Notebook entry
Eight reports given, I am the anti-tribe, Munir flirting, executive
officer wall and stage.
Journal entry
Today was a day to remember.
It started out like any other day, some weird dream about a mouse
infestation, normal routine, normal run, normal 3S. But this day was extrodinary.
When I came back from the shower, a wet back against my backpack, I
stepped into the COC. It went to the
desk to fish my two CLIF bars out for breakfast. I turned around and looked at the nametapes
of the Marines congregated in the center of the COC. Lt Siegel, my savior, was there.
He was shorter than me and excitedly grasped my hand when I said “Capt
Scott Shane”
I think I was gladder to see him than he was to see me though.
It seemed familiar. I was in
his shoes not long ago. He is eager to
do the things that he has been trained to do.
Before we really had a chance to meet I met with the literacy
instructors and talked to them about class attendance. They had offered up their classroom for
recoilless rifle training (rockets). I
asked Shafiullah what the deal was and I got “wazi fai ma n’est” its not my
job. “If the students don’t show up,
then what am I supposed to do?” I could
tell him what he is not supposed to do.
Be sleeping during class time, like I found him.
We gave them a series of classes in the morning on all of the
reports that they will be expected to submit. I covered my piece of the pie,
the literacy instructors, Data Transfer Agent, Foreign Disclosure
representative, the attendance program, the command chronology.
We went on a walkabout with the new guys, showing them all of the
buildings in progress. The Gunny piped
up at several spots throughout the tour which elicited, askance views from Capt
Nowak and the others, “how do you know how far the run is around the
camp?” “I got it off of a Facebook post”
was his quick reply. The LtCol told me
that the new team was wowed by my Dari.
After that Lt Siegel was all mine.
I barraged him with information until the 1815 meeting. Even when I did the class with Munir I was
really teaching him. When I told him
that the next class was going to be his he was happy. When I woke Munir up, and asked why he was
sleeping while he said he was on duty, Lt
Siegel seemed a little taken aback. The
guy has a good perspective. He knows
that these guys are the way out, but he doesn’t really understand the people
yet. He understands what he reads in
the newspapers about what is happening in Kabul, but he doesn’t yet understand
that this is not a country, but merely the place where all of the other
countries end. He took my pointed advice
as dissatisfaction with my job. I didn’t
intend for it to come off like that. I
was trying to tell him what makes these guys tick, what they want. Ultimately, he will have no command authority
over them, merely influence, and the only way to really secure that influence
is by appealing to their desires. Not
what they expect from him (to give them stuff).
But to their desires. He still
thinks like an American, and he thinks like a Marine (he wanted to know who
wasn’t gay on the Afghan camp—I had to tell him that despite them having sex
with each other I don’t think many of them were gay, they just don’t treat
women well, ever see them, so they’ve got to have a sexual outlet). Inside of every one of them is a Marine,
buried deep down, or so he thinks. I
feel kind of bad because he seems crestfallen, maybe he will just think I am a
nut until he learns it for himself, but maybe that will take many wasted
months.
A couple of things occurred to me today.
First was about me. I think
I am the anti-tribe. It’s not that I
don’t have the urge to join a tribe, be it of a political type, or another
type. I have the same urges as everyone else.
The difference is that I am very reluctant to give up my own judgment
about things. To the group, any group.
Perhaps this is why I am such a slave to my routine. Because it allows me to offload a lot of the
thinking about daily actions that most people depend on cues from others to
obtain, there is no carpooling to breakfast, no deviating from lunch for me. I’ll just run there myself, and walk
back. I think I am afraid of tribes
because they will make me more stupid.
There is nothing wrong with a collection of people who believe the same
things that I do, but I don’t want to believe the same things that others do
merely because I belong to a section of people.
Its not that I’m not a member of a tribe, it’s that I am anti-tribe.
The other thing that occurred to me recently and I don’t know if I
mentioned it was that Munir has been trying to flirt with me. Every time that I get upset with him he kind
of lowers his head, looks up at me through long lashes, gives me a creeping
smile and says nothing. It’s the kind of
wry look that a boy gives a girl when he is being coy. I think this is because he has always been
able to use his good looks to flirt his way out of trouble with other men. At first I thought it was just his way, but
now I think I see more.
The other things to note are that the XO is now finished with his
giant wall around his container, and that he has a stage built for himself
now. It is made out of a couple of the
old pallets that we were going to use to boost the tents, I pounded the damn
thing together myself when it was being used as a port-a-john shade, and anyone
to stands on it is taking his life in his own hands.
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| Handover Briefings with the new guys |
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