is a diamond in the ruff!  I hope to actually work with them a little in the future for a project I am thinking about.  We’ll see how it goes.

One of the hardest categories is “Best Coffee House.”  The simply truth is that they ALL do a great job.  Between being friendly, great coffee, and great atmosphere, it’s impossible to pick one.  If I had to, it would be a tie between the “Kabul Coffee Café” and the “Wakham Café.”  

Stay tuned for more results!

Well the past two days have been a bit busy.

First off, early Friday morning, about 0630, an attack broke out at the Kabul City Center.  This place is near our residence.  I was able to get some video footage of the first explosion, but due to OPSEC reasons, I will not post it here.  The fight lasted about 4 hours.  Here is the article from yesterday’s “Army Times” about the attack.


Of course, yesterday I was at the site surveying the damage.  (Note I was just at this place on Wednesday.)   Here are two other pictures of the damage.  Another thing to note, this is the very same place that I took photos of in this post about the “modern mall” in Kabul.  Here is that link.preconceived-notions




Then, when the Taliban isn’t attacking us, we’ve got good old Mother Nature after us.  Just before 0400 this morning, I was woken up with an earthquake!  A 5.7 earthquake hit about 95 miles away from here.  There were two more earthquakes in that same radius. I guess it’s true what they say, “Nature is a Mother!”  Here is a image compiled from the USGS (note, I didn’t link to their website as the links are time sensitive and will only be good for about a day if I did.)  The red arrow is where I’m at and the 3 yellow ones were all earthquakes. Remember, all of Afghanistan is about the size of Texas, to give you a scale.


So the fun never ends around here!  How was your day?

Well I’ve been spending some time at the ISAF HQ base for one reason or another.  On that base, there are a bunch of very friendly stray cats.  If you remember in a previous post I had pictures of Chopper, he is on this base as well.  Here is a link…
cats-and-dogs

Today I met two more that were just so loving and affectionate.  I named them Sher (which is “Lion” in Dari) and Palang (which is “Tiger” in Dari.)  Once you look at the pictures, you might see it.

These cats are not only very photogenic they are just so cuddly.  Once they realize that you are a “cat person” they will jump right up and lay in your lap as long as you will let them.  Palang was sitting in my lap so long that my leg fell asleep!

Palang also had a very funny purr.  It’s more of a growl. Here is a short video of her doing it.  It looks like she is growling at something, but there is nothing in front of her.
palangs purr.AVI
I do miss my dog and cat, but it’s nice to have some local pets here to ease the pain!  

Palang



Sher


Note, this picture makes Sher look real skinny, but it’s just the angle.  I think it’s a pretty funny shot!

As all things in war, change happens.

Here is my new address...

Eric Petrevich
C/O Tetratech EC
APO AE 09356

Please update your records.  8>)

(mail going to the old address should still get here, but please use this address from now on.)

Thanks.

Well, you might remember me mentioning my quest to get some sort of bug, bacteria, virus, or parasite in order to lose weight here.  If not, here is a link to it…
street-food-and-the-aghani-weight-loss-program

Unfortunately, it seems decades of my “eat anything, anywhere” policy have rendered me immune to all foreign bodies that could “do the job!”

So, I had to move from eating the food off the ground, to eating the food IN the ground!

In Afghanistan, the locals use mud ‘discuses’ to store fruit to extend its shelf life.  Here is one filled with grapes.  After breaking it open, I had to sample the goods.  Turns out, there has been no dramatic weight loss yet.  Dang!

The other day, we took a trip into the mountains.  We wanted to visit a remote village, called Istalif, outside of Kabul that promised to have some great pottery and scenery.  What we found was and adventure like no other.

I’m not sure where to start this post.  We rode out of the city into the countryside. The metropolitan “hustle and bustle” was soon replaced with clean air and open tundra.  The views were amazing, and we hadn’t even arrived at the mountains yet.  Remember, we are at about 7000 feet above sea level BEFORE we start heading up the mountains.

I took about 500 photos on this trip to help tell this story.  I managed to narrow it down to about 60 of the better ones.  I even managed to get a few artsy photos!  Of course, I had to reduce the photos in size and resolution to copy them up to my server.  This means that the photos in the web album don’t do the actually photos any justice.  Here is the link to the web album…
The snow trip photo album

A few wrong turns later, we were heading up the mountainside.  To say there was a road up the mountain would be an overstatement.  There was an old goat cart trail that we managed to get the 4X4 SUVs up.  The road was barely passable.  Here is a VERY bad video of us going up the path.  You’ll notice that as soon as we make the blind turn, we almost hit 2 donkey carts. I apologize for the quality of this video.  I’m not sure why my camera took such a grainy image.
Going uphill.AVI

The roads didn’t afford two cars to pass in different directions.  If there was another car coming, you just hoped that you could find a place to squeeze by each other.  In a few places, there was no barrier on the side of the road.  It was a clear drop down to certain death.  Ouch!!

