Puppies and Children

It must be their innocence. Taking the world in through wide eyes, instinctively wanting to trust, but wary at first. Puppies and children the world over are universally cute.

Our base has been adopted by 7 or 8 puppies.  Not sure what happened to Mama Dog - never saw her.  She had the litter in a nearby storage yard and eventually the puppies found their way into our area.  Not sure what their official status is, as we are not to have pets - but not sure that rule applies to our interpreters.  I've not made friends with them - much as it pains me, for unfortunately, there is no good way out of this situation.  Eventually they will have to be driven off, or worse, put down, when they become a nuisance.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a dog person through and through, but I've also been in the military long enough to know that we don't have provisions for pets. Any food they get will be scraps (or misappropriated), there are no provisions for vaccinations or health care, and diseases and parasites are epidemic here.  These dogs will most likely have a short, fairly brutal life - but that is also the lot of quite a few Afghan people too. 

There are some kids who hang out in the Police compound, doing odd jobs like taking out the trash, etc. I think that some are the children of some of the police officers. They are friendly, but you can tell that some have already become a little jaded.  Technically, school here goes from 1st through the 12th grade, but i have yet to meet anyone who has gone much past the 10th grade in formal education.  Granted, when your country has been at war with one party or another (including a civil war) since 1979, that doesn't leave much time for formal education.

This is a country desperately trying to pull itself together, but lacking in many of the unifying themes that allowed the United States to form, then reform again after our own Civil War.  I hope they can, for the kids' and puppies' sake, if nothing else.