Marilyn,

I will get something fun for the kids as well as something hygiene related BUT not toothpaste/brushes since that seems taken care of and ship on Saturday. 5/3

diane

iwojimaseabee:

He told me that he did not even sell over the limit to a nun to which I screamed' "Well, wait till you have to answer to her boss"!! stormed out of there without the little Christmas tree dishes, I went home and wrote a letter to the President of this well know drugstore chain which begins with a " W".. shortly I recieved a letter and a phone call asking me to return to the same store where the manager then GAVE me the items no charge..JUSTICE but more importantly, the right thing to do. I can't help but think that me photo is all over this store's list of " watch out for this one, she stands up for her cause!"

diane

Oh, this is priceless!  I love it!  HAH!  You go, girl!   What a great story!

And, thanks for sending things for their health fair, too!  I agree -- Jen's got the toothpaste/toothbrush arena covered (thanks, Jen!) 

--Marilyn

Hey! Did y'all see LCDR Pethel posted a really nice thanx in the "introduce yourself" page?!?!?!

http://forum.anysoldier.com/forums/t/547.aspx?PageIndex=40

inkydigits:

...can you please ask LDCR Pethel if there are any other items he could use for the health fair and post it here?

Hi all,

I've been in contact with the nurse who is putting on the Health Fair, and she told me the thing they need the most right now is kids' clothing and shoes, any size or gender, because there are so many kids. She said if there's anything left over after the Health Fair they will take it to local orphanages.

Thanks for sharing that info Jenifer.... I will be on the look out for deals on kids shoes and clothing. Might not have them to ship out in time for the Health Fair, but I suppose they can use them to hand out at the orphanage.

Picked up the toothpaste today. Safeway was kind enough to donate a case to the cause.

Jen

Great work Jen for the toothpast deal. I sent a bunch of combs and a huge bag of hair elastics/twistie things perfect the little girls and other assorted items that will come in handy.

Oh, boy!  This is terrific!

Jen -- great news on the toothpaste -- You go, girl! --

Iwo -- the little girls will LOVE those hair thingies

I've got two more boxes of stuffed animals donated from my friends on the way (shipped today)

YEAY!

--Marilyn

I was just about to ask the store manager if he would be willing to make a small donation of a few tubes and he put a case in my cart with a receipt attached to it and told me that they were supporting the cause. Grins.

Iwo...you just reminded me that I bought some of those little hair brush sets the other day. Now, I am wondering where I put them.

Will get the stuff out to the post office on Monday.

Thanks everyone!

Greetings All!

    I'm still learning the forum ways to send emails and apologize if this "blast" to everyone should go somewhere else. I read the threads and it's great seeing an army of supporters behind the lines. It's Sunday morning and we're at it already - day is packed full of meetings - first one with the Afghan General - a huge Jabba the hut fella with a moustache like the former Sadaam Hussein. He doesn't need a watch and can talk paint into drying on the wall. Pictures coming of him!!! And he's in charge!! I missed the parade but will capture if on video next week. I may have described it in the past,but if not, here's a quick synopis: in front of the gathering are the Commando's - the best trained Afghans (and they are proud) - they wear red berets and have a commando patch on their left sleeve. Behind them are the "normal" soldiers - and they have a hell of a time marching. Directly behind the normal soldiers is the band - and they make Lawrence Welk's band look like Mozart's. So, the band will start playing a dittie and then the formation starts marching. Being the best, the Commando's start "trotting" which completely confuses the normal soldiers. They too start trotting, which turns into a full running stride. The band is "supposed" to keep the beat, but when they see everyone running, they play faster. It's comical and something I'd expect to see on the television, u once they knew we'd be laughing at them, it'd probably piss them off. I've seen this several times and they just cannot get it right. There are more than one ways to do something and the Afghans will do it and leave you scratching your head and laughing silently.

We are getting busier. Counter-narcotics, counter-insurgency, humanitarian, village medical outreach. In a perfect world, we could do the humanitarian and medical outreach unharmed....but the first two (counter narco and counter-insurgency) always have a large group of non-supporters. We lost a few Canadians and Brits last week trying to do good for people who really need it. My prayer (not answered yet) is that the majority of the Afghans wake up and decide to make this place better and not wait for the US and Coalition to take the lead.

MaryJo's hopsital children's fair is pretty much for the Afghan children. They need clothes, shoes, toys....yardsale and thrift store items. About 98% of the kids I've seen didn't have shoes. I'm starting to think shoes are made in Afghanistan. I tried to walk across the gravel area from my hootch to the restroom an it was worse than walking on a bed of hit coals. Making it, my point was proved that these kids really do have a rough existence. Something like shoes would really make a difference. My feet were scorched from the blazing hot rocks and the sharp rocks left their mark on my soles. Next time, flip flops on any rocks!!!!

Thanks again for your support!

very respectfully,

LCDR John Pethel

john.m.pethel@afghan.swa.army.mil

Hi, Junkies -- LCDR John Pethel posted today (5/14/08).  Poor man has been under the weather (thought supporters would want to know).  He STILL manages to write a really funny post -- What a guy!

--Marilyn

I bought some Ben-Gay today to send.  I think that I may buy some pepto bismol tablets and a get well card too...   :-)  Hope that you feel better soon LCDR Pethel!

Aww,  poor guy.  :(    I've really enjoyed reading those posts.  He paints such a vivid picture and the story of that salty old sgt made me laugh,  which when you're alone at the computer even makes the dog look at you strangely.

 
Glad you're feeling better,  LCDR Pethel.  Thanks so much for your insightful and enjoyable posts.
 

I'm feeling way better- back to my "old" self now! But, this stomach flu is running through the FOB and just when you least expect it, you go down. We've got some folks on travel and got sick while on travel. That's got to be the worst - living out of a rucksack, in a room that has cots in it, very little air conditioning....just want to crawl into a ball and lay down. It's the worst feeling and my heart goes out to those traveling when this hits.

The weather here reminds me of Virginia Beach a few years ago. We went from a winter to a full summer - skipped spring. Well, it appears to have been the same here. I know there was a sloght spring, but it didn't last long. It's cool inthe morning and nights, but the temps scream in the red during the day. Dehydration is rough and those that are sick are having a hell of a time with drinking water. We've got pallets of bottled water spread around the FOB for everyone to drink - and I'm staying hydrated!!!

Just a few more days until the Children's Health fair. Most of my soldiers are talking about it and it seems, here in Kandahar, to be bigger than the Led Zeppelin reunion concert. We're sorting donations and will move everything via truck from the staging area to the hospital sometime Thursday morning. We're aiming for a 0900 start on Thursday and I hope people show up like they've indicated. That's the funny thing - these guys forget things so easily - like they've got selective amnesia.

The saga of Tim Bergeron and I continues. The other night we convoyed to pick up one of his guys (mentee) and when we approached the security checkpoint, the rocket sirens went off! We saw the back end of something flying and then it was followed by some red flares. Tim looked at me and said "here we go again" and we drove both looking up in the sky with eyes wide open. I'm not sure where the rockets landed, but we were safe. After picking up his mentee, we drove him to his house - a deserted run down looking project apartment building with no lights. The armed guard there scared the crap out of us - and thankfully we had an interpreter. I'd like to go back in the daytime to see the apartments - they appeared to be decrepit with the concrete roofs in certain places bombed out from the day when Osama bin Laden was a former tenant. But, people live in this!! Our engineers would condemn this and you'd not see one person living here, much less walking around the hazards. But welcome to Afghanistan - a place where nothing gets done unless the United States or the Coalition does it. Unbelieveable.

Cheers to all! Thanks for your continued support!!

John Pethel 

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Always enjoy reading your posts. Good luck with the health fair next week...I know some of us Junkies would love to be there to lend a hand!!!

Take care and keep safe.

Jen 

So good to hear you're feeling better.  The health fair sounds like it will be awesome! 

Stay safe!

Marilyn