Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Matt's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Thursday, March 18th, 2004
12:19 pm	Going home update!!! Greetings from Afghanistan, I am going home!!!! As of Mar 16, the 452s replacements have arrived and we are getting ready to leave this crap hole and our little persian buddies. We had been pounding away around the clock to get ready for them and finally they have arrived. I had guard duty when they walked through our front gate--just as we did ten months ago-and I wanted to shoot off some flares or celebratory rounds, but thought better of it. Our unit is slotted to turn over the hospital to the new unit by Sunday and then leave on the 25th of March. Then we should be done with outprocessing at Ft. McCoy about a week later. Well there is a lot of work to be done--I have to help train the new unit the ropes on detail because I was lucky enough to have detail week the last week of being here. After tomorrow (the 19th) I will probably just be hanging out in the OR trying to get that turned over and should have a lot of free time to write with more news. I just wanted to get this update out to let you all know. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)
Monday, March 8th, 2004
2:16 pm	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Well I am cooled off a bit and it seems I need to clarify a couple points that I made in my last update. First, I did not mean to make my last update sound so scathing; I just have a little anger management problem that has developed over the past year. Little irritations just seem to set me off as of late—the forwards issue for example. On the forwards subject I did not make myself very clear. I do enjoy forwards and I do not want them to stop, I would just like them sent to my alternate email address sajdak@hotmail.com. Any email that directly addresses me should be sent to my army address. The only forwards I do not want are the kind that I addressed in my last email: derisive political commentary (note: that does not mean all political emails and by no means does it relate to any other type of forward). I misused the forwards issue as a scapegoat and segue for my commentary on political matters. I know early on I said I will not discuss politics, but I believe that you all want to hear what deployed soldiers think and I should not squirm away from political subject matter. I still stand by what I said in the last update, but I have received an excellent email that I will share to help clarify my points in a different light. This is from a friend who is near and dear to me that will always call B.S. when she hears it and then goes on to outline her train of thought. The email she sent me after the last update showed me that I need to better explain my standpoints and it also elucidates what I was trying to say in a new light (although I do apologize to her in advance for not asking for consent to do this). I have to agree that I too am a bit disgusted by either the exploitation or lack of discussion about the deaths overseas. They should be treated as what they are, a sacrifice for a greater cause. Whether or not the actual reasoning behind their deaths is right or wrong, the abstract nature is the same...they have passed for the values of America that are so inbreed to us that we often take them for granted. But these values and the people that have died for them are simply amazing. Right along the lines of what I discussed; straightforward point. That being said, I have to disagree with not exactly your point but the implication of one of your points. I think one of your points was that we have to support the war(s) and that the alternative would be an investigation and possible impeachment of Bush, which would not really go anywhere. Also, you state that the country is very polarized at the moment and that derisive discussion is not helping this country. Through these points I feel as though your implication is that we should not investigate the president as it will get this country nowhere. I beg to differ!! More on the above subject in following paragraphs, but I would like to make one correction. I used the word derisive in my last email and not divisive. Derisive means expressing contempt or ridicule, while divisive means dissenting opinion. My point was that emotional commentary publicly ridiculing (derisive commentary) the opposition’s beliefs is unnecessary. To not express opposition through actions or words (divisive commentary) is against the foundation of America. We need to realize that all differences in ideology are unified by at least one common factor—they are all meant for the betterment of America. I feel as though the investigate of President Bush's decision to go to war is essential to the well being of this country. It is not only our right but also our duty to question the actions of our elected officals. They are in office for a reason and that reason is to serve to the betterment of citizenry, in the president's case, all of the American citizenry. If we have a problem with how he is upholding his job it is our job to question. While I do agree that we need to question the actions of elected officials, I stand by my argument that a full-blown investigation will severely detract not only money, but focus on improving conditions in Iraq. What I am not saying, though, is that we should completely skirt the issue of why we are in Iraq. I would be a hypocrite to say that I am not confused as to why we are in Iraq. While the paragraph might sound contradictory it is because I have no solution as to how the reasoning for our Iraqi invasion should be investigated without being a large hindrance to what I believe is the paramount issue—how to better reconstruct Iraq and the process in which we do so. We have the right to information because we live in America. Reading some articles for class and realizing how hard they have to fight to simply photocopy local government reports makes me feel so lucky to live in this country. Being that the government/forefathers/whatever set a country that has given it's citizenry that right to information, it is our obligation to use that information. And to question what information we are given and what information we our not given. I think the above point is well stated. I do support the military. You and Nate [my roommate from back home], and more than a bit just being at war has changed how I view the military. Not only do I see your solidarity with your comrades at arms, but I also feel a certain affinity with you guys as well because most are around my age and fighting for the same values that I believe in. However, there is, in my mind a difference between supporting the military (people) and supporting the war (ideology/reasons). I can't do that. I don't have enough information on why we are fighting in Iraq at this time in history. I understand the Afghanistan side more and I can even go so far as to say I support THAT side of the war. (And don't think it's because I'm kissing ass, I think you know me a bit better than that). But the war in Iraq is making less and less sense to me as the days go by and I have to question why our leader went their in the first place. I need to restate my usage of the word support: I did not mean support the ideology—there too much convoluted reasoning of the war to fully support the ideology. What I should have said instead is that we need to realize that we are in Iraq to stay for quite some time down the road. It would be detrimental to pull out of Iraq. There obviously needs to be reform of our reformation process in Iraq and we need to support, to an extent, the fact that it will take lives, money and other sacrifices to accomplish this goal. That is not to say that we should leave. I think that we need to fix whatever we did or whatever we can but there needs to be better planning an better coordination of service. And because things are going poorly I have the right to ask why. I'm bothered by people that are afraid of questions. If you do not want to answer a question, say that. However, this is not an option allowed to that American government. When our families are directly affected by the president's decision then we have a right to ask what the reasons were behind such a decision. Again, I agree that we should not be afraid to question authority especially when it involves such grave matters that are being discussed. We should not skirt away from any issues, but there should also be priorities kept in mind as far as what one wants to accomplish via ideology. Point 2...the polarization of the country is what is making this country even more amazing. We are allowed to shout at one another, in public, about how our country is run. Although this country has always had issues, I remember my 9th grade teacher saying that the OJ Simpson trial was the defining moment of our generation. After hearing that this generation apathetic, pathetic and selfish; why should I care about a country that doesn't care about me? After 9/11, THE defining moment of recent American history, the country does care about our generation again. Not in a small part due to the military's service. And I think we care about it. It has just taken a different shape in all of us. That is what is important, because at the base of any serious political argument/debate there is a true and sincere love for this country and the betterment of it's people. I could not have said the above any better myself. I will not rehash any more points in my close because this whole update was a rehash of the points. I hope that next week or the week after that will be one of my last updates. Yes, we have contact from our replacements and they have flight dates to get here soon. That means for the 452 we should be done with demob (a weeklong process at Ft. McCoy of out processing that means we are able to be home for good) sometime the first week of April. I will have a more positive update next week detailing what is going on with the unit, how my final days are going, what my feelings are as I prepare to leave, et cetera. Thank you once again for all the emails and I look forward to seeing all of you soon. I finally added more pictures to the surgical album (link listed below) and need to caution that these pictures are extremely graphic. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Surgical Album) (Comment on this)
Monday, March 1st, 2004
3:14 pm	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Well another week has passed by in paradise and everyone here, including myself, are more than ready to leave Afghanistan (especially considering Feb. 24th was our one year anniversary). I must have lost my muse because I have not been able to think of any subjects to write about and what I do write seems to be as melodic and structural as a stream of consciousness story. Regardless, I will strive harder to keep the updates coming as there are few precious weeks left in Afghanistan for me (heartbreaking I assure you). First item of business is in regards to forwards: while I do enjoy the occasional forward, I would like to keep my army email free from clutter—sajdak@hotmail.com is my alternate address where you may send forwards. I have been receiving too many forwards in my army inbox and it takes up too much time to sort through forwards to find personal or business emails. I do not have a lot of time on the Internet and to further answer questions and keep improving my updates it would greatly help if you could send all forwards to my hotmail address so I can get straight to your update comments. Second item of business, I have put up more pictures in the Bagram album and will display the link after the closing. I am still slacking on the surgical pictures, but should have those posted by next week. While I have not put up many pictures on my website, upon my return I will have CDs full of pictures that will be available upon request and a crisp twenty dollar bill (unless you clear your credit check). Lately, I have been struggling with an issue on the war in Iraq and how it has divided our country. Bush is receiving a lot of criticism from many fronts on his “unilateral” and “unprovoked” attacks. I have received many forwards reciting never-ending quotes, statistics, et cetera either justifying the war or negating our purpose in the war and Bush’s reasoning for being in Iraq. I will tell you right off the bat that I cannot stand out of context quotes used for justification/ negation of abstract ideas such as character, motive, et cetera or statistical quantification that does the same. Let me clarify; in many of the forwards I had received, out of context quotes were used derisively to bash a person’s character and stance on political activity. Are we to believe because a Republican disagreed with one part of the war that he or she has committed apostasy from his or her party? Alternatively, if a Democrat agrees that Weapons of Mass Destruction are a grave danger am I to believe that he or she has been proselytized into the Republican Party? These arguments are petty and seem to replace morality as a guide with political regulation—no more good and evil, it is now Republican or Democrat (or vice versa, don’t read that deeply into my emails, I am not that underhanded with implications). That is the real reason you can attribute to the decay of America. People are too petrified to stand up for what they believe in because it might be out of the paradigm of their political party. I am not saying that people who write these forwards are incorrect in what they are defending, I am merely saying that the maliciousness and unfairness of the content is unnecessary. The only question I may have after reading one of these forwards is not in my beliefs, but if the person who actually took time to write this wanted to piss a lot of people off. Now don’t think we can’t have fun with out of context quotes like Dave Letterman does with his unfair edits of Bush: “I will not cut taxes…because we need…more money…for peaches and strawberries….” A lot funnier when seen on the Letterman show, but you get the point. For some reason, there are political shows (of course politicians and party supporters also) that seem to use the number of troops dying in Afghanistan or Iraq as leverage to prove