The pictures

Nov 12 Hi All;

I think this is my Blog #15...I lose track and sometimes add
supplements to other entries. My goal was to have an average of 1
entry every two days...more or less. The ZDEC (correction to the
name: it is the Zhari DAIL Extension Center...DAIL stands for
Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock)...okay, so I
was close. is undergoing lots of changes. It has been painted, the
gate repaired and reinstalled (it still isn't pretty), roadways
marked out with limed lines, pill boxes on the roof finished and
painted. The area immediately in front of the center has been
graded and we installed around 50 4' x 4" fence posts to mark off
the children's playground. It was a fun trip to get the fence
posts into position. I walked around with SPC David M and got the
measurements for the depth of water in the well and for the
location of the planter boxes and then helped a tiny bit on putting
the posts into place. Each post was put into a hole drilled with
an auger attachment on a bobcat machine. We hired 4 local kids for between $3 and
$7 to dig the 'moon dust' (the soil gets really light and fluffy
because of how it is comprised and how dry it is...you can
literally step into 6" of dust if it has been mixed around enough)
and rocks out of the holes...they were young teenagers similar to
the kids I hire at home with similar varying work ethics...pretty
funny to watch the cultural similarities.

The playground equipment is made in the same facility that I have
been making the rocket stoves, pump parts and heater parts in... It
is a metal fabrication facility attached to one of the motor pools.
One of the guys there is the brother-in-law of one of my former
student teachers and the other is a neighbor from Rodman, NY. It
is, indeed, a small world! The playground is getting two merry go
rounds, two seesaws and two swing sets. The spare paint is going
to be given to the kids for the area to paint the stuff any way
they want to...it should be pretty colorful when they are done.

I designed the power system for the 4 CHU's that are being placed
there for the permanent ANP staff that guards the Ag Center. SPC
David W. and I got all of the pipe and made the connectors to hook
up one of my deep well hand pumps installed on one of the two wells
at the Center. We made the 10" well cap a couple of days ago.
There aren't any pipe connections we could get easily...so...we
found 1" schedule 80 pvc pipe and some 1 1/4" schedule 20 pipe
that the schedule 80 just fit into and made up our own connectors.
This involved going to the SeaBees and several other locations on
base. We've been trading surplus root beer delivered to our office
for the favors...add some 'gorilla glue' and you have a permanent
connection for 60 or 70 feet of well pipe. I will take pictures.

Speaking of pictures...I'm including a few of the women that are
getting the birthing kits.

For those of you that want to see more look up "Operation Spartan Stork"
on its Facebook account. You will see a lot of pictures, including
yours truly
packing some birthing kits.

The attached pictures are as follows:
5. CPT Kim with women giving out birthing kits
4. Cute Afghan kid at birthing kit give away
3. Old (probably 40 years old) woman at birthing kit give away (looking for other stuff...probably)
2. Nomadic pregnant woman getting an exam and birthing kit...nomads do not cover their faces
1. A meeting at the ZDEC that I attended (I only viewed the thumbnail...I could be in the back row of floor cushions)

Have a great day! Love, -Jim-