Jackals

My father took offense to my statement that he had lost the first poem I wrote while out here so he had my mother go and find it. So here it is...such as it is...

Jackals

The snow capped off
the route to our Valley
and kept the bandits and Jackals at bay
--- til Spring

A crater forced into the earth - with an
unnatural body
We felt the wave - shock
shaken - miles away
but the snow capped off the
valley
and kept the Jackals at bay

- N. Christensen, Dec 2013

A Wanderers Place

This is my second poem written since coming here. The first was written on a scrape of paper after I heard the first gunshots coming from the Hills the first month I was here. We found out later ANSF forces were clearing the area. Suffice it to say, I was nervous and the poem was about keeping jackals at bay. The first thought that came into my head was the thought of wolves coming down from the hills and surrounding us. I sent the poem in a letter to my parents - who I believe lost it. But the memory of writing it stays with me.

This poem was written during a rehearsal for a brief. My mind wanderered and I thought again of the hill surrounding our area...and the people who live there. The nomads and all I know of them from living near yet apart from them...


A Wanderers Place

they say, Gypsies live in the hills
above the valley
and set night fires to hold back the chill
their smoke signals snaking to the Stars
to spot
a Wanderers place
they say, Gypsies live in the hills who run when forced to flee
belongings strapped across backs stooped and weary
for Being unrecognized
their claim as shifting as their Nature
what greater claim to land than to know
the feel of well trod paths
and Earth on unbound feet?
to rest, to set fires
to spot
a Wanderers place

-          N. Christensen, 2013

365: Shades of Gray by Maya Banks

Let me preface this first post by saying, my resolution to read 365 means I will read 365 books – any genre and any subject. I don’t discriminate against books (don’t even get me started on the absurdity of banned books lists, etc.) That being said, the first book of the year is the last pre-ordered book to be downloaded onto my Kindle for the New Year and it is Maya Bank’s Shades of Gray (A KGI Novel). This book is apropos considering where I am, in the sense that it is a series about a private security company, KGI, who specialize in rescues and recovery. Think Seal Team any number with a romantic twist to it – with all that adrenaline from dangerous missions one needs a love story to balance it out.

The Round House (a book I cannot recommend enough), and I felt it again in a pivotal scene which takes team sniper and all around capable fighter, PJ, to a dark place of shame and rage in Shades of Gray.

But the redemptive quality is there, the ever present optimism that comes from knowing once you’ve struck through all the mire you will be alright.  The honorable choice is there as well – when able to find – and dignity – when able to bear. I would recommend this series if you’re looking for a fast paced and well structured plotline with characters that will make you wish you knew them. The storylines could be picked from the headlines but beware, even though you’ll find Maya Banks’ books under the ‘Romance’ section…she doesn’t attempt to make it pretty but she does pull out all the insecurities and strength it takes to acknowledge what you’d want in love and to fight for it. The hope at the end is in having a sense of winning a war….not a man.

Next Up: Tell Them I Built This: Transforming Schools, Communities, and Lives With Design-Based Education by Emily Pilloton.

3.6.5.

New Year’s resolutions can always be incredibly random, are often created for utterly selfish reasons, and tend to be easily forgotten within a few weeks of midnight on the 1^st. I’ve been guilty of having random, selfish, and easily forgotten resolutions in the past but as I grow older, I find myself looking for more challenging and substantive goals to resolve myself to achieve in the New Year.

This year is no different. A few days ago and I stated, randomly to be sure, that I wanted to read 365 books in 2013 as one of my resolutions. To which my coworker in Stalag 13 – a Ph D no less – replied with a cocked brow “that’s a book a day.” Yes, yes it is. One book per day and/or 7 books per week whichever manifests itself first. I don’t doubt this will be daunting as I attempt to find time within my day to make time for more reading. However, I read about 3-4 books per week as it is and like most professionals – between reading newspapers, essays, magazines, reports, and any other medium in written form I assume I already read the volume of 365 books or more in any given year.

But this isn’t a purely intellectual and fun expansion of one of my favorite hobbies for me to pursue alone. While in Afghanistan, I’ve noticed how many people – from the workers I see each day to the individuals I’ve met on my walks to those individuals I’ve heard about through the base community outreach program – do not know how to read. It has humbled me and made me literacy isn’t a right, or a given – no matter how much we’d wish it so – but a privilege.  I cannot imagine my world without books in it. I cannot imagine not being transported to the worlds within worlds I’ve been able to find in books. The rich characters, the daunting circumstances, the journeys and adventures, the tragedy and despair. My first travels were through the pages of books and from the page my imagination sprung and I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me to explore the world from a young age. But my origin was between creased and dog-eared pages. I cannot recall how many times I’ve fallen asleep reading or woken up to find myself surrounded by a multitude of books – ask any of my friend who’ve seen my bed…I sleep surrounded by books.