their justification or negation of the war in Iraq. Nothing infuriates me more than statistical quantification of human lives. Either way the numbers are used, it is sick that brave soldiers gave their life for their country and now they are being looked at as just a statistic; a number that seems to be flaunted, “Look at all the deaths occurring after Bush declared the war was over,” or the rebuttal “There were hundreds of thousands more casualties who died in previous wars.” What I am trying to prove here is that statistics do not establish a point without critical thinking to realize the veracity of the situation. For example, I could take the number of soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq and then take the number of soldiers who have died in each country (yes, accounting for differences of occupation lengths also) making a probability statistic on which area is “more secure”. Surprisingly, it would come out to be 3 times as “safe” in Iraq as in Afghanistan. Does that make it safer? Probably not. There needs to be some critical thinking outside the numbers such as taking into account what has been accomplished, what is still a problem, et cetera. I guess the best way to say I hate the numbers game is because using death toll statistics as fodder to prove a point takes the humanity out of all those who have died. Instead of using these numbers as surreptitious point and counterpoint, we should be bowing our heads in sadness and prayer for the precious life that has been lost. We should be thinking of the terrible price of war and the price of freedom. Before I get any further, I should say that in no way am I stereotyping or criticizing any of the people reading this email. In fact, out of the hundreds reading this email, I have the utmost respect for all of you because of support you have shown and just as importantly the critical thinking shown in your replies. I am trying to vent a little steam and shine a little light onto how some views back home are seen by deployed soldiers. I guess I am just sick of all the crap that I see in the news about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. I know that most of you do not believe face value what the media is shoveling down our throats, but it is not always easy to determine for oneself what is true and what is not. Since my deployment, it has been easier for me to distinguish what part of the news I can believe and what is rubbish and that is a major reason I have been writing these updates. To bring all this back to the beginning, I would have to say that no matter what political suasion you happen to be, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq need to be supported (even if you believe moral turpitude is the reason for being there) for the long haul. This might seem like a bold statement, but we are too far in these wars to get out without causing tremendous damage to not only Afghanistan and Iraq, but also the US. Also, let me elucidate that when I say support the wars, I do not mean you have to support the reasoning but realize that we cannot leave Afghanistan and Iraq until there is more reformation. Lets look at the options and decide from there: one, we pull out of Iraq causing chaos in government and throughout the country. Two, what good comes of investigating whether there was sufficient evidence of WMD to invade Iraq? The only outcome I would foresee is that Bush is impeached and Cheney comes into power (back to square one), wasting valuable money on prosecution that could have gone towards the ludicrous amounts of money being spent on the war. Obviously their needs to be reform into how the soldiers will be cycled through the wars and a regulation of the large amounts of money being spent on the wars. Dividing the country and wasting time on culpability placement will not accomplish these objectives. Basically if we left both countries right now both Afghanistan and Iraq would collapse into chaos and terrorists from these countries, along with all their brother Muslim countries, would renew their fighting force to wage a worse jihad against America than we have ever seen yet. I have digressed a lot in my writing, but the main points are these: malicious, derisive commentary is no way to unify and strengthen the US; a rational outlook at world affairs, as far as historicity and long-term goals for the US are concerned, provide for a much more stable country; and staying within the paradigm of a political party instead of standing up for what you believe in is a derivation of moral turpitude. This is the message—love your fellow man, stand by your fellow man and pray to God war is always stigmatized as a tragedy. As sick as I am of the war and casualties, I couldn’t imagine the life the Afghans would be living without American assistance. In the short time I have been here (in terms of temporal existence, not deployment) I have seen some drastic changes in the lives of Afghans and many plans will be going into effect to further improve their livelihood. I will never forget the shining look of gratitude an Afghan dispenses when he or she has received treatment at our hospital. Thank you once again for your support and please keep the emails rolling as I have been dying as far as topic matters are concerned. From now, until I leave I make a pledge that all weekly emails will be done by Monday. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak Here is the link to my Bagram Album as promised: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288573523&code=7209571&mode=invite (Afghanistan Album) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 18th, 2004
11:26 am	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Thank you for the excellent questions for the interviews of the Afghan workers. I have not interviewed the Afghans as of yet, but sometime this week I will get the footage so if you have any other questions please get them in as soon as possible. Well another detail week is finished for me and hopefully I can get back into my weekly update groove. Before I forget, to all of you who made requests for cheap movies and Lee-Enfield Rifles from the Bazaar you might be out of luck. Two days before I left for my two-week leave, three rockets were shot at our base so the Bazaar was shut down. Whoever the geniuses are running Al-Qaeda out of Kabul seemed to think that shooting more rockets at our base would bring the Bazaar back. Oddly enough, the Bazaar is still not open, but maybe if they try simultaneously shooting at the guard towers and sending at least four rockets into the base we will reopen the Bazaar. Time seems to be at a standstill for our unit as of late. The hospital unit that is slotted to replace us has yet to go through their deployment process (about a 2-3 week process) and we are all waiting anxiously for their arrival. Supposedly, our replacements are slotted to be here between Feb 15 and March 15. After they arrive, they will have a ten-day right-seat-ride, which means that we have to stay for ten days and show them the ropes before we can leave. Other than that there is nothing but rumors flying around and spreading unverified information will only propagate false hope and confusion. Actually, there is a sort of funny story about rumors that will make you think, man I am glad Matt decided not to tell me any rumors about departure dates. Tonight there was supposedly an Afghan who stepped on a land mine and mangled his foot. I was slotted to do the case and was waiting around until one of the EMT medics told me he was coming in to the hospital by bike. Granted this is Afghanistan and I am sure he called from his cell phone to tell the Emergency Room to be ready for him, but I doubt that he will survive the trek on his bike. Last week I did see an Afghan man without legs on a bike that used a hand crank to drive the bike, but he also was post-op surgery. Anyway, Wisconsin comes to mind when I think about the unpredictable nature of Afghanistan’s weather. On February 8th a weather event occurred that I never thought would…it snowed! This was by no means take out your snowmobile and drive to work snow, but it was quite the sight to see after spending the summer and fall here. Granted one day of snow does not merit comparison to Wisconsin weather, but the fact that the next day the temperature was in the Sixties and full sunshine does. Hopefully we will be long gone before the 120 days of wind and 132 degree heat. Ever since the snow day here, the weather has not looked back and has been staying in the Fifties or Sixties with some nice sunny days. Spring seems to be coming: the few blades of weed grass growing are thick and dark green; the sun has been growing hotter by the week; but most convincing is that the wind and dust are back! Yes my friends, all of you who thought I was wasting away to nothing should worry no more. I have been slowly recovering now that I get my full dosage of healthy minerals, vitamins, protein and caloric content thanks to the unrelenting dust that makes Afghanistan a vacationer’s paradise. I believe I mentioned Dan Dassow, a great friend and even better news source, in my last update. Before he sends the following news off to Reuters, he said I could use the information exclusively to offset the exponential decay in my sales as of late (the jerk always flaunts his 60,000,000 household circulation to my 5,000,000). The army has a unit called EOD that demines Bagram Air Base and the fields surrounding Bagram using dogs trained to find the mines. Apparently, the dogs have found over 2,000 mines this year alone. Even crazier is that they have found over 40,000 IED/UXO (Improvised Explosive Device/Unexploded Ordinance). Basically all ordinances are from the war with the Russians and the reason there is such a high number of mines left is because of the tribal wars, Al-Qaeda and Warlords. Interesting side-note: the Afghans used to take Russian prisoners or Afghan communistsand instead of torturing them the guards would make the prisoners defuse mines or Unexploded RPGs. If the prisoner successfully defused the ordinance, they would reuse itagainst the Russians and the prisoner would have another go; if the prisoner was blown up he served his sentence. Currently, the warlords pay 10 dollars for each active mine an Afghan brings in and that is why we have so many mine blast patients. For the most part the dogs are very accurate at detecting mines and when they detect a mine they sit down. Then the EOD team will probe the ground for the mine and then their demining tank (this tank is a juggernaut of a machine that has thick steel plates all around) drives over the mines to explode them. The reason I say that the mine dogs are mostly accurate is because there have been a couple of dogs who have sadly been taken out by mines, but also because they were trained to sit down when they detect mines some confusion occurs. In fact, I have a personal story about the mine dogs’ inconsistency in UXO detection that happened just last week. I was on LN escort and the Afghans were transporting gravel onto the base for some projects. I had to guard and ride in five of these gravel trucks throughout the day and each of these trucks has to go through two checkpoints. The first checkpoint is an X-ray machine that scans the trucks and then at the second checkpoint mine dog go through the trucks before the trucks get on the base. Clearing both checkpoints takes about an hour and a half and throughout this process I am guarding the Afghan drivers on the other side of the HESCO walls (reinforced walls filled with sand to protect from explosions). As I was waiting, the MP (military police) walking the mine dog through the trucks started running furiously away from the gravel trucks yelling for an interpreter. As the MP was interrogating the driver, the area was cleared of people in an 800-meter radius and while I was walking away from the checkpoint to the clear area, I saw the MP handcuff the driver. Apparently, the mine dog had sat down next to the truck I was supposed to ride in signaling that there was a bomb on the truck. At first I was pretty pissed off at the driver and wanted to beat the living crap out of him; I think that anyone contemplating suicide bombing is the lowest scum on the Earth and shouldn’t even be considered human (especially when it would kill hundreds of innocent people and the bombers justify it by perverting their religion). Luckily enough for the driver he was in the MPs custody and I had about an hour of waiting for his truck to be checked out so I could cool down. The EOD team cleared the vehicle after an hour and deemed no threat, as they could not find a bomb. I am glad I had that time to cool down, but I still did not trust the Afghan driver so I ended up riding in the truck behind him. It is hard to explain these raw emotions, but that is how I felt and I would not doubt there would be too many others who would have felt different in the situation. The Afghans can be very underhanded and I am constantly wary (as are every other soldier) no matter how trusting a working may seem to be. The mine dogs are excellent at detection and invaluable assets. I only listed that they made some mistakes to segue into the story. Anyway, life here still keeps me on my toes and provides me with interesting stories that I can distort over the years into epic proportions. Well, I had better go check and see if bicycle man has shown up for surgery yet; last I have heard is that he called from his cell phone and said that his bike was stolen so he is walking to the hospital now. I would appreciate your excellent questions and comments to start flowing as they were before my two-week leave because that helped me flow with my weekly updates. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2004
