Home Again

We are home from Ft. McCoy.  After being gone for only three days and nights we arrived home on Saturday night and slept in our own bed for 10 hours.

   Before we write more I have to say I'm a little gun shy about posting photos.  While there we were asked to re-sign a media policy statement as to what we can share and what we can't.  Truthfully, we did not have access to any military secrets or troop movements.  However, it is a military base so we follow the rules.  

 We spent three nights on base at the Wisconsin Military Academy.  The accommodations were comfortable.  Our rooms very much like a simple dorm room.  Each had a single bed, frig, desk and TV.  There were common areas where we could gather.  It also has a cafeteria where we ate dinners. 

   We were very fortunate to have two of our former housemates there with us.  Dennis and Mike are truly very special people. All four of us missed Lori Ann and Savannah. 

   Many of the Afghan guests have left.  We were never told about numbers but the Green Bay Press-Gazette said there were fewer than 8,000 still on the base, down from 13,000.   

   All volunteers on the base had to wear masks which is a change in policy.  

   As we had heard before going, there is some daily closing of children's centers due to a lack of volunteers.  This is exceptionally sad as now that winter is here the children really need a place to go.  

   We continued to be inspired by the volunteers we met.  There was a large group of 17 from Woodland Church in Stevens Point, a group of 8 mostly from Nebraska that were associated with a Franciscan Order, a group of Mennonites, some Protestant groups and an LDS volunteer all pulling together to bring comfort to displaced children.  

   We were exceptionally inspired on Thursday when a drum showed up in the center (think Ricky Ricardo playing BaBaLoo).  An Afghan man from the community heard it and came into the center.  He asked to play the drum which he did very well  His singing ability was just as good. The reaction from the children was immediate.  Some sang along and some danced.  We watched.

   The children were with are simply children.  They need attention, want to be noticed and they need something to do. There is a LaCrosse librarian who comes to the centers on a regular basis who has the ability to completely grab and hold the Childrens' attention.  There seemed to be no language barrier when singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" or when dancing to the "Hokey Pokey".  The resiliency of these children is amazing.   

 

   We were comforted by the knowledge that the Afghan guests' physical needs are being met.  Again from the Press-Gazette article, all have been given coats, hats, gloves and scarfs.  Their food is provided and the barracks, while not ideal provide safe, temporary housing until they are able to be resettled.  When driving down the street in the early evening we couldn't help but see the sheets hanging in the barracks that serve as walls to subdivide their space.  

   There are now more recreation centers opened which offer more "gym-like" activities.  There are also more learning opportunities for all ages since we were last there.   

   As winter moves in (snowing today) we know it will be harder for the Afghan guests.  Please pray and take action so that they may be all resettled soon in areas that will welcome and support these families.

   Thanks for letting us share our experiences with you. 

   Ken and Cathy 

McCoy 2.0

If you think you heard the last from us about Fort McCoy you would be wrong.  We both knew we wanted to make another trip to Fort McCoy, even more so when we heard from a friend that one of the three centers on the base was not able to open on a number of occasions because there were not enough volunteers. After a couple of calls and a few emails we worked it out that two of our four housemates from our first trip will be there during the same three days.  

 On this trip we will be bringing coats, toys, socks, gloves and scarfs.  So many people were polite enough to listen to our stories and without any prompting provided us with items to distribute to the Afghan guests.

 The Green Bay Diocese is no longer sending volunteers.  They have instead decided to focus their resources on resettling those Afghans moving out of Fort McCoy.  Because of this we won’t have the luxury of staying in the rental house and will instead be staying at the Wisconsin Military Academy on the base.  The rooms are austere and have only one single bed per room so we’ll have separate rooms and share a bathroom as will our former housemates.  

We’ll post again when we can.  

Home

Cathy and I arrived home safe and sound Saturday n and slept for  12 hours.  We were exhausted and we are grateful.  We are grateful for the opportunity which we were provided.  We are grateful for the wonderful housemates we had.  We are grateful for the Army and Team Rubicon. We are grateful and inspired by the people we met. There were many volunteers from the Tomah/Sparta area and others from all over the state. We met a Mormon from Southern California, some Amish volunteers, a recently retired Lutheran minister, a few nuns, a group from a non-denominational church near Holy Hill and an 18 year old man/boy who is a Mennonite, was there by himself and plans on staying to December.  

