The Power Broker

It's HOT here! Wow, its HOT. 110 degrees is just not a normal temperature for humans to live in. Yeah yeah it's a dry desert heat I got all that, but there are no clouds, there are no trees, and when the wind does blow it comes with dust and sand. The troublesome part is people who have been here before keep telling me that it's only going to get hotter. We still have June, July, and August. Ay dios mio! First, they put us in one of the coldest places on Earth, Ft. McCoy, WI where it snowed almost every other day, then to one of the hottest, glorious Kandahar, Afghanistan.

This past weekend I ran a 10K to support the Canadian Air Force and of course for Memorial Day. I unfortunately didn't get any photos of the event. I barely made it across the finish line. The first half I was good, running good and feeling good. I hit the 5K mark around 28 minutes. But then I just hit a wall... and the second turn around was never coming. I regrettably started walking and drank some water. I finally hit the turn around and made it to the finish line in 68 minutes. Which is awful when you compair to the professional runner who did it 35 minutes. Whatever guy... have your trophy. I'm not bitter.

All I can think about as I walk around on this dusty and arid Airbase is how I would redesign the whole place and introduce irrigation to these people and have paved roads with sidewalks all lined with palm trees and Starbucks. It would be so much more civilized. I just got a book in the mail that I ordered. It's called Robert Moses and the Modern City. It's amazing what Moses did for New York. London had Christopher Wren, Paris had Georges-Eugene Haussmann, and New York City had Robert Moses. I can only dream of having any kind of impact on a city or place. When I found out that the Battalion was going to have a charrette on a design to add a building for the Medics and Chaplain, I asked if I could be apart of it.

To the Battalion Commander's surprise and delight he was impressed when I told him that I had a degree in Architectural Engineering. So what was initially suppose to be me just involved in and give my two cents in how I could help, turned into me coming up with and designing the entire complex the BC envisioned for our area of operation. I turned out a product of an as built of our battalion area showing how inadequate the medics area and chaplain space are and then proposing four layouts of an additional building to be build near our exiting buildings. The Naval Commodore wasn't too keen on the whole idea but did like the presentation that was put together for him. So my grandiose drawings were "pretty" but a little on the unrealistic side. I felt like I was back at Wentworth in a critique of my school work. LOL

We'll see what happens with the plans and where we'll go from there. Until then I can dream of grand things. Perhaps the Mayor of Kandahar is looking for an Urban Planner that can redesign Kandahar after the Taliban leave. Something that will bring more hard working Afghans to the city and introduce to them infrastructure like water treatment plants, power plants, a sewer system, and of course a cricket stadium. We would also have to come up with a commerce that doesn't revolve around the poppy harvest too, so an industry would have to be founded. Perhaps a carpet factory... it's what put Yonkers on the map! Haha.

Anyway back to the grind.