7:45 am	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, I do not know where to begin after the amazing two-week leave I had to spend with family and friends. To those of you who I was not able to see, I cannot apologize enough; there was just so much to cram into such a short time frame. Thank you everyone for making my two-week leave at home so incredible—especially the fact that all of you kept it a secret to my family so well that I had a storybook entrance on Christmas Eve. Also, thank you for all the wonderful cards, gifts, and touching letters. I am overwhelmed by all the support I have received. Well, I have some good news to start with: the Army finally got their head out of their ass and figured out that the unit replacing us needs to come by March 15. The latest I should be home is sometime mid-April. Funny story about my travels back to Afghanistan: it took me a complete week to travel from Milwaukee, WI to Bagram, Afghanistan. Obviously, there were no direct flights from Milwaukee to Bagram so I first had to travel to Baltimore from Milwaukee. After a six-hour layover in Baltimore, I successfully got a flight out to Germany. I showed up for about six different roll calls for flights to Bagram over the course of three days, but of course, every flight was canceled or full of cargo. I decided that I was definitely not getting to Afghanistan from Germany so I hopped on a flight to Qatar (near Saudi Arabia). I spent a night in Qatar waiting for a flight to “Bagram” but when the C-130 touched down, “Bagram” looked a lot like Kandahar, Afghanistan. In fact, it was Kandahar (reason that we did not land in Bagram is that the weather was too bad to land in Bagram so we had to turn around and land in Kandahar). I spent three nights in Kandahar and finally reached Bagram. Now try to imagine the horror that my bank’s security chiefs must have felt when they saw my card flagged with purchases made in Baltimore, US, Frankfurt, Germany, Doha, Qatar, and Kandahar, Afghanistan all within a six-day period. I recently received a couple of emails from friends that they have heard of an explosion killing seven soldiers in Afghanistan and there were many questions. Through all of my emails I have not talked about fallen soldiers or rocket attacks or any information that would have any of you question my safety, but I believe that the following information needs to be put out there. First, I would like to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers who served our country so valiantly. There seems to be some confusion as to what happened and here is a short brief directly from the medical evac pilot whose crew transported the soldiers to our hospital. Basically, the soldiers found a weapons cache and the weapons cache was rigged with a detonator so it had exploded when they came in proximity to the cache. Seven soldiers died and the three survivors were miraculously walking wounded (except one had a broken femur). I did not see any of the dead soldiers when they were wheeled into the hospital but my good friend and fellow surgical tech said this, “the one that I did see, was grotesque enough. I heard that one soldier was decapitated, and most of the others, including the one that I did see, consisted mostly of a pile of mangled tissue. It was so sad to see. You couldn’t even make out that their clothes were camouflaged, since it all was mangled into a mess.” He has also provided the following links for the Washington Post’s coverage of the explosion: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62601-2004Jan30.html and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62612-2004Jan30.html. We recently had a parade for the seven fallen soldiers where hundreds of soldiers lined Disney road (main road in Bagram) and saluted the caskets as they were driven by. A wave of sadness rocked my body because this was the first time a parade for fallen soldiers had been done and to see the processional of caskets roll by because it made the deaths of American soldiers such a reality again. I think that working in a hospital had desensitized me to patients dying or arriving DOA to an extent (I still felt remorse and sadness but it would be impossible to keep working if I would have dwelt on every death). To see the processional pass by in a timeless manner took me back to the first time I found out about an American death; we as American soldiers truly are like brothers and sisters. I also felt a great deal of pride when saluting these valiant warriors as they passed by in caskets who put their life on the line for their country and this pride compounds the sadness bec ause such great men have lost their lives. It truly was a day I will never forget. I am having a hard time thinking of a way to transition into any other material for the weekly update so I will end shortly. I apologize for not getting the ball rolling on the weekly updates right away, but I will try to put out a mid-weekly update that will contain a little information on the Muslim religion. To those of you who I have just added to my weekly updates, welcome and if you are interested in previous updates feel free to ask for them because I have them all saved in word format and can easily send them as attachments. If you are interested in finding more out on what is happening here in Afghanistan, all you have to do is type in the words Afghanistan and explosion or blast into a search engine such as google.com, and you will get a long list of sites on stories about here. Here is a good site that I found that reviews several of the larger recent stories here in Afghanistan. Just scroll down on the page and under the title Special reports, just click on Afghanistan. http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=afghanistan+explosion&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26amp%3BrequestId%3Dda67b7260a20b%26amp%3BclickedItemRank%3D1%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dafghanistan%2Bexplosion%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.guardian.co.uk%252Fafghanistan%252Fstory%252F0%252C1284%252C1117139%252C00.html%26amp%3BinvocationType%3D-%26amp%3BfromPage%3DNSCPTop&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fafghanistan%2Fstory%2F0%2C1284%2C1117139%2C00.html One final note, Carol Schulz (a dear friend of mine), just successfully underwent a surgical procedure to remove cancer and is recovering well. Thank you once again to everyone for the support and love (ah yes, and the patience to wait for the next frickin’ update). I hope to finally update my Bagram and Surgical pictures sometime this week also, and notification of the pictures will come in a separate email with the links posted again. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak P.S. My friend Aaron and I are going to interview some Afghans who have various jobs on Bagram and would be interested in questions some of you may want to hear directly from an Afghan's mouth. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 17th, 2003
3:30 pm	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Because the Holidays are upon us, I have decided to lighten up the content of my updates. I will start with the regular updates on reconstruction and Afghanistan history after the bustling schedule of Christmas and New Years is over with for everyone. Do not worry; I will have plenty of time to write about anything your heart may desire because it sounds as if I will be here for quite a while longer, but I will elaborate on that at the end. Enjoy the following short Afghani stories. DONT BE TAKEN IN BY THE RAT RACE A minister once fell from grace. He left court and joined a group of dervishes. By virtue of their company, he achieved peace of mind and a reformed character. The ruler soon changed his mind and decided to reinstate the disgraced minister. The man refused and said: "I prefer to live in retirement than to busy myself with politics. Whoever opts for a quiet life is free to forget the snarling calamities of rivals. I may no longer have the minister's special pencase, I may have torn up all my papers, but at least I no longer have to put up with bad mouthing from my critics." The ruler replied: "I always need a competent and wise man to help run the state." "The sign of wisdom in a man, " the ex-minister replied, "is precisely not to be taken in by the false attractions of politics. Why is the Huma superior to other birds? Because it is content to live off dry bones and thus never oppresses any living thing. Have you heard the story of the lynx? It was asked why it chose to serve in the court of the lion and replied that at court it could live safely protected from its enemies and well-fed with the left-overs of the king's meals. The lynx was also asked why it did not, like other courtiers, manuvere to get itself into the innermost circle of the lion's most trusted companions. Whereupon it said: 'I can not be safe from the king's anger if I am too close to him.' The Zoroastrian can spend his whole life tending the fire he worships; the fire will burn him up none the less, if ever he falls into it! Your Majesty's companions never know whether they will make a fortune or lose their heads! It is well known that one should be aware of the ruler's fickle moods; he takes offense at a polite greeting one moment and the next he showers rewards on someone who has just insulted him. To be a courtier, you have to be as slippery as an eel; to be a wise man, you have to aim higher. Let politicians flatter and lie and cheat their way to the top! I know my own human worth: that dignity is enough for me." </p>EVEN FRIENDSHIP HAS ITS LIMITS There was once a man who was a champion wrestler. He had mastered 360 holds and tricks, and used a different one every day of the year. It so happened that he was fond of one of his students, and taught him all his tricks, except one. He kept on postponing the day when he would teach him the last trick. The boy grew in strength and skill, and no one among his contemporaries was able to challenge him. One day, he boasted in front of the king: "My teacher is unchallenged only because he is older than me and because I respect him as my teacher. Otherwise my strength is not less than his and my skill is quite equal to his." The King did not appreciate this boasting and ordered a match to take place. They cleared the broad wrestling ground and gathered ministers, courtiers and sportsmen to watch. The boy charged out into the ring like a mad elephant. His master knew that his pupil was not stronger than him, so he used the 360th hold the he had never taught him. The boy did not know how to counter it. He was helpless. His master raised him with both hands above his head and smashed him to the ground. The crowd cheered wildly. The King congratulated the champion and ordered a robe of honor to be given to him. He reproached the boy, saying: "You were ill-bred enough to dare to challenge your teacher and how you see how hollow your boast was!" The boy answered: "O lord of the word! He did not overpower me with his strength but rather because of one trick which he never accepted to teach me. Today this one trick gave him the victory." The King retorted: "It was just for such a day that he had kept his trick! Have you not heard what the wise say? "Never give a friend such power over you that if one day he tries to be your enemy, he can defeat you." The teacher betrayed by his pupil said: "There is no such thing as loyalty in this world, or at least no one today knows the meaning of loyalty. Whoever learned a trick from me, finally tried to do me down." </p> RESPECT FOLLOWS SERVICE A dervish was once sitting alone, meditating in a patch of desert. A ruler passed by. The dervish, being free from the cares of this world, neither lifted his head nor paid any attention. The ruler, with the violent pride of power, was furious and said: "These dervishes in their patched cloaks are no better than animals!" His minister scolded the dervish and said: "The great ruler of all the world passed by and you did not stand and bow: why were you so rude?" The dervish replied: "Tell your king to expect those people to bow who hope for some reward from him. Tell him that rulers are there to protect their people. The people were not created just to obey rulers. The ruler is the watchman of the poor, though he has greater wealth and glory. The sheep are not made for the shepherd, rather the shepherd is there to serve the sheep. Look around you: today you see one man carefree and successful, the other struggling sore-hearted to survive. Wait a day or two, and see how the earth devours the brain once troubled with so many foolish thoughts! When the irresistible decrees of Fate are issued, neither king nor slave remain. Open up the tomb and and search these dusty bones: can you tell which was the rich man or which was the pauper?" The ruler was struck by the words of the dervish. He said: "Ask me a favor!" The dervish replied: "I would ask you to never disturb me again." The king begged: "Give me a word of advice!" The dervish replied: "Now that wealth is in your hands, realize before it is too late, that this wealth and this power pass from hand to hand." MONEY DOES NOT MAKE THE MAN I saw a pot-bellied fool wearing expensive clothes while sitting on a fine Arab horse. A bystander asked me: "What do you think, Sa'di, of these fine silks on that crass idiot?" "It is like bad writing in gold ink. That ass has none of the moral qualities of a human being. All his pretences are false, all his possessions acquired dishonestly; he is fit only for a slaughter-house. A person of quality may fall on hard days, but never think his quality is any the less for his being impoverished. A man who makes quick money dishonestly can plate his house in gold, yet no one will forget the base stock he sprang from." I have thought for a while how I would relay information to all of you from the current briefing I attended today—it was concerning my unit’s predicament. I decided that I would give a full report of what we heard about going home if you all wanted to know the current messy situation, but only will I go into details until after the holidays. The unit coming to replace us has orders for the 28th of July (date they are mobilized, not the date they will be here). That leaves the possibility that the 452nd (my hospital unit) would not return home and finish demobilization until early September, making our unit the longest deployed hospital unit since the Korean War. Pretty neat, huh? I decided to give the absolute latest and worst news I heard because if I get home earlier it will be a nice surprise, but if I get home on time (i.e. September) it will be an emotion already dealt with. I don’t have much faith that our orders will change anytime soon because ForceCom (authority just below Joint Chiefs of Staff) sounds like they are grossly incompetent. But we do have the Department of the Army on our side in trying to fix this mistake. Anyway, I want to wish you all the best over the Holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 10th, 2003
8:42 pm	weekly update Important Note: Due to my unit’s extension, I have received 2 weeks of leave and it happens to fall on December 22. I do not believe I will be able to make it home for Christmas because it is extremely hard to get flights out of here (especially that close to Christmas). Regardless, I will most likely be home around the 26th or 27th. I am trying to surprise my parents on Christmas Eve or Christmas, so please do not tell them. If you want to get a hold of me over my two weeks, please feel free to call anytime after December 25. Finally, some of you will receive two updates, one with the note and one without (just to allay suspicion). Greetings from Afghanistan, This week I have made no outline for my update and so I will mainly be ranting, raving, preaching, or rattling on about any subject I feel fit. This week I will be discussing reconstruction efforts, but I could veer off the subject and find myself closing with a lot less material covered than planned (I know, I know, shocking). I have enjoyed my free writes because they are done quicker and require as little work as possible from me (he, he, he, suckers). I will not answer questions this week because I want to get the email out as quick as possible since I am in the midst of yet another detail week. I will be prattling off my own theories so bear with me. First on the agenda will be Bagram construction and its impact on the Afghani economy. To understand how localized construction 40 miles from Afghan’s capitol (Kabul) can affect Afghanistan’s economy as a whole, I will delve into the micro and macroeconomics of the Afghani people. To compare the incomes of Afghanis and Iraqis post-war incomes, the Iraqis generally make 10 times what an Afghani does a month. Recently, I have learned that we a unit that goes on humanitarian missions and has a monthly allotment to spend around Afghanistan. The unit spends the money on items that Bagram could use or on items the unit itself could utilize. The main objective is to boost the economy by increasing businesses’ profits. It seems that the coalition forces are attempting to use the Trickle-Down-method to boost Afghanistan’s economy with this earlier method of direct spending and other methods such as project funding. Before I came to Afghanistan, I never realized the impact that simple construction pay and buying junk from the bazaar (think back to week 10 and the comparison to Mexican flea markets) could have on the economy. The US actually has implemented programs and rules on how to keep the economy in check by pay regulation and limiting vendors’ time at the bazaar. We have contractors on Bagram that hire Afghanis to work on projects around the base including dining facilities, fences, guard towers, et cetera. The contractors pay the local Afghanis around two US dollars a day. I know to some of you bleeding hearts that this sounds like slave labor, but you also have to realize that this is a huge increase in income for them and to raise their income any further would propagate excessive inflation. To this day, I am still amazed at the amount of work the Afghanis do for two dollars a day. As I mentioned before, there are no child labor laws and so I will occasionally have 12 year olds working with the group I am guarding. These 12 year olds will carry 60-pound cement bags on their backs for 10 hours a day for a mere two dollars. Again, two dollars a day is quite the addition to an Afghani household. I should give some examples as to what you can purchase in Kabul that would create some relativity to the situation. The movie theater in Kabul only charges one dollar per movie; Honda motorcycles cost 500 dollars; and the most convincing example is that the Afghani currency is 100 Afghanis to one American dollar. Actually, the latter fact shows that the Afghani economy is improving, as four years ago it was 3,000 Afghanis to the American dollar. Back to construction, the contractors that the US hires are Afghani and generally, there are three Afghani contractors to one project. Everyday, the Afghani contractors go to the Hajji pits (I will explain after closing) and choose a certain amount of workers for their projects similar to the way construction companies in the US choose Mexicans by the busload. The contractors are given a certain amount of time to finish their projects and if they go over that allotted time they are not paid, but still must finish the job. Usually the time the contractors are allotted is ridiculous so I have never had heard of any time constraint problems. The coalition forces (mainly the US and the Germans) pay the contractors 10,000 US dollars a month. This includes material allotments, worker pay, and any other expenditure the job may accrue. At the end of most projects, the contractors will make around 1,500 US dollars and boosts the contractors’ to the playboys of Afghanistan. A lot of them drive pimped out Toyota Corollas to work, well not pimped out, but man, if they wanted to, I’m sure they could. Anyway, because of my strong economic credentials I have received as economics parallels medicinal studies, I have a couple predictions to make. Coalition forces are going to have to support the Afghanis financially, whether through funding projects or direct financial aide to the Afghanis, for a minimum of two decades before they will be self-sufficient again. The timeframe will be even longer depending on how well the Afghanis respond to a unified nation (instead of the tribal factions they are accustomed to). As a capitalistic society, I do not believe the US has a plan designed to alleviate the problem of a nation not unified in the sense that most modernized nations are unified under one government. Microeconomic improvements are easy to make (i.e. household income) because all you have to do is provide jobs and financial aide. On a macroeconomic level, there is much work to be done. Long term, there is not going to be Coalition forces around to provide work and so before we leave, a stronger centralized government must be set up to take over where we have started. I can see the Afghanis easily slipping back to their previous tribal life because it is what they have been doing for centuries, if not millennia. I will not go into the philosophical arguments about whether we should be changing the Afghanis social structure or not because that would be another novel in itself. When I say a strong centralized government, I am mainly referring to a government that could keep reconstruction efforts going and jobs flowing. The main problem, besides tribal unity, with trying to boost the Afghani economy is that agriculture is a way of survival for most families. Afghanistan has few profitable resources, I believe opium is the largest cash crop in Afghanistan, so it would be hard for mainstream business to operate effectively in conjunction with the US and Europe. Again, we fall into the problem that once Afghanistan no longer has the coalition forces to support them, there would be very few jobs available. Improving education would have to be a main goal of the coalition forces. We are in the process of reconstructing schools, but with so few teachers in Afghanistan, the schools sit barren. A possibility would be to instruct Afghanis in the field of education and slowly refill schools with teachers and students. Again, the problems I could foresee are: what curriculum would we lay out for the Afghanis to learn to teach and how do we improve student enrollment? Curriculum in Afghanistan for the most part is in strong contrast to the United States as they spend a lot of time learning about the Muslim religion and agriculture. School in Afghanistan seems to be optional for citizens. Most parents want their children to learn how to raise a family (via farming, social customs) or feel that their male children need to learn how to fight (because of all previous invasions) instead of going to school where afterwards they will just return to the life they were being brought up in anyways (again, very few higher-end, if any, jobs available). Before I came to Afghanistan, I never really understood the dynamics of long-term occupation and now I understand. The current generation of Afghanis will not be welcome to many of the changes that I have outlined and so the children and grandchildren of the current generation will have to be the leaders to completely reform Afghanistan into modernity. I do not even believe that Afghanistan could accomplish that much with even the grandchildren because education is so low here and social customs do not change readily. Gradual reform is paramount and strong coalition support through the next couple of decades is a necessity to this reform. There are obviously more problems that we will have to solve before leaving the Afghanis to themselves (such as banking and taxation), but I have talked out of my ass long enough. I look forward to seeing you all when I return and please keep the emails coming. As the New Zealanders are so apt to saying, for schizzle my nizzle, I hope you understood my drizzle. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak Side note as promised: As you all may currently be aware, some soldiers are not the brightest people in the world. There seems to be derogatory names made up for each nation we have been to war with and Afghanistan is no exception. Hajji is the equivalent of Gook in terms of slander. Whoever decided to pick the word Hajji as a derogatory word did not seem to think this one out. A hajji is a person who has traveled from Medina to Mecca therefore; it is a term of veneration to Muslims. In fact, most Afghanis are too poor to be true Hajjis, so once again I find the situation hilarious. I refer to the Afghanis as Hajjis not to be demeaning (even though it truly is not insulting to them) but because it has less syllables than Afghani or local national. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2003
3:05 pm	weekly e-mail Greetings from Afghanistan, Once again, thank you for all of your positive critiques and input on my weekly updates. I gathered from the responses I received that while the format was a nice change of pace, I should concentrate on how I am doing personally and explain more about what is going on in the “Forgotten War”. I have tended to stray away from details of activity in Afghanistan because of Operational Security—imparting vital information over an unsecured form of communication (i.e. email). In the briefing my unit received on OpSec, before we came to Afghanistan, we were told that we should not impart information dealing with unit strength, mission activity, or similar vital military information. I know that sounds corny, but I hear about the media disseminating military information (information, I might add, that did not sound that vital until I arrived in Afghanistan and realized how damaging it can be) so often that I was hesitant on broaching the subject of military activity in Afghanistan. Irregardless, I believe that an accurate account of what is going on in the “Forgotten War” is a subject that will interest you all and needs to be elucidated after all the media bias (especially now that it is not covered). I will mainly tell you of activities that have happened months ago to avoid problems with OpSec. First on the agenda, I would like to answer the questions from Mrs. Zimmerman’s students as I promised last week. The one big question most of my students ask is how you are doing personally. They comment that your cover a lot of material but they want to know more about you and the adjustments you have had to make. Not just culturally but physically and mentally. They understand why you might be hesitant to eat food somewhere. etc. I flew into Afghanistan on a C-17 (huge cargo and personnel plane that seats 75 people) in full battle rattle (body armor, M-16 with 220 rounds, Kevlar, et cetera) and upon entering a combat zone the plane has to execute a combat landing. Combat lands consist of wing dips and slight nose-dives to throw off RPGs that might be targeting the plane. I cannot tell you how valuable of an experience it was to get combat training from riding roller coasters at Six Flags Great America (Physics field trips do impart practical applications to the real world). As the huge cargo doors of the C-17 touched upon the runway, my fellow soldiers and I departed the plane stiffly, from our 20-hour flight, into the scorching sun of Afghanistan. The Hindu Kush Mountains towered over and surrounded us as we tried to encompass this strange new world. Squinting, due to fierce Afghani winds hurling dust, a blazing sun unhindered by clouds and sweat from intense heat and heavy battle gear, we walked a long dusty path to Bagram Air Base. This would be our welcome. Arriving in Afghanistan racked my body with emotion and my head with a barrage of thoughts. The prominent thought surfacing every few seconds or so was the fact that I am now in a war zone. That thought created an essence of surrealism when we were walking toward the base. Mainly, our nerves were on edge from changing time zones several times and 20-hours of flight, but there were also feelings of excitement (because of the experience to be had), nervousness (because of the inherent and man-made dangers of Afghanistan), wonder (the harsh dichotomy between Afghanistan’s beauty and desolation), and dread (not knowing what is in store for our unit). At first, it was a difficult task to acclimate ourselves to not only Afghanistan’s climate, but also the war zone climate. Physically, the task was demanding, as we are 5,000 plus miles above sea level. It was hard to differentiate the thinner atmosphere and the stifling heat at first, but when I started running there was no doubt in my mind that I was having problems breathing and had much higher levels of lactic acid buildup. To make a comparison, I was running about 30 minutes with ease when stationed at Ft. McCoy and upon arrival at Bagram, I could barely make it through 15 minutes without feeling