Our time with the children was exhausting, sometimes challenging and exceptionally rewarding.  They craved attention and affection and they returned it to us in full measure.  There were times that I would joke that we were working toward world peace, one puzzle piece at a time.   Then there was time we would read in the newspaper that some of the Afghan families were considering staying in Wisconsin because  the people have been so nice.  

   The  photo is of our spoils from our time at Fort McCoy, art work created by the Afghan children. 

  Thanks for following us and allowing us to capture this journey into words. 

Ken and Cathy 

More from McCoy

 Our little community  is breaking up.  Michael Duffey left for Milwaukee a week ago and we miss him.  He returns to Ft. McCoy for his third go-round on Sunday.  Savannah left for home tonight so that she can be with her husband at the annual Marine Ball in Peoria, IL.

   For the past week we have been stationed at the same center.  Spending this much time with the same children is both a blessing and a curse.   These kids are, first and foremost, just that-children.  On top of that they are refugees and many of them don't even speak the same language as each other, let alone English.  Also, like any other group of children there are some who are overactive and some have special needs.  We've been reminded that all have various degrees of PTSD and all are anxious.  I believe that the relief and the joy of getting out of Afghanistan is waning and the day to day of living with others in an army barracks is starting to take it's toll.  There are some aggressions by the children here that are quite profound.  Every day we have to remind ourselves, duh, of course there are.  

    There seems to be a lot of down time for the guests.  There are classes being offered.  We've been told that there is an American led school that offers classes to adults and to children and follows an actual curriculum. There is also a learning center.  However, there are also some Afghan led schools.  This seems to me, as an outsider, a great example of Afghans helping Afghans.  I was outside with the kids this week when two non-uniformed people showed up with a clipboard.  They asked us if there was a school inside and I explained what the center was.  I learned they were from the DHS and were looking for the Afghan pop-up schools so they could better support them.  While we were at Ft. McCoy there was also a visit from the WI Dept of Education.  

   An under served portion of the Afghan population is the men and teens.  However, just this week they opened the first men's center.  It's in a huge warehouse like building and it offers basketball, volleyball, and foursquare. Next to it is a place for cards, puzzles, reading and board games.   

   Two soldiers came into the center the other day.  One person was completing  his deployment at McCoy, the other was arriving.  The regular Army set up the base and they have been here since September.  The Reserves will now be in charge.  There are soldiers from across the country here.  I asked the Reservist how long they expected to be here and he told me they were told to expect to be there a year or until it's over.  Asking around I've been told it will be less than a year. 

   When it comes to volunteering everyone's natural reaction, including me  is "do they really need me?" There are three of our centers on base.  Three times during our time at McCoy we were unable to open one of centers because of a lack of volunteers.  So, yes, we felt needed.  There is also a decline in volunteers in general as the Afghan issue isn't in the news, the weather is colder, Thanksgiving is coming up and Christmas is just around the corner.  We were truly blessed with good weather.  On most days we were able to get the children outside.  Those centers are going to become awfully small this winter.  The leadership knows that.  It was a brief but a heart pulling comment at our daily meeting when our leader described a plan to decrease the number of children at the centers.  So, as the coldest days approach we are discussing ways to discourage the children from coming into the centers.  Sadly, she is not wrong.  You can only put so many bodies, albeit tiny bodies, in a building with a decreasing number of volunteers before it becomes massively unsafe.  

   I also learned from the soldiers next door that we are operating in a "no salute area" of the base.  It just seemed odd to me not to have seen even one salute anywhere.  

   That’s it for now.  Thanks for reading. 

Bits and Pieces

These are some quick hit type things:

One of our housemates brought a dinasour costume with her.  We were unsure how they would react but it was a huge hit with the kids.

While there are some people leaving (being resettled) there is no significant change that we can see in the population.  We've learned that the Afghan population is not being "backloaded".  Meaning, as they leave they are not being replaced by others as they move out.  There may be some new people coming in because of family issues but not many.  The idea is to close down Fort McCoy as soon as possible and consolidate the remainingguests at a warm weather military installation.  However, that could be a while. Tare many Afghans still at foreign bases that may be coming to the U.S. but we were told they will not be coming to Fort McCoy.

   As we travel around the base we see a lot of Afghans - a lot of Afghans.  It is very rare to see a man and a woman walking together.  There are large, medium and small groups of people but virtually all are single sex.  