So beyond reading 365 books this year, I also want to engage the literacy community and donate/volunteer – I think teaching someone to read would sincerely be one of the most amazing experiences in my life. The ability to read is a gift everyone should enjoy and while I am definitely an avid reader, I’ve never committed myself to reading with such purpose or with such intended vigor. I look forward to the challenge and to finding a way to work with a literacy program. So this two-fold resolution begins today. Throughout the year, I will be chronicling the books I read, my thoughts about them, and highlighting the people along the way who have suggested the books I’m reading. Anyone reading this please feel free to share your suggestions as well. I have 365 days to go.

Happy New Years!!!!

Who gets to celebrate NYE with a falling bondage monkey (instead of a ball drop) in a metal box surrounded by compatriots - most of whom are bearded and starting to look like insurgents - and snacking on care package goodies and Red Bull as we continue to work into the wee hours of the morning which means we can countdown and celebrate the various NYE telecast celebrations from around the world (since its 1132 pm here) with multiple bondage monkey (our office mascot) drops?!?! <--- ME!!! It's ok to start the New Year jealous!! ;)

I wish I could take a picture of our mascot but alas, I’m not allowed. So imagine a monkey, with a leather collar with metal loops in it, wearing boxers with hot peppers on them, and holding a whip....yup, this is the madness I walked into upon arrival. Never a dull moment. #StanStories.

Happy New Years everyone!!!

Almost a month.

I’ve been here almost a month, here being that enviable place – Afghanistan. I say enviable with one part jest and one part truth. I’m based in a valley overlooking mountains on three sides and it is a beautiful sight to wake up to in the morning when the air is clear enough to see to the top. Enviable too because the company I am keeping among my compatriots and fellow wanderers is some of the most engaging I’ve had in a long time. My career is young, even though I’m considered a ‘mid-level’ professional now (whatever that means), and yet I’ve already seen how easy it is to become stale, complacent, and comfortable when you have all the trappings of first world life around you. Washington, DC is a refuge for the hungry, ambitious, and determined – but it is also a haven for the stale, complacent, and comfortable.  I choose to remain the former so I’m determined this will be the first of many forays into the unknown, the uncomfortable, the persistently vexing.

It has been almost a month and everyone has been asking me what it’s like out here and what I’ve been doing. The truth, it is like nowhere else I’ve ever been. You spend your life in a box and the repetition of the day can be mind-numbing or invigorating dependent upon what awaits you when you step beyond the guards and gates and flash all your badges to get to work. I spent four years in a bubble while an undergraduate so you’d think a box would be easy. However, it is infinitely more difficult to process then that. There’s a rhythm here. Perhaps it comes from working so closely with the military – with their discipline and order. But there’s also a sense of being bound by time and unbound by time. I’ve forgotten which days of the week it is, which holidays have pasted, which holidays are coming up, how many celebrations are in order to ring in the New Year. My connection to it all comes from social media, that lively invention that keeps us all connected which I’ve yet to become jaded or cynical about. I like hearing about people’s dogs and kids and daily troubles. It helps me to unwind from my day. The hyper-readiness, the waiting for bad news – no news sincerely is GOOD news; I’ve learned that here.

In the almost month I’ve been here I’ve learned the following:

1.        Completely inappropriate mascots coupled with completely appropriate mottos make for the best office spaces

2.       Sometimes riding in the middle is the best seat in the house

3.       Vaccinations are the devil in disguise

4.      An earthquake can feel like a gently rolling tide

5.       Air quality is nothing to joke about or muck around with

6.      A Polish priest is my favorite comedian

7.       There is more than one universal language

8.      Every woman needs a stabbing knife and slapping glove

I’ll get to the stories that brought about all these learning experiences – under the moniker I’ve adopted #StanStories – and more. This blog will be about many things. My time here, tracking my resolutions for the New Year, and other things that interest me along the way. Almost one month down and five more to go.

Signing off,

Coco, Nata

p.s. one more thing, the name of this blog comes from two things, a nickname of sorts a little boy I met in a hospital in Honduras years ago, who I promised never to forget, named Kennedy who couldn’t say my full name so he called me ‘Nata’ instead and a random incident that occurred between some of my best friends where we mistook ‘xoxo’ for ‘coco’ and it has stuck ever since. So when I sign off, Coco Nata….that’s its origin it means a great deal to me.