An Eid Party - and a Turkey

On the second last day of Eid-al Adha (Big Eid) our Afghan colleauges, who had been on holiday for a few days, surprised up with a little reception at our office. Eid-al-Adha is one of the major celebrations in the Muslim calendar and many people travel home to see family. It occurs one month after the end of Ramadan and commemorates God sparing Abraham's son when his father offered him as a sacrifice. People buy new clothes and have a big dinner for which a sheep is usually sacrificed. There were thousands of sheep in Kandahar City just before Eid, brought in for the feasts. We had a skeleton crew on at the Operations Centre and were expecting everyone back after the Friday holiday. We were invited into the small conference room and to our surprise quite a spread was laid out for us. There were the usual meeting nibblies: raisins, almonds, and toasted chick peas, but there were also great soft cookies that had a bird imprinted on them and what the Italians call confetti - sugar coated almonds.

We all sat down after admiring the spread, and the senior Afghan present, Colonel Juma Khan (in the blue Police uniform) told us the story of Eid. We drank gallons of unsweetend tea (no milk either) and munched appreciatively on the food. I have gotten used to drinking black tea and only using my right hand to eat in the presence of Muslims so we tried some of everything. The officers in this picture are both Colonels, Juma Khan, and Saboor Khan (he's in the Army) and they make abot $600 a month. The food they purchased is less expensive than we would pay in Canada, but it was an expense for them so we had to sample everything, and drink lots of tea. We plan on returning the hospitality with a BBQ in the near future. It is very important to reciprocate social events as it shows your appreciation in a concrete way - with food!

As I said in my Kandahar post it was a very peaceful Eid in our part of Afghanistan this year, the most peaceful in eight years. This was likely due to the major operations that occurred in the late summer and fall. Thousands of police and soldiers have been in the city providing security. Things still happen, and it's not Canada-peaceful, but there are signs that the insurgents are on the back foot.

Just after Eid, American Thanksgiving was celebrated. It was a big deal here as 80% of the troops on the ground in the South are now American, and in my group with 10th Mountain Div it's more like 90%.

The main meal was held at lunch and the cooks went all out to make it festive for the US troops. They had real turkey and stuffing and all the traditional fixings. I was in a big briefing going on at the Afghan Corps HQ (you can see me in the picture to the right of the Afghan in the leather coat). We had lunch with our Afghan hosts so I had Palau rice and meatballs for lunch - my new US Thanksgiving tradition I think! We sat at long tables and served from huge platters that were passed around. There was fresh Nan bread too, although saying Nan bread is a bit redundant as nan is the word for bread in Dari. I got back to our base around 2000 hrs that night and went to the mess for some soup and a sandwich. I was in time to catch the cooks celebrating their culinary triumph.