   This is exciting time for many of the people here in one of the neighborhoods we serve  The base has started a second round of clothing distribution.  Most of the people here arrived 10 weeks ago.  Early in the process they were given some clothing.  Now, they are doing a second round of clothing distribution.  Each person has 20 minutes to select 8 pieces of clothing.  As for shoes, the guest states their shoe size and they are given a pair of shoes in that size.

   One of the groups I forgot to mention are our "bonus helpers".  There is a small number of Afghan children who help us in the volunteer center.  They are incredibly nice, polite and friendly.  They get nothing for their service except the acknowledgment of wearing an index card name tag which  hangs around their neck on a string.  While their English is not perfect it is good and they are able to explain things to the children that we can not.  It is difficult for me to explain to you the "only slightly controlled" chaos which is the center.  At the end of a particularly trying day, Cathy teared up when she and one of 12 year old bonus helpers were going behind the curtain where everything is kept.  They reached the curtain at the same and he pulled it back for her, and motioned  for her to go first.  I guess it really is the little things.

We

People

 Today is Sunday, our only day off.  I just woke up after 10.5 hours of sleep.  In this blog post I'd like to tell you about the people we are meeting.  

   There are six of us living in our house:

Dennis is a retired social worker.  The focus of his career was with troubled youth.   He worked in The GB school System at an alternative school.

Lori Ann is also from GB and works at United Health Care.  Through her own diligence and through her employer, she brought with her a ton of age appropriate activities for the children.  Our leader said it was the largest donation of usable items that they have received.

Mike is a retired Theology professor from Marquette University who lives in Wauwatosa.  He serves as an inspiration to us all.  Mike was already here for a two week stint and went home only to return with us for a week.  He is taking a week off and returning again for two more weeks. 

Savannah is 28 and joins us from Peoria, IL.   While she looks like she is 12 years old, she is married to an active duty Marine and her degrees and experience are in child healing from trauma through play.  She also does wonderful work with the mothers group.  

Asian University Women:  I briefly mentioned that these women fled Afghanistan and while at Ft. McCoy they have come forward to volunteer with us and are also being utilized as unofficial translators.  Like everyone else, they don't know when they will be leaving but they all seem to be working on continuing their educations in the US.  Some already have acceptances at Universities in Milwaukee, AZ and perhaps Virginia.  

Active Military:  We have virtually no interaction with the Army Personnel.  Through the AUW women we have learned that the army personnel have a great relationship with the Afghans.  There is not a lot of interaction but they are respectful, they are good with the children and most importantly they know it was the military who kept them safe for twenty years and got them safely out of the country as the Taliban took over. 

 

  One of our volunteers introduced herself to an Afghan AUW woman and told her that her son served in Afghanistan.  Her son now has severe PTSD and the mom said he wonders if he just wasted that time.  So many soldiers died.  The Afghan woman told her that the Americans saved her and went on to say that there is a whole generation of Afghan women that were educated while the U.S. Army was in their country.  When she talked to the volunteer she referred to the last 20 years as the time of Light.  The volunteer sobbed.  

Other volunteers:  We have met many people from around the state.  Many volunteers are from the Tomah area, some come from Madison.  We've met Lutheran Pastors, Catholic nuns, a young Mennonite man from Curtis, WI who plans on staying through December, a woman who works 5 days a week at the base and volunteers on Saturdays, a man from Heartland who comes over 2-3 days a week and stays in his trailer, a retired physician and his wife who drive an hour from home each week to spend a day.  There seems to be a significant number of retired teachers volunteering here.

   Many of the people we have met have been here a lot.  What makes our little group different from the others is the sequential number of days that we are here.  14 days is a long time.  While rewarding our time here is exhausting.  

   Time to wrap this up.  Thanks for taking the time to share in this adventure.  

Ken & Cathy

Kblaney55@hotmail.com

Cblaney55@hotmail.com

6 days in.

I talk a lot about the volunteers but to be clear this whole thing is military operation.  We have now been background checked and cleared to be on the base for up to one year.  The Military is responsible for the housing, feeding and all the physical needs of the Afghan guests.  Volunteers like us are responsible for recreation.  Team Rubicon has taken on the huge responsibility of clothing our guests and receiving and sorting of all donations.  Team Rubicon is a national organization which serves communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service by helping people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters.  They are a wonderful organization.

