Another Week

As another week closes and another begins I once again find myself typing another email.  When I first sit down I typically think that nothing noteworthy happened during the week but after thinking about it a while I remember little stories or insights I had that helped my perspective. 

This past week I talked to several family members at home that asked me how I feel about our being here in Afghanistan and if I thought that we were doing any good.  I have been asked that a lot.  It is a difficult question without a straight-forward answer.  My personal opinion is that yes, we are doing good here.  I believe that fundamentally our goal as the United States of America is to improve the lives of those we help.  Throughout history, with the possible exceptions of the Revolutionary War and our response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we have fought for the freedom of others. Despite incomprehensible costs measured in dollars and lives we have entered the fray to stop tyranny, slavery, genocide, and oppression of all kinds.  Many will say that the US only sticks its nose in other countries’ business if we stand to benefit from the outcome but while to a small degree this may be true for the most part we fight for the defenseless and come to the aid of those who are unable to help themselves.  Particularly for those of us with boots on the ground there is no other motivation than to offer up all that we have and are capable of giving.

I believe that many of the people here want the freedoms that they hear about but could not imagine how democracy would work in a land so steeped in tradition.  We have put a lot of effort into training the Afghan National Army and police forces but have seen that when left to themselves these forces abuses their power and become something like a mafia, supporting those who pad their pockets, walking through markets taking what they want and threatening or in some cases shooting those that oppose them.  I don’t know what the right answers are.  I have seen individual lives changed dramatically for the better through our presence here but when it comes to effecting lasting change in this country I am not sure that is a prize we can win.  There are many reasons why I say that.  The lack of education and natural resources make it incredibly difficult to set up any kind of stable infrastructure.  There isn’t any oil. The land is arid and mountainous.  For hundreds of years the only cash crop they have had success with is the opium poppy which is purchased primarily by those that support the terrorist cause with the money they make. 

The people generally are good-hearted and kind.  They are satisfied with so little of what the world offers.  Their existence is about daily survival.  Death is something with which each person is intimately acquainted.   Their lives are so tenuous and fragile that they have no extra energy to pursue democracy.  Many of the local village leaders have reported how much better their lives have been since we arrived but they have also said, “But you will leave us and then it will go back to the way it was before.”  Afghanistan has a long history if occupation and abandonment, its people have little confidence in the world’s concern for them.    So while I think we are going good, we are making things better and safer, we will eventually leave and when we do the rats come out of their hidey-holes and the infestation begins again.  A few armed men can easily take over a village of hundreds of unarmed simple farmers.  Many will be slaughtered for accepting help from or supporting the United States.  It is the way things work around here and the way it has been for thousands of years, I don’t think our 14 or 15 years in the area is going to fix that. 

That being said let me move on to some of the events of the week.  With all of the flooding recently the septic tanks in the dorms backed up flooding the ground floor with raw smelly sewage.  When the dorms were designed the male dorms in an act of chivalry were placed on the second floor so they would take the worst of a rocket blast were it to take a direct hit.  However, being on the second floor has had its advantages this week!  On Tuesday we had a couple of traumas come in.  The guys looked pretty good externally, some minor cuts and bruises.  Their MRAP had been blasted by a roadside bomb.  The vehicle took most of the damage but the blast wave obliterated the jaw of one of the soldiers who must have clenched his teeth as the bomb went off.  The other soldier had a burst fracture in his low thoracic spine from the incredible upward force of the blast.  He is paralyzed from the waist down.  The next day we got two more trauma patients that were attached with a vehicle born IED.  They were both in the local police station when they saw a vehicle coming straight for them.  One guy was at the window when it exploded and got a face full of glass which penetrated both of his eyes, blinding him.  Another man was on the second floor and when he saw the vehicle he jumped out of a second story window landing on his left leg.  He also broke his back and is paralyzed. 

Aside from the trauma we have seen, I had an active duty kid come in with half a chicken breast stuck in his esophagus.  He said he could feel it there but it just wouldn’t go down.  One of the GI docs took a scope and ran it down there to take a look.  Sure enough there was a half chewed chicken breast just sitting there.  He had to pull it out a tiny piece at a time.  It was pretty disgusting.  The moral of that story is to chew your food. 

Today at church we were talking about Noah and living in the world without being of the world.  I was reminded of an analogy that a former stake president had made using the instructions the Lord gave Noah on how to prepare the ark. After the ark was built the Lord commanded Noah to cover the outside and inside with pitch (tar).  This would seal the wood ensuring that the water would not be in direct contact with the wood.   Wood, no matter how strong, when soaked in water becomes soft and easily warped.  The ark had to be able to be surrounded by water and to be able to withstand the effects of the water on the wood.  The pitch served as a protective barrier sealing all of the cracks so that the boat could survive unharmed in the watery environment.  We, like the ark, have to live in the world floating amid the filth, vulgarity, immorality, evil and hate that it generates.  If we are sealed up we can navigate the waters of life unchanged by the buffeting waves of worldly water.  However, if we allow the cracks to let the water in, our strength begins to fail and little by little we become warped by the influences of our surroundings.  This process can be almost imperceptibly slow. Like the Trojan Horse that finds its way inside the heart of the city, the influences of the world that make their way through the unsealed cracks can have catastrophic effects upon our eternal progress.  To seal ourselves His we must do those small and simple things that day to day seem so insignificant but when accumulated over a lifetime form a thick protective coating from the influences of the adversary.  Temple attendance, Sabbath observance, Family Home Evening, Home and Visiting Teaching, meaningful personal and family prayer, personal scripture study, and service are the things that together keep us on the straight and narrow path and pressing forward toward Christ.  It isn’t rocket science, as Alma said,

O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. Alma 37:46

I hope that your week ahead is full of light and that you enjoy your life and view each day as a precious gift from God.  I love you!