K called me last night. He's doing well. He's enjoying doing humanitarian aid. He's really enjoying it, I think. He said that he has his soldiers greet the Afghani people by saying hello in their language. He said a lot of Afghanis, though, are learning English, so they often respond with, "Hello, how are you?"
He said there were women there who handmade these blankets and sold them for $10 each. He bought two, and he said all his soldiers bought at least two apiece. They really try to interact with the Afghani people, and they find out the things they need to take care of that. He said that they often wind up buying things from them because they sell things for so cheap. K said that all those things together -- saying hello in their language, helping them out, buying things from the Afghanis -- shows that the soldiers are there to help and it keeps them from appearing to just walk in carring guns. K said they do have their guns with them, of course, but they're not pointing them or being aggressive toward the locals or anything.
He said they still don't know when they'll get to come home. The date they're supposed to find out keeps getting pushed back, ironically enough. But K's first group of soldiers on R&R are back in the states. That's good. He said they really needed a break. I'd imagine so, since they've been there since last February.
K said one day when they were walking around the town helping out, this little Afghani girl ran up to him and -- in clear, good English -- said, "I love you!" He said he just laughed and asked her, "What did you just say?" He said the little girl giggled and ran away.
I don't know about you, but it makes me feel really good knowing that the future of Afghanistan has such good taste. :)
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