I may not have been clear about the barracks where the Afghans live.  The barracks are large open spaced  buildings, open from one end to the other.  They normally house members of the armed forces, mostly while training at Ft. McCoy.  The barracks are usually lined with bunk beds.  The bunks have been removed and have been replaced by 13,000 portable camping cots which were brought in by the Red Cross. It is common to see some of the cots outside.  I'm not sure if this is to make more room inside during the day, to give them a place to sit outside or maybe they bring them outside just to clean them off.  It is also common to see laundry hanging on railings, fences and even shrubbery.  

We are living in a house in Norwalk.  We are about 30 minutes from the base.  There are six of us here.  As I understand it, the GB Diocese pays for the house rental, who then bills the US Council of Catholic Bishops, who in turn will bill the Department of Defense.  The house is nice.  We have 4 bedrooms, two upstairs and two down. 

Each day we eat lunch at the Non Commissioned Officers Mess which is new and very nice.  Our meals are paid for by Catholic Charities.  The food is very good. 

We leave home every day by 8:15.  The day starts with a meeting on the base at 9:00.  The meeting is for all the volunteers, the interpreters and a group of women from the AUW.  AUW is a group of Asian university women. Like everyone else they were evacuated from Afghanistan and have ended up in Fort in McCoy. Many of them are highly educated and motivated. They were just existing at Fort McCoy so they have now volunteered to work with us in serving the Afghan guests.  They  volunteer like us and they also serve as interpreters. The actual interpreters are paid and are employed by the IRC.  Our 9:00 meeting group of about 50 -60 people, man three centers and two sewing centers.  This morning meeting is partly assignment designations, part motivational pep talk and part training.

The centers at which we work are divided into two parts. The first and larger portion is the children’s area. All the children seem to be 7-8 years old or younger.  The second half of the same building is utilized by mothers and very small children. We play with the children both inside and outside.  I have honed my skills at Jinga, building blocks, moom (play dough) every size puzzle, count four, jump rope (we use A-B-C instead of counting) frisbee, Soccer, hula hoop, coloring, painting, slime, kickball and…. well I’ll assume you get the picture.  It’s exhausting.   

   This post is too long and I want to get it posted tonight.  

Shaid behide (good night).

Ken and Cathy

At Fort McCoy

Things we have learned since arriving at Fort McCoy:

Food distribution to the "Guests" (Afgahns) is a gargantuan task.  There are 12,600 refugees living at Fort McCoy.  All their meals are prepared on a "to-go" basis.  It is very normal for a single member of the family carrying many, many meals back to the barracks.  That person may be in line for hours to get their meals.     

The barracks were built about a hundred years ago and most look to be two story white clapboard or sided buildings.  Each barracks was built to house 50 soldiers and each now houses 60 Afgahns.  The families living in them subdivide the open barracks by hanging sheets and blankets.

Our duties here are very simply - day care.  We help provide child recreation for a very large number of children while their parents are otherwise occupied.  The children speak almost no english, I speak almost no Dari which is fine because many of the children speak only Pashto.  The Center in which we work is about the size of a a three stall garage.   It is very common to have 100 children in the center at the same time.  I’ve been asking questions of our leaders to try to better understand why these children are so starved for affection, even from strangers.   

One of the heartwarming stories we heard was how Lands End, a Wisconsin Company, stepped up to provide 3500 winter coats and jackets. However it is not unusual to see a man walking down the street wearing blanket for warmth.  It's hard to tell if this because he doesn't have coat or if it's a cultural thing.   

We learned the Afghans that were evacuated before the suicide bomber at the airport blew himself up, were able to leave with luggage and bags of belongings.  Those who reached the airport after the bomb exploded couldn't take anything.   

Deep down we hope we are doing our part to help these poor souls who have endured more than we can ever imagine. However it's sometimes difficult to see the big picture when our days are filled with Playdough, water paints, jump ropes, hula hoops, countless games of Connect Four, soccer balls, blocks and matchbook cars.

Today a little boy returned a ball to me.  Trying my best at speaking Dari, I said, "Tashacour" (thank you), he replied, "no problem".   

The other good news is I’ve discovered 13,000 people who never heard my ice bowl story!  

Fort McCoy

Cathy and I have headed to Tomah Wisconsin. Many people think of Tomah as the Paris of the Midwest. Well, not many people think of it as the Paris of the Midwest but some do.  OK, nobody really thinks of it as the Paris of the Midwest but it is a pretty area of the state.

  

We are volunteering through the diocese to help with the Afghan refugees who are staying at Fort McCoy.  There are between 12,000 and 13,000 Afghans currently at Fort McCoy, over half of them are children.  Our assignment will be to work at the recreