Yesterday and today initiated culture immersion. We will be in the area dominated by the Tajiks who speak Dari, a version of Persian similar to the Iranian Farsi. Last night, we were bussed to a tent-city FOB (forward operating base) to meet with 2 Afghans acting as commander and executive officer of an Afghan army brigade. We used an interpreter ("terp") to get used to interacting with our counterparts. The emphasis was on the Afghan culture preference for building friendly relationships before getting to business. We did a second visit this morning and will continue several more times. We also started 42 hours of language training in Dari, including learning the written language of 33 characters.
We also assembled and installed our machine guns on the Humvees in preparation for mock convoys starting soon. We will get ambushed by paint balls and have fake IEDs blow up when we convoy to train us in avoidance and proper responses. Our visits with the Afghans yesterday informed us that Herat (our destination) is actually the most peaceful, modern and liberal city in Afghanistan. Further, we will be flown there and expect very little travel outside of our base, if at all. So, the training is a good idea but we don't expect to use our convoy training.
2 comments:
Finally got a chance to read your blog (such pages are blocked at work). It's encouraging to see that Terps play a prominent role in your training!
BTW, I recall encountering Afghan refugees while in Pakistan (was it really 26 years ago?!?) in the wake of the Soviet invasion. Pashtu/Pashto is spoken by many on both sides of that border. As we broke out our cameras, the men came over to discourage us - until our missionary companion explained we wanted photos of the boys swimming in the water hole, not of their women!
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