The trail was sprinkled with little villages that sold pottery, grains, spices, and what-not.  Many of these stores had a very interesting displays, as they color coded their inventory.  Again, check out the web album to see what I’m talking about.

At the top, we arrived to what used to be an amazing restaurant.  It is on the ridge of the mountain top.  The restaurant was destroyed in the fighting years ago.  In fact, in one of my photos, you can see the bullet holes in the downspout.  It is also a reminder that much of this mountainside is still littered with landmines.  That will keep you watching where you go!
Here is a photo on me and one of my guys on the wall at the edge of the mountian...


This brings me to a phenomenon of modern day conflict, Afghani style.  One of the amazing things about this country is its inclination to start a spontaneous snowball fight at a moments notice.

In fact, we were standing on the top of a balcony from the burnt out restaurant.  While we were having a contest to see who could throw a snowball the furthest, some people (complete strangers) walked “into range.”  Jokingly a comment was made about hitting them.  The strangers quickly shouted up taught and dares to try and hit them.  They stood still as some of our party tried to hit them.  It was amazing.  Here is a video of one of the attempts to hit the strangers with a snowball…
Snowball throw.AVI

No matter what, if you hit someone with a snowball here, it’s like giving them a handshake.  I saw a little kid literally pelt a much larger kid with a snowball on the side of the head.  The bigger kid laughed and started to make a snowball to throw back at him.  
This “snowball mentality,” for lack of a better term, quickly demonstrates the kindness and loving nature of the Afghani people.  It is a sight to behold!

After a bunch of snowball related contests on the mountain top, we were lead into a makeshift green house.  It was breathtaking.  All of a sudden, we were in a room overflowing with wonderful flowerily smells.  In the middle of the room was an orange tree. I took a bunch of pictures in there.  I got some really good ones, but of course they don’t seem to amazing once the resolution and size is cut down.

After the greenhouse and flowers, we headed down the mountain.  It was such a nice day that we walked.  Well, to say “walked” is a little of a misnomer.  It was more like we controlled our slide down the muddy donkey cart path until it was flat enough to stop.

At the bottom was a “micro-hydro” power plant.  Within minutes, we were invited inside for a tour. It was really neat.  The plant was a gift from Korea and was mostly American made components.

In one of the pictures, I am trying a local candy treat that they made right in front of you on the side of the road.  It’s mostly like a sugary syrup tasting candy.  As I told someone who asked me how it was, “It was the best 1/16^th of a cent I ever spent!”

With that, I want to say “Happy Valentine’s Day” from me to you.  It’s lonely out here in Afghanistan, but at least I don’t have to watch Hallmark commercials reminding me that I’m a single, never been married, 38 year old!  

After a particularly crappy week (and no end in sight), I decided to visit a few of my local friends that are always able to put a smile on my face.

Here there are…

First, here are two pictures of the puppy that was originally photographed on my blog here…
sal--alm

Look how much he has grown.  I named him “Scrappy.”  He is so cute, but still a little shy (but very photogenic.)


Here is another picture of Scrappy and that cute nose belongs to his mom, Alam.


Here is Scrappy’s polar opposite, Chopper.  She is a cute, cuddly, lazy cat (but what cat ISN’T?)  




All of these guys are ‘strays.’  Around here, that just means that no one will admit to owning them, but EVERYONE feeds these guys.  If you notice in one of the pictures, Scrappy is sitting on some pizza crust that neither him, his mom, or any of the other ‘stray’ dogs is hungry enough to eat!

Did I mention I miss my pup and kitty?

First off, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is no laughing matter.  It is real, but it’s amazing how it can affect different people differently.
I spent the past year in Iraq, living only a few hundred meters from a Helo Pad.  With choppers coming in and out all the time, you get used to it.

Yet, when we moved into this new building, we found out that we overlooked one aspect of its location.  It is the last building that helicopters past over when they land in the ISAF compound next door.  UGGH!

So that means that we can damn near touch the wheels of the helicopters as they pass overhead.  

While it isn’t frequent enough to “get used to it” it is common enough to make you take notice each time.

As I sit in my room, I feel like Radar O’Reily from Mash.  It’s all quiet then I just say, “Choppers are coming!”  Low and behold, a few minutes later, everyone else can hear them.

I took a few pictures of them this morning.  The pictures didn’t come out that well (when they are directly overhead, I can’t get a steady shot.)