extremely winded. I would say it took a good month and a half to acclimate to the heat and the altitude. That might seem like a relatively quick acclimation for a Wisconsin boy used to cold weather and oxygen-rich air, but when you spend around 16 hours outside in the heat for whatever reason the army has you outside that long for, there seems to be a natural expediency to acclimatization. The mental aspect of acclimation was a completely different ordeal. Being enlisted, I am privileged to perform menial labor in addition to my surgical duties. So while my first mental hurdle was to learn how to deal with all of the horrifying traumas that come into the O.R., I now also had to deal with guarding Afghanis. Let me elucidate what the guarding of Afghanis entails. The U.S. hires Afghanis to do work on our compound—building a new chow hall, guard towers, paving main road on the base, et cetera-and for each 10 Afghanis there must be one coalition force soldier. Before I was to guard the Afghanis for the first time I was nervous about the unpredictability of Afghanis, yet excited to meet them as I had heard so much about their country before I came but never heard about the people. I was also nervous at the prospect of having to guard Afghanis, keeping our base secure, because I have never encountered a situation in my life remotely close to this. At first, I was a little disconcerted at pointing a weapon at the Afghanis to keep order or to herd them along like sheep to their work areas simply because of the fact that I might have to use deadly force in order to maintain a secure base and personal safety. After a while, you become used to the fact that there is always a threat when guarding Afghanis, so my disconcerting feeling turned into confidence in my ability to maintain order without malice and subdue a threat if necessary. After a couple guard duties I started to make “friends” of the Afghani workers and contractors and that is how I learned a lot of the Dari I know, but more importantly how I receive first hand knowledge for my weekly updates (I have friends in quotation marks because I generally do not see any Afghanis I work with more than twice). While I do speak to the Afghani workers and contractors and treat them with respect, I do not become complacent and will exercise a forceful reprimand to the workers if their actions prove to be harmful or against base rules. Moving on to the surgical aspect of my job and the strides needed to overcome the war trauma I would be seeing on a daily basis was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I have been employed as a surgical tech since I was 19 and at the now ancient age of 22, I have received a lot of O.R. experience. The hardest part to deal with at first was the terrible smells. There was a couple of necrotizing fasciitis cases (bacteria that rapidly eats away at the skin and surrounding tissue layers), a couple of abdominal dehiscence via leaking bowel cases (basically the abdomen is split open and bowel is showing) and many other nasty smells. Once again, because of working in the O.R. for several years I had been desensitized me to most noxious smells and so that was not to hard to adjust to after a while. Although the injuries we treated were horrific, I was not terribly bothered by the sites. I attribute that to the fact that I generally only see the patient sedated and it is hard to have an emotional intrapersonal response to someone who is asleep. I do not know why unconsciousness makes the matter less traumatic to handle, but that was the main reason I thought of when I thought of how comfortable in surgery I am now even in some of the most traumatic of injuries. Although I have seemingly detached from emotion, it is always hard to see a soldier recovering in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with his brothers-in-arms around him while he is sobering up to the fact that his hand was amputated or to see an Afghani and his or her family crying at the critical condition his or her life is in. Keeping emotions in check in surgery is one aspect of my job, but the important part is to remember how to be human again when dealing with patients afterwards. That is the only way to achieve emotional balance in such a cruel and destitute country as Afghanistan that deals out the worst traumatic plight to humans I have ever heard of. The other thing that they mentioned lately regards the issue with those marines that married Iraq women. They do not understand why it is anyone else's business. Why these women would be shunned when they will come to live in the states anyway. They understand the guys getting in trouble for the protocol issue and leaving their post but not the marriage issue. I have not heard anything about the Marines wedding Iraqi women at all, so I am afraid I will be unable to completely answer the question. In fact I would rather have a more clarified question and maybe a little background on what happened before I answer that question. What have you noticed about the kids. Especially the 12-17 years old. Are they in school or are they being trained to kill. Can they really be bribed with American chocolate. (I think this is from seeing too much TV. And the American movies). I would have to say that the majority of kids ages 12-17 are working and trying to increase his family’s income. There are some schools around Bagram, but the schools are in too poor of shape to keep classes regular for a variety of ages. It is strange to see these 12-17 year olds because they have grown up in such a harsh environment that they look much older than their true age. There are obviously no child-labor laws in Afghanistan so any child that can work, generally will work, unless the family stresses the importance of education to their son or daughter. I am sure that some of the Afghani children are being trained to kill because the harsh Afghanistan environment dictates it. Mostly the children are either working or going to school though. I would bet any dollar amount that you could bribe these children with chocolate because they are so malnourished from small amounts of the same food day in and day out. I remember a time my friend brought suckers for the children and how mobbed he was until all his suckers were given out--the children behaved as if they were piranhas devouring fresh meat. I wish I knew more of the children, but I do not. I will try to learn more and tell about my findings later on. Have you formed a tight bond with your unit, are you really like brothers or is it more like being back in school were you just tolerate some and are close with others? Lastly, I have formed a tight bond with my unit, but mainly the bond belongs to the OR section. I will tell you at first it was hard to deal with some people in the OR section, but it seemed as time grew on we all grew closer and learned to live with each other’s deficiencies. Every OR member is unique, funny and vivacious making our OR team a crazy, yet close family. Well once again, I end with still volumes of material to cover. I will concentrate more on the military activity in Afghanistan next week. Feel free to ask questions about anything I have written (as I question my lucidity lately) because I have been trying to answer in an almost stream-of–consciousness format lately to give answers at face value. I did not have time to update the pictures this week, but maybe in the next couple of days I will get a chance to update them (that is another concern, please email me if you are experiencing problems reaching my picture sites). Whew, another week gone by. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 25th, 2003
3:10 pm	weekly e-mail Greetings from Afghanistan, I would like to clear up a couple items before I commence my overdue weekly update (Internet was down). I need to elucidate that I was not complaining about the extension orders received, I was merely frustrated at the poor communication on the part of the Army; especially issuing extension orders in such close proximity to the holidays. True, the promulgation of orders made back in July stated that soldiers would spend one year, boots on ground, but the orders were directed towards OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom). Only within the past month have extension orders with direct association towards OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom, under which I fall) been made. In addition, I should have been honest last week that the real reason I did not write an update was do to laziness and not underlying causes. I am not depressed or in a funk as I have a great group of friends within the OR department who strive forward with the mission and do not dwell on situations that are out of our reach. The emails full of support and kind words add a high level of comfort to keep me going each week as well. As promised, this week will take on a new format to variegate topics and give you more insight I have gained. Please feel free to write with additional comments or more questions that you have about answers I give, especially if you find that I am abstruse on a subject. The structure of this email will be simple: I will cut and paste a question from an email and I will simply answer below the pasted question. I will not be doing this every week, as it is a lot more extensive work than I imagined, but I believe it is closer to the format you are all asking me to use, as I will give more depth to the questions. Let us see how this works and restructure as necessary. Are the people happy with these laws, or do they have issues with them too? [Referencing back to a weekly update outlining a few Afghani laws] Most laws in Afghanistan are not official and are derivatives of long standing social customs and religion (although even their customs are mainly derivatives from the Muslim religion). I hope all of you have read week eights update discussing modernity and the three classes of people emerging in Afghanistan due to modernization. I will be labeling the two main classes as Conservatives and Liberals (Conservatives-- the group that holds to Afghan ideas and tradition; Liberals--the group that assimilates from the West while holding roots in Afghan heritage) and discuss their views of Afghani law. The third class obviously looks down upon anything Afghani, so I will not include that group in the discussion. From what I have learned, the Conservatives are generally pleased with the strict Afghani laws and customs. The Conservatives are extremely religious and believe that the strict interpretation of the Koran is the only way to find favor with Allah. A lifetime of pain and complete devotion to Allah is perceived by the Conservatives as a small price to pay for an eternity of harmony. Most Conservatives cannot read and therefore rely on parents and mullahs to disseminate religious practice. It is hard to change your ideology learned from highly respected members of society, especially when you cannot read and have little education to form a more intricate ideology. Also, remember most laws and customs are derivatives from strict religious interpretation and thus are looked upon in reverence no matter how contradictory or devastating they may be. Liberals encompass most of the intellectual class in Afghanistan. They want to assimilate Western civilization without losing their heritage and therefore look down upon many of the harsh and demeaning Afghani laws. While the Liberals are still devout Muslim, they do not believe in the strict interpretation mainly because they can read and possess higher levels of thought process, which enables for a much more complex understanding of the Koran. Liberals understand that the Koran does not call for misogyny or customs resembling such, but rather the establishment of Egalitarianism. Liberals do appreciate some Afghani customs, such as Pukhtunwali (week 7), that offer love and hospitality towards their fellow man. The Liberals understand what a struggle reform will be and so they concentrate on the education of younger Afghanis because their minds are an open palate. Liberals hope to propagate their assimilated ideologies via the younger Afghanis who should be better educated and open to a more civilized life. What do Afghan people take into consideration when determining someone else's wealth (i.e. family, money, education, marriage, # of kids, etc.)? There seems to be several factors that Afghanis’ take into consideration when determining wealth. To an Afghani, family, hospitality and honor measure wealth. An Afghani’s measure of wealth generally does not include money. Afghani marriage was originally life-long and separation was never thought of until only recently. Though divorce and remarriage are legal and permissible, neither is widely practiced. Polygamy is practiced in Afghanistan only when the first wife has no children and is a dying practice—especially in enlightened circles- because of sheer economic force. Lately, women are no longer considered inferior, especially in the household, as evidenced by the fact that husband and wife discuss their family matters in an atmosphere of extreme friendliness. The husband assumes dominance in certain spheres, usually in finances and business arrangements, while the wife looks after the children and other household affairs. The fact that the family atmosphere is healthy is shown by the lowest divorce-rate in the world (although the low rate could be due to the fact that Afghanis do not live long enough to divorce; it is completely taboo in society; et cetera). An Afghan, however poor, feels delighted and honored to receive a guest. All persons, irrespective of rank, religion or nationality are entitled to profit by this practice. In Afghanistan, a visitor is welcomed everywhere with a hearty spontaneous smile and a greeting of sitarai mushe, khiraghlay (may you not feel tired and you are most welcome). Guests receive the best room, the best fruit and the best food that the host can afford as frugality has no meaning to an Afghani on such occasions. The host kills his best sheep or fowls for the feast and cooks food not for his guest alone, but for a grand party to which most of the neighbors and the elders of the village are invited. The host is delighted to see his guests praising the variety and lavishness of his dishes. Honor binds Afghanis to help those who need help. If someone finds his life or honor in danger and calls for help, every Afghani hearing his appeal is bound to come to his assistance even at the risk of his own life. Such a person is entitled to be called a merah—a gallant warrior. Every Afghan is expected to be turyaleh (brave), otherwise he is looked down upon and is called beghayrat—dishonorable. The following is a popular Afghani adage in regards to honor, “Better come home stained with blood, rather than safe and sound as a coward.” As I hope you come to the realization that Afghanis place a lot of weight in family, hospitality and honor, you will also see that these core measures of wealth may change with time, but will still be paramount over money. Touching sentence that I am going to ruin in 5…4…3…2…1… Afghanis also have no need for money, as there is nothing in Afghanistan to buy. Funny that one sentence can ruin three paragraphs of build-up of Afghani character. Nevertheless, for what its worth those are the three main Afghani measures of wealth and they would be three excellent characteristics anywhere in the world. Here is a sentimental little side-note to make up for my cynicism: Being in Afghanistan has made me realize that wealth has roots in the strong bond of family and friends who bring happiness and joy to life, but more importantly they can also make any situation in life bearable. I know, I am going to freakin’ cry too. At times you refer to them as Afghans and at other times Afghanis. Which is correct? I do not know for sure which the correct title is, but it is a good point to bring up. Until I am proven otherwise, I will use Afghani. I made this decision because I hear Pakistani and Iraqi all the time, so it would make sense to attribute it thusly. The way you describe Afghan women reminds me of the book I recently read “Clan of the Cave Bear” written about the earliest men and women (caveman times). I hope the Afghan women can at least laugh with each other when the men are gone. I am glad at least the girls experience a little freedom to discover themselves before they are closed down. [Interesting side-note that came from the same email: Even in the USA girls shut down to a degree after they enter the working world. They learn vivacity; creativity and confidence are a threat and not well received. Actually, middle/high school is the beginning of character shutdown. We are reading books on this subject to try to guide our girls through it] I have actually read “Clan of the Cave Bear” (if I ever decided to start my own book club I would highly recommend the book, but I don’t want to force Oprah out of the business so I will willingly retire that idea—besides, muscle-for-hire in the book business has been going downhill lately) and found parts of the book were actually poignant towards what I have experienced here as far as Afghani life is concerned. Nevertheless, I do not want to propagate is that the Afghanis are barbaric people. The women do not live in cages and in fact, in the household women often have a very loving and open relationship with their husband or visitors. It is when they go out in society that men feel women must show respect by walking behind them or wearing burqas as the husband should be the only one to see his wife. Much of this is changing with time, but you must realize the turmoil that changes bring no matter how wrong an idea in place may be (just look at how long racial segregation stagnated in America). Furthermore, I pointed out two weeks ago that Afghani girls seem to be freer-spirited than Afghani women and wear Westernized clothing instead of a burqa. I mentioned this because I see it as a ray of light poking through the cloudy atmosphere of Afghani patriarchal dominance. These young women will grow up with a mind more open to assimilation of better ideals, egalitarianism and better education. True, a good number of these girls will be “closed down” later in life because of the Afghanistan societal structure, but at least to me it is encouraging to see that life is diversifying in Afghanistan. I added that side-note after the question because I wanted to illustrate the point that we are still having problems in America with an egalitarian society. I know we are light-years ahead of Afghanis, but look how far we have come in the past 50 years. I believe that the Afghani women have the correct mindset to start their battle for equality now and the ideas should disseminate through the younger generations. Whew! This was one long email, but I hope you all gained something from it. I tried to pick questions that were broad based enough so that I would cover the topics of many questions asked. There are still questions out there that I will get to next week that I have been putting on hold, especially the questions from Mrs. Zimmerman’s students. I guess I have been too caught up in talking about the life of the Afghanis that I did not really focus on my own adjustment and daily happenings and I appreciate that you are interested in those aspects. Thank you for all these wonderful questions as they help with topics to write about. Feel free to question my comments, as I have been less than lucid lately due to the night shift. Finally, I have added some more pictures to my albums and if any of you have problems with viewing them please let me know. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 18th, 2003
2:36 am	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, I am going to start this email out with some particularly bad news: my unit has been extended in Afghanistan until March 2nd. It is very frustrating news, but don’t get me wrong, I am proud to be in Afghanistan serving, it’s the monotony and grueling duties that are starting to wear old. I was also looking forward to seeing so many of you over the holidays, but now I will have to wait until spring. Moving on, thank you for all of your insightful emails as they will help me to better structure my updates. This week I will be taking a break from writing the update for several reasons: I am exhausted from a long detail week I have just finished; I find myself too emotionally biased to analyze after I was extended for 4 more months; I plain just need a break from writing so much each week in addition to regular duties. Thank you for your understanding. Below are links to my picture albums I have set up, as it is the easiest method of sharing pictures. I still will only add about 4 pictures a week because of time constraints, but at least it is better than nothing is. I promise this will be the last time I change where I display my pictures. The top two links are my efforts so that you can view my album without signing up for an account (although it is free, I believe the direct link will be easier). If the top two links are expired, all you have to do is go to the bottom two links and sign up for a free account to view my albums. If you have any questions about the links, please feel free to email me with questions. Until next week... God Bless, Matthew Sajdak DIRECT LINKS (Afghanistan Album) (Surgical Album) LINKS (use below links when above links expire—need to get free account to use below links) (Afghanistan Album) (Surgical Album) (Comment on this)
Monday, November 17th, 2003
2:54 am	weekly surgicals German bus explosion victim ( Read more... ) Mine blast victim (enucleation procedure is being performed) ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
2:41 am	weekly pictures A10s with a gorgeous backdrop. Some UXOs (UneXploded Ordinances) found on the base Greetings from Kabul Aerial Picture of Bagram The Hospital's Front Gate (Comment on this)
Friday, November 14th, 2003
2:43 am	weekly surgicals Please note that the following pictures are pretty graphic. This is a picture of a local national who was bit on the chest by a spider and was infected via the spider. He contracted necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease) but because he waited two weeks before coming to our hospital there were few options but to keep resecting the dead tissue and muscle from the infection daily. Unfortunately this bite spread quickly (as NF always does) and the patient died within a week of him coming to our hospital. ( Read more... ) Another land mine blast victim. Patient ended up having an above the knee amputation. ( Read more... ) This is a child burn victim we had received early on. We believe that the child somehow fell into a vat of boiling milk. Very sad case as the child died within days. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2003
2:23 am	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Last weeks update seemed to be a poignant topic for a lot of you readers. Many interesting questions were brought to the surface and some even seemed to contain an Aquinas-style question and rebuttal format to further stimulate the topic. In lieu of the history lesson (so I can get to the questions faster), I will give you an Afghani folk tale to show the imagination held in their minds before wars ravaged the country. Another major reason (besides ones listed in previous emails) that Afghanistan is so uneducated is because it seemed wars were a constant and so instead of learning Afghanis were constantly fighting and rebuilding. That is also a reason that male births were celebrated and female births were kept private (more males means more soldiers). One more unrelated note that I believe is pertinent enough to add to the introduction is a fact my mom recently discovered about the suffix- stan. The suffix means "country" or "homeland." So the name of Afghanistan, for example, means "home of the Afghan people." The following tale is entitled, Princess Parizad. Once upon a time there lived in the ancient city of Kabulistan two young princely brothers. Aslam, the elder, was tall and handsome, but arrogant and selfish; Khan, the younger, though handsome as his brother, was gentle and quick-witted. These two were deadly rivals for the hand of Princess Parizad, a girl whose beauty had enslaved the hearts of many men. At the moment when the story begins the brothers were in despair. Each had pressed his claims with Parizad, but to no avail. The maiden, being young and fickle-minded, could not choose between them. Then one day, Parizad summoned the brothers and addressed them thus: Your highnesses, said the Princess, before I make the choice between you I need more time to ponder. This then is what I propose. For a year and a day I shall see no man except my father. At the end of that time, I promise I shall give you my decision. Meanwhile, Parizad continued demurely, you may each send me one gift. I make only one condition: the gift which you send must not cost more than one hundred thousand ashrafis. Think well before you choose it, I beg you, for the one whose gift I value shall be the one I marry. Obedient to Parizad’s command, the two young princes departed. Each consoled himself with the thought that his would be the present which would win the maiden’s heart. Now it happened that about this time a merchant, Hassan, a dealer of precious stones, passed through the city gates. The rivalry between the two brothers was by this time common knowledge, and the merchant, learning of it, went first to see Aslam. He spread a cloth at the Prince’s feet and on it poured the jewels diamonds, rubies, pearls and emeralds. Among them Aslam saw an enormous ruby, the size of an ostrich egg. When he picked it up, the stone flashed and sparkled as he turned it in his fingers. He had never seen so big a ruby. It was a magnificent stone. A cunning smile spread over his features and he turned to the merchant. I’ll buy this ruby, Aslam, and paying the price he sent it at once as a gift to Parizad. When the merchant departed, Aslam sat back with a smile, satisfied that his brother would not find a better present. The following morning the merchant called on Khan. Again he spread his cloth on the floor and poured jewels upon it. But the Prince, instead of inspecting the gems, gave the merchant a riddle to solve. Tell me, said the Prince, what gift could be made twelve times without giving more than one present? When the merchant had thought for a moment, a gleam came into his eyes. Then he showed the Prince a necklace of twelve exquisite pearls. They were small but each was perfect and they were beautifully matched. Your highness, said the merchant, by cutting the cord of this pearl-necklace you have twelve separate pearls; each one makes a gift in itself, yet when rethreaded on the cord form but one single necklace. The Prince laughed aloud: I perceive that your wisdom is great, he said, and he bought the necklace, paying no more for it than his brother had paid for the ruby. Every month of their separation, he reminded Parizad of his love for her by sending her one of the pearls. With the first pearl he sent the cord and with it a note which read: String the pearls together on this cord and the twelve tokens of my love for you make but a single present. When the year plus one day- had elapsed the two young suitors presented themselves at the home of the Princess. Aslam was smiling arrogantly; Khan looked merely thoughtful. The brothers seated themselves on couches and awaited Parizad’s arrival. Aslam looked at his arrival. What, he sneered, are you going to give us as a wedding present? I may as well tell you that we are expecting something special. His brother only smiled. Then the sound of footsteps coming towards them made both men look up. The door of the room swung open, and there stood the enchanting Princess clad in a dress of golden brocade that clung to her shapely figure. But it was not the spectacle of her beauty that made the two princes gasp. For Parizad had no need to speak her decision was obvious: around the lovely column of her neck was clasped Khan’s pearl-necklace. And the Parizad spoke. Both of you, she said, are strong and handsome, both of you are rich; both of you chose impressive presents. But and here she paused-Khan’s present showed how much he thought of me, while yours, she said, turning to Aslam, showed how much you thought of yourself. Therefore I choose Khan for my husband. I have been asked quite frequently where my information comes from; the main bulk of my information comes