Missed Birthdays
It is almost the end of October and I have officially missed my daughter’s 18th birthday and my son’s 21st birthday – both milestones that I managed to ‘witness’ on skype. My other daughter will be 20 in December, and that too I will miss. Coupled with missing my husband’s birthday at the beginning of my deployment – and then mine in September – I guess I’m batting a thousand. Good news is that my first R&R is scheduled to start in a few days and we have decided to celebrate all our birthdays together while we are in Florida. Yup, we are off to Florida for a bit of a family vacation. A week for my husband and I alone and then a week with the kids all together. It was a hard decision to go somewhere besides home, my parents are older and I won’t be home for the Chirstmas holidays, but I really wanted all of us to have some time away from the stresses of home life and school. This way we can just relax and get to know eachother a bit again. There is no doubt I will be heading home for my next leave period – but that’s a way off!
Besides thinking about a break from serving in Afghanistan, I – and others from here in Kabul – are spending some time right now looking into how we may be able to give something to the local Afghan people. I visited a local school here this past week and was thrilled with the sight of seeing an 8 year old actually read from a book – the literacy rate here as you know is so low, much of it due to war and hostilies in Afghanistan for the last 30 years, and due to the closing of schools, especially for girls, during the Taliban regime. This young girl epitimizes to me what we are doing here – creating a safe environement where people can be free to go about their business – work, school, shopping, whatever. Coupled with that the fact that for Afghanistan to develop further, education must be a priority.
I know there is a lot of great work being done by Canadians all through this country – whether fighting the insurgents, building schools and medical facilities or mentoring and advising government and other institutions – we are a people who have a lot to offer and we are a people who believe in giving of ourselves. Which is why so many Canadians and other coaltion forces here at ISAF HQ are happy to help me with taking this school I visited to the next level. They need anything and everything – wish us luck.
It has been almost 5 months since I got here, and I can honestly say that I do see progress in this country. And I do see hope in the eyes of the people. It’s not all good, but it’s getting there.
I am looking forward to seeing my family for a few weeks and when I get back here I will almost be at my half way mark. A year is a long time, but I am feeling good about the work we are doing and the support we get from all of you.
Take care – until the next time – and I hope the screening of this important film goes well