Here is a video to show just how close they come (I’m standing on our top floor balcony when I took this video.)
Helo Landing.AVI
If you have PTSD, seek help.  It’s a serious condition and getting help is no way a “crutch.”  On the other note, be careful when renting property in a war zone.  You never know what you are going to end up with.

Quick, thing of the most incredibly interesting person you have ever met in your life.  Now, think of the smartest person you ever met.  Finally, think of the person with the most passion you have ever met in your life.

Now, take all three of those people, and put them into one person.  Then, you may begin to understand what meeting Prof. Dr. M. Sediq Afghan is like.

Prof. Dr. Afghan runs The World Philosophical Mathematics Research Center here in Kabul, Afghanistan.  For anyone that thinks that he may be a little ambitious with that title, you couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, I think the title may actually be an understatement.

Please understand, that I’m not sure I can even begin to capture the experience I had today with the Prof. Dr. He is, by far, the most unique person I have ever met in my life.  His passion and his insight are a spectacle to be experienced in of themselves.

We first arrived at The World Philosophical Mathematics Research Center
(WPMRC) not knowing what to expect.  We were walked around a few older rooms in buildings that didn’t seem to be anything special.  Finally, we were brought into Prof. Dr. Afghan’s office.  The office was spectacularly decorated for a Kabul office.  It is the first place I have seen have such an array of plant life and books since I arrived here.

We were originally told that he would be right with us.  As we were served tea and candies, we started looking at the charts on the wall.  Each chart was a study in mathematics itself.  I can’t begin to explain them to you.  Instead I took a bunch of photos and created a separate web album that you can look at.  Here is the link…

The World Philosophical Mathematics Research Center

I will try to talk about the more interesting ones.  First, you must understand that “Philosophical Mathematics” is a study that tries to tie all events into mathematical charts and tables.  Prof. Dr. Afghan more than delivers on this.

At this time, we were told that Prof. Dr. Afghan was a little late as he was returning from the Afghani Presidential Palace from a meeting with President Hamid Karzai.  

Look at this chart.  It was created after that Denmark paper printed the comic of Mohammad a few years ago.


This chart, added up in any row, any column, or any radius, will add up to the exact land mass of Denmark in kilometers.

Here is a collection of cubes that lists all the American Presidents and some of the data on their presidencies (this was completed prior to our current president.)  These cubes are not the actual model, they only show every combination that they real model will form.  Each block is made up of many smaller blocks.  By manipulating the cube certain ways, you get the other cubes from the original one.  So each of these cubes (there are seven in total) form each other from a single cube.  I assure you my explanation isn’t doing it justice.


This next chart was just one in a series of charts on the United States (I told you it really was “Worldly.”)  It shows a common formula that works into various dates in American history. You may need to download the picture and zoom into it locally to be able to read it.


Like I said, his math isn’t limited to certain countries.  Here is a poster he did for the Russian Government.  Many of the Russian Presidents and Soviet Premiers are on an extensive list of people that Prof. Dr. Afghan has personally met with.  And if I understood the translator correctly, he also was imprisoned in Russian a few decades ago.  In case you are thinking that Prof. Dr. Afghan might be exaggerating his credentials, he pulled out a binder of newspaper articles (most in Russian) with pictures of him throughout the years.


Of course, I had to ask to see Prof. Dr. Afghan’s calculator.  Turns out it’s a standard Office Depot cheapie.  Most of the real work is done on a computer.  Which is funny since as I looked for his computer, I only saw a few, VERY old (486 era) computers in the offices.

Here is Prof. Dr. Afghan and me in front of a cube that has 2166 individual cells.  Each is a unique number from 1 to 2166.  Their position on the cube is in a mathematical order that allows you to take any cell at random, subtract it from the total, and move to the converse side to get that number.  This whole cube spins freely and Prof. Dr. Afghan eyes light up like a little child’s in a candy shop when he is demonstrating it.

I really can’t sum up my visit with Prof. Dr. Afghan.  He is a paradox among men.  He promised me that on my next visit, he will show me his two page paper on how to achieve world piece through mathematics. (He would have shared it this time, but his computer was down and his computer guy wasn’t available.)  But I’ll be sure to post it here once I get it.  

It makes for such an interesting dichotomy to have a mathematical genius in the capitol city of one of the least educated countries in the world.  BTW, Prof. Dr. Afghan is working to bring better education to Afghanistan in many ways.  A little side note that Prof. Dr. Afghan points out is that the “Chief” that is over him is barely literate.

And of course, I gave him one of my coins!  So maybe I’ll end up with a chart of my own one day.  Here is a link to my post about my coins.
http://www.megageek.com/blog/Mob2008.nsf/dx/250-miles-and-a-coin