from Afghanistan historical guides, but the more pertinent information comes from Afghani people themselves. Most of the information I read, I try to get verification from an Afghani for truth’s sake. I have LN escort from 700 to 1800 (11 hours of open time) so there is a lot of time to talk as most jobs given to Afghanis on the base seem to require 25 percent of the workforce that is actually there. It seems that every guard job I go on, there is at least one who can speak relatively good English. So, I have learned some phrases in Dari such as boro karaktu (get back to work) I like to add in bobo barish (goat boy). Afghanis are very good-natured people and like to joke around, so that last comment is usually said as a joke unless they point to my watch and say baksheesh (gift), then I mean it. We did receive a couple briefings on culture, language, climate, et cetera, before we left for Afghanistan. Since our departure from the states, though, we have had to learn the language or any other aspect of Afghani life on our own. Generally, the Afghanis know what they are supposed to be doing during the day so they do not need constant English instructions just simply-structured Dari instructions every once in awhile. Another question is: what is the overall reaction of American troops to being in Afghanistan? Do they want to get out as soon as possible or are they "enjoying" themselves as much as one could given the conditions over there? This is actually a hard question to answer because it is dependent on several factors such as: mindset, job and unit cohesion. One thing about Afghanistan is that every day seems to meld into the next, although some days seem to be outliers of the norm. It is hard to think of home because the more you think of friends and loved ones, you realize that it is still a while off before you can visit with them, when before these visits were taken for granted. So mentally, it is a struggle just keeping positive with those two factors out of many (including being in a war zone). I have bad days or weeks, but I have made some good friends here who have become an acting family and that is a huge factor that keeps me in check with reality. There was a poll taken recently by the base’s weekly newsletter team and the poll showed that only 35% of the people here hold high morale. But as I said before morale is relative as I would not answer that my morale is high even though I am still remaining positive through friends here, friends back home, or other factors. I would say that most soldiers here think of morale and happiness as interchangeable words. Nobody is crazy enough to want to be here, but at the same time not many are in serious depression or doubting there reason to be here. When we are here, we are just here. The main focus for us is when we are getting home and after we are home we will think of the consequences of our time here. Departure date seems to be one of the biggest morale boosters or busters. Recently, we heard an address from Donald Rumsfeld who said that troops were getting plenty of advanced notice of when their units were being relieved and by whom. At first we thought this was a Saturday Night Live skit and I don’t think we have laughed so hard since we have been here, but then realized this was a serious statement. In talking with other units and the unit we replaced, I don’t think any unit knew when they were leaving until two weeks before they actually got on a plane. I don’t know about you, but 2 weeks doesn’t seem like much notice to getting life back home squared away after such a drastic change in lifestyle. You would think that advanced notice of our replacements would be easy, but there must be some gaping holes in the system. This is one of the biggest morale boosters and it is frustrating not to know when you will leave. I know I wasn’t going to drag politics back into my updates, but I think that best illustrates how morale could be interpreted as so low (for all you sensitive Republican sallies who think I only go after Bush and his cronies Clinton was a dope-smoking-hippie). I don’t know how affectively this cleared up the question and I have a feeling I will be coming back to it, but I hope you gained insight on something. Well, I meant to answer more questions, but I seemed to have gotten swept up in the moment. On a good note, Zubterfuge will be posting my pictures on the following websites: http://www.maryandtim.net/matt and http://www.maryandtim.net/matt/surgical/. I don’t have problems sending pictures to just one recipient, but when I try to send to multiple people a problem seems to occur. So, I will be sending her pictures and then she will post them accordingly. The weekly updates will still come in email form though. Sorry about any grammar mistakes, I haven't gone back to revise anything because of time constraints. Hope you enjoy at least the folk tale out of this update. Until next week. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 2nd, 2003
2:18 am	weekly pictures This is the air forces attempt at humor. The sign is located at the flight line entrance. These are some of the German Special Forces members. They usually come into surgery to visit and learn medicine (the friendship between the O.R. and the German SF came about because we took care of some of their team members who's bus was bombed) This is a front view of our hospital to give you a little idea the difference between our tents and the tents you have seen on M.A.S.H. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 27th, 2003
2:11 am	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Thank you for the positive emails full of excellent questions and insight. I apologize about the picture dilemma, but the internet here can be extremely slow so sending pictures greatly taxes the system and I just got sick of waiting for the pictures to be attached to the email. I will get those pictures out this week though. I received an interesting email questioning how Afghanistan’s cultural evolution seems to have been at a standstill for almost a millennium; whether it is through lack of education- or a small world (tribal) view. The following information is what I have picked up about Afghanis’ struggle between ignorance and enlightenment. Contact with the west and the diffusion of modern knowledge have affected Afghan Society. There are at present three different types of reaction to this impact. First, the conservative section which constitutes the majority reacts against the western ideas. They want to preserve their old ideas and traditions without the contamination of the Western concept of things. The second faction has fallen victim to the fascination of western culture. They are subjected by the new knowledge. They have gone completely west and look down on all that is Afghan and entertain western modes of though and Western pattern of social life. The third vital group of Afghan society has its root in Afghan traditions. They are fascinated but not subjected by European science, technology and way of life. Like the Japanese, they want to assimilate Western civilization without losing their identity or forgetting their rich cultural heritage and spiritual values. All of them are for active assimilating of the best in the West. Their attitude to the past as well as the future is liberal. They do not wish to break with the past and are not attacking all things past indiscriminately; rather they want to build firmly on the old foundation. They say we must take from the altars of the past fire and the glow, and not the ashes. Everything is not good simply because it is old, similarly, everything should not be looked upon as good because it is new. Great men accept or reject the one or the other after careful examination. They should take inspiration from the past and should not be afraid of new ideas and Western thought and science. No nation can help its people from being influenced by the products, techniques and ideas of the rest of the world. Man may erect a China wall, but these efforts cannot succeed. The Afghans are well aware of their past culture and present responsibilities. Most Afghanis are trying hard to come out of the antiquated past and stride into the twentieth century. Afghanistan was isolated from the world until only recently and even today it has no outlet to the open sea which is a great handicap for trade. It has immense natural resources yet to be developed. Problems with education is another setback along with its problems with economic development. Illiteracy is prevalent and more than 75 percent of the people cannot read or write. Schools are inadequate and quality teachers are in short supply. All these pose unprecedented challenges to educators. It needs peace and opportunity to develop its vast natural and manpower resources; thereby providing a higher standard of living and a happier life to all of its citizens. Another interesting question brought up in this particular email was: I wonder - if you could magically flip a switch for the general population, making them aware of all the things we assume they need to know - would it make that much difference to them? Can we claim some truths to be so central as to rise above the culture's immediate application? The Afghanis are extremely proud of their heritage and love their country. When I first got here and saw the desolate countryside, I could not imagine that any Afghani with money and means to go elsewhere would decide to stay in Afghanistan. But the following fact showed me otherwise: there have been numerous Afghanis who have gone to such prestigious schools as Harvard and MIT, yetwhen they finish their degree, usually in English or Engineering, they goback to Afghanistan to live and teach at a local schoolhouse made of mud orbuild primitive bridges. Also, defining central truths has actually been a long argued philosophical problem that most likely will plague international relations and cross-cultural understanding for what seems like centuries to come. To help Afghanistan evolve faster than it is, we have to be decisive about medical care, construction and other parts of their macro-system. I believe that when the US tries to concern itself with the micro-system of Afghanistan, problems will arise. The US cannot forcibly assimilate modernity into the Afghan civilization; we must work from the outside in learning from the mistakes of past invaders. I keep getting distracted by surgeries and other crap, and it is starting to get hard to keep my concentration, so I will have to say adieu. I hope that the information today helped to better understand Afghan mentality. As you can see, I greatly value questions and will answer them to the best of my ability. It is getting harder for me to think of subject matter so any help from the outside is greatly appreciated. Until next week. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak Well once again the internet does not want to cooperate. I think instead of getting hopes up and saying I will send pictures I will say that pictures will be delayed indefinitely. I am currently working on alleviating this problem, but not much can be done unless the internet here magically repairs itself. Sorry, once again. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 20th, 2003
2:07 am	weekly update Greetings from Afghanistan, Well, last week when I said thank you for the bombardment of questions, I was not being sarcastic. I really do enjoy questions as they help me with ideas for topics and give a certain flow to the email. This week I will talk about an interesting custom the Afghanis practice called Pukhtunwali. Although the Afghanis are capriciously governed by various factions, groups, figure heads, et cetera; the unwritten code of Pukhtunwali keeps a check on governmental vagaries. Basically, an Afghani is bound by honor to respect Pukhtunwali and abide by it, otherwise shame will be brought upon himself and his family members and worst of all, he is also likely to be banished or excommunicated. The code of Pukhtunwali requires an Afghan to defend his motherland, to grant asylum (ninawati) to fugitives irrespective of their creed or caste, to offer hospitality even to his deadly enemy, and to wipe out insult with insult. The following story I have read in multiple sources and best describes the true power and conviction an Afghani holds to Pukhtunwali (in this specific case, ninawati: to grant asylum). “It is related that once a gang of robbers attacked a village. The villagers, both men and women, went out to defend their hearth and home, with the exception of an old woman, who could not take part in the conflict due to her advanced age. Standing at the doorway of her cottage, she was watching the scene impatiently, while two of her sons were taking active part in fighting. After a long and contested battle, the robbers were defeated and forced to take to their heels. But two of them, finding their way barred, took shelter in the house of the old woman. They were hotly pursued by the villagers. On reaching the old woman’s house, they were surprised to see her raising her hands and trying to stop the pursuers from entering the house. One of the villagers, approaching her, said, ‘Mother, what are you are doing? Get out of our way. Don’t you know that these two men are responsible for the death of your two sons?’ The woman replied proudly, ‘That may be so, but they have come ninawati to my house, and I cannot see anyone laying his hands on them so long as they are under my roof.’” On top of the code of Pukhtunwali, there is a very ancient and useful Afghan institution entitled, Jirgah, a tribal assembly. Whenever the government ceased to function, it was the Jirga that could maintain peace and order. It had to perform the three-fold duties of police, magistracy and justice. In cases of national emergency, it could mobilize a force to defend a village. Cases of breach of contracts, disputes about boundaries, distribution of water, claims to lands and pastures and infringement of customs, grant or inheritance were all within the jurisdiction of the Jirgah. Meetings of the Jirgah were held only when needed and members were elected by the whole body of the villagers, mostly from among the elderly persons of experience, knowledge and character. There were no pleaders and no records kept. Even the Afghan government convenes it in times of national emergency giving it the name of Loya Jirgah, grand assembly. The last assembly (that I could find) was held in September 1964, to discuss and approve the draft Constitution. I know a majority of you are thinking to yourselves that I am either one, making this up, or two even though there is a possibility these strange codes exist, nobody would adhere to them. At first, I questioned the concept of ninawati also, but after receiving the hospitality of Afghanis and talking to them about ninawati, my opinion changed. Although Afghans paradoxically employ the eye for eye mentality (they do not forgive and forget) they will still protect you under their household even if they must get revenge against you (although do not step outside their house as you are no longer under their protection then). As you can see, even Afghanis can find loopholes. As I explained earlier in my updates, I have detail weeks which require me to guard local nationals and therefore get a limited idea of their perspectives. Every guard duty I have, the Afghanis offer me to eat with them. They generally prepare Nan (unleavened bread), and Pilau (spiced rice soup occasionally containing beef). Although it is rude to refuse their offer, I generally do because they are not the most sanitary people. On one occasion I decided I would never get a chance to sample their food again, so I decided to try some. Besides, you need to get dysentery at least once during your visit to Afghanistan. Generally, there is two groups forming separate circles, one consisting of men and more respected people, and the second consists of women, workers and children. Because I was a guest I sat in the first circle and we were all huddled around a metal dish filled with Pilau and tore strips of Nan to use like a tortilla chip and scoop the soup. The food is surprisingly good. After eating, green tea was served as the Afghanis love to drink tea and they consume large amounts of it. There might be hesitation in your understanding of why I have only eaten Afghani food once, but after I clarify this matter I am sure you will have no doubts towards my resolution. It is Afghani custom to use their left hand in place of toilet paper and therefore abhorrent to greet or touch anyone with anything but your right hand. In fact, it is such a serious matter that getting your right hand cut off (customary to cut off the hand you stole with) or blown off is a sure death penalty because you cannot eat with your left hand (it is customary to share a bowl of Pilau with a group and unheard of to eat by yourself). Now that you have a better understanding of my reservations, it seems I have more explanations to make. The time I chose to eat was the most opportune because the site I was supervising at had hand wash stations and so I politely asked those who I was eating with to wash (shostan sabum). One of the most frequently asked questions is: what are the views of the Afghanis on Bush and American politics? It is frustrating to ask Afghanis about these subjects because the people working on the base want only to please you and say what they think you want to hear (such as Taliban bad, America good; or long live Bush). Now, I am not saying these are things I do not want to hear, but I would merely like to hear their true viewpoint on these matters. I appreciate those of you who have written concerned about my political suasions, but as I said before I am fed up with the crap I here from both sides so please do not analyze the minutiae of my statements thinking I am some sort of Pinko. Sorry for that outburst, but I don’t feel that I should have to analyze my own writing worried about how someone is going to interpret what I have said. Moving on, I also was asked if I am able to leave base on my time off and visit the local city. As this is still considered a war zone, I cannot leave the base and in fact have to walk around with my M-16 if I want to walk the perimeter of the base. I do get to see Kabul if I take a Blackhawk medevac flight, but that also limits me to an aerial view. The pictures I have sent of the people in Kabul city are taken by friends who went on humanitarian missions inside of Kabul. In closing, thank you once again for your emails and questions, always greatly appreciated. Please do not be deterred to write because of my earlier statement, I merely meant to explain that I am not making an attempt at political rhetoric. That wraps it up for this week. I will keep answering questions week by week, so if I do not answer your questions this week, please have patience with me. Until next week…. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak Picture one: This is the air forces attempt at humor. The sign is located at the flight line entrance. Picture two: These are some of the german special forces members. They usually come into surgery to visit and learn medicine (the friendship between the O.R. and the German SF came about because we took care of some of their team members who's bus was bombed) Picture three: This is a frontview of our hospital to give you a little idea the difference between our tents and the tents you have seen on M.A.S.H. I am getting frustrated with the slowness of the internet so I will send the pictures later. Sorry. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 14th, 2003
2:03 am	weekly surgicals Please note that the following pictures are pretty graphic. This is a picture of a local national who was bit on the chest by a spider and was infected via the spider. He contracted necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease) but because he waited two weeks before coming to our hospital there were few options but to keep resecting the dead tissue and muscle from the infection daily. Unfortunately this bite spread quickly (as NF always does) and the patient died within a week of him coming to our hospital. ( Read more... ) Another land mine blast victim. Patient ended up having an above the knee amputation. ( Read more... ) This is a child burn victim we had received early on. We believe that the child somehow fell into a vat of boiling milk. Very sad case as the child died within days. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
2:00 am	weekly pictures Here is a picture of a typical Afghani mudhouse (taken right outside the gates of the base). This is a nice aerial picture of the Taskforce 44 Med compound (medical compound). Here is a shot taken right as the engineers set off a pile of unexploded ordinance (mainly land mines removed from around the base)--and yes this was a planned event. One note before I go that I did not get a chance to add in last night is a big thank you to all the teachers who are posting the weekly updates and pictures for there students to see. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 13th, 2003
1:58 am	weekly email Greetings from Afghanistan, I generally like to write my email updates on Sunday nights so that you all are able to receive them Sunday afternoon, but last night I was invited to the United Arab Emirates compound for dinner and to visit. That was an interesting experience on which I will elaborate later. Last week showed a boom in questions and emails, thank you for that, and so I have a lot of ground to cover in this email. One item I would like to clear up is a mistake I had made early on in my weekly updates. I mentioned in one of my first emails that the nomadic Afghanis are called Povindah, but in fact the true name, Kochi, escaped me until this past week. The reason I make a big deal out of what seems minutia is that Povindah is a title meaning “free to roam” that British gave to the Kochis when they occupied the country. The Kochis are very proud and independent people and they did not like the fact that the British believed they were giving the Kochis the right to roam Afghanistan and bordering countries. I might as well continue on with this subject since I have already started to explain the nomadic Afghanis. Many of the following descriptions of the Kochis are from various sources as I have not had the chance to encounter the Kochis personally. The colorful Kochis furnish an interesting study as they have succeeded in preserving their ancestral culture and heritage to a great extent even to this day. Kochis have no fixed habitat and travel as far as bordering countries during their yearly treks. The Kochi generally live in tents—ghizhdi- made of extended lattice work, covered with black felt manufactured from wool, and can easily be taken down, folded and carried on the backs of camels and ponies. Life is chiefly dependent on the rearing of herds of camels, horses, cattle, sheep and goats. The flocks and herds are driven back and forth between the lowland and highland pastures, over routes which they and their ancestors have followed for centuries. In doing so, they generally cross international boundary lines, but it is often without objection on the parts of governments concerned. The carious tribes wander in definite areas, recognized as their special reserves but all seek higher districts in the middle of summer to avoid the heat and pests of the plains and return to lower levels for the winter. To me, the most amazing fact about the Kochis is that they even pervaded Taliban control and some antiquated Afghani social customs that restricts women’s rights. Along with the caravan walk the stalwart Kochi women, contemptuous of veil, and swinging along blithely on camels’ back or on foot, “beautiful and ethereal”. Some of them are “black-eyed and olive skinned with black hair, others are fair and blue-eyed with golden or red hair”. The reason for such a variation in skin and hair color is because the Kochis travel across Afghanistan’s borders where there is quite a dichotomy of cultures who want to be assimilated into the proud tradition and life of the Kochis. Kochi women often look down upon Afghanistan women who usually play a subservient role to men. The strong willed Kochi women share an equal status as men, although it is a rather simplistic life that the tribe shares. The number of these proud nomads has significantly dwindled due to border control, construction of dams and creation of new acreage. Even though there are still two million Kochis wandering Afghanistan, population of ten million, the latter reasons create a strong inducement to the wandering tribes to adopt a more settled mode of life; turning aristocratic nomads into pitifully limited farmers or factory workers, shorn of their traditions and carefree life. When I went to the UAE compound my group started with dinner that consisted of fruits, spicy seafood, hummus, and egg rolls. The food was excellent and the people were great hosts as they visited with us during dinner. After dinner the commander took my group to a common room furnished with Arab couches which seemed to be nothing more than comfortable cushions (meaning no framework, simply cushions). We were instructed to remove our shoes and to not to sit with our heels pointing towards anyone else, as that is a rude gesture to Arabs. As everyone settled, the commander proceeded to show us a video on the UAE. Speaking for everyone in the group, we were amazed at the drastic change of the country in only thirty years. The country started out as a seemingly barren desert with sparsely populated cities and boomed into a metropolis resembling Las Vegas (without the gambling). During the video, we were presented with three different types of tea that the Arabs enjoy after a meal. Actually, the first was an orange-coffee, the second was a tea with milk, and the third was a sweet tea. After the video, most of the group left, but I chose to stay and learn more about the country from the commander, as I have come to the realization that learning first hand is going to provide for the most accurate description. Unfortunately my learning process was curbed by a Rabbi in our group, who to say most politely, did not display the best conversational manners or tactics. The UAE supports the Palestinians and of course the Rabbi wanted to hear a first hand explanation of why they do. As most political and religious conversational combos become quite heated, this had to be the ultimate as the two arguing sides technically had a claim to the heritage they were arguing for. Fortunately, the commander retained his hostly civility and the conversation did not get overly brutal. I will say that I did learn interesting viewpoints about both sides, but would have felt more comfortable if the comments were kept a little more on the civil side. Regardless, as I took my leave, the commander thanked me for the conversation we had before the “discussion” he and the Rabbi held, and I believe that was an experience I will never forget. Finally, on to the question format of the email of which I will only post the answer and let you infer the question. First and foremost my daily routine does not change from working in surgery often. I work a 12 hour shift and approximately once a week I am on call for trauma surgery during the night. About once every month I have a detail week that consists of guarding the hospital gate, watching the local nationals that work on the base and some various other Army duties that only seem to interfere with medical care. Watching the Afghanis has taught me a lot about the people and culture. There is no true official language of Afghanistan and so the language spoken around Kabul and northern Afghanistan is a Dari / Farsi mixture. The biggest problem I have had in learning the language is the fact that so many Afghanis are illiterate (75 percent) and so when I learn to speak Dari from someone uneducated and speak to an Afghani who has attended college, I am often corrected on my pronunciation and word usage. Interesting side note though, I was actually teaching an educated Afghani the intricacies of prepositional phrasing as predication is a hard concept for them to grasp. Well, I hate to end so abruptly, but there are a couple surgeries coming in soon, so I will send pictures tomorrow as it is going on midnight here. Thank you for all your questions and emails, I will answer a lot more questions next week and try to go more in depth. God Bless, Matthew Sajdak (Comment on this)