This little bubba is the son of Wahid who is one of our drivers.  His name is Mansoo.  As you can see from the pics, he's a lively little dude.

The Chapel receives donations and care packages from the States on a fairly frequent basis.  Since I have fairly frequent interactions with local Afghans, I always scour the donations for toys to give to local kids.  A few days back, Wahid showed me pics of his son.  I happened to stop by the Chapel and found some toys that night.  So I picked them up and the next morning gave them to Wahid for his boy.  The next day, Wahid brought his son into work.  He wanted Mansoo to meet me and say Tashakor for the gifts.  It was a nice gesture and typical of Afghan hospitality and sense of honor and gratitude.  I told him it was totally unnecessary but was touched by the gesture nonetheless.  Wahid also brought me a huge bag of pecans and peanuts.  I'm talking HUGE.  Wahid and a few guys from my team were outside watching Mansoo when I pulled up to our Camp Zafar office.  I walked up and Wahid brought Mansoo over to introduce us.  I started laughing and picked the boy up which, of course, scared the hell out of him.  I laugh like Satan.  lolLuckily, a few weeks back NewYorkd from this website had sent me a box full of toys and balloons.  I'd given most of the toys away but still had a few packs of balloons left.  So I drove back to my hooch to retrieve some balloons for Mansoo so he'd have something with which to play while he was with his Babajan (Father) at work. Of course, this thrilled him.  I blew one up for him and being of thin construction, the moment it hit the rocks--POP!  So I pulled out a couple more balloons and asked him which color he liked.  He picked the green one first.  I blew it up for him and he took the orange one and handed it to Mike (a co-worker) and ordered; "POOF POOF!  POOF POOF!"  We all laughed and Mike obeyed Mansoo's command. Mansoo looks a little like G Dubya here...lol

Shoaib and Mansoo laughing it up. Uncle Mahrouf with Mansoo being shy and Babajan (Wahid)    Thanks to NewYorkd for sending the toys.  You made quite a few little bubbas and bubbettes happy.  It's always nice to share a smile with a kid and see them play happily.  It's extra nice when you've helped in some small way.

  Balloons and crazy string...what's a boy to do???

cool journal...

Sorry about the pics. Had to go back and edit to fix them...

cute face.

thx again for the pictures Dave -- it's really cool that you share what you see there )

p.s. R U shur that little lil bubba doesn't post on TF -- he's pointing a finger at you...lol.. just kidding -- my man..

I love to see kids smile...very cute kid btw...

Nice journal baby ,, hes cute bubbas. love you

Thanks go to you Dave for bringing peace and smiles to your corner of the world.

Nice going Dave ( and nY too)!

making a difference big or small -who is to say what the returns will be...

but you got to try first...thanks for trying!

Another great journal Dave - Love seeing this other side of the Stan - where normal people are getting on with normal lives in what is still, to many extents, an abnormal situation.

How about some pics of the fortress? Want to see where the Khan let one guy walk away from

As soon as I get there, I'll post them. About to go away for a bit. If I get manifested for the flight.

BTW way Dave

Any chance we could get "W" over there to help out?

I think he should spend some time in country --with what he wrought!

-----besides there is his promise , unfulfilled ( name of Ossama comes to mind)

bet there's some Cammeys that would fit him?

in the word of Jason Robards in "Once upon a Time in the West" --

"Harmonica, you can play but can you shoot?"

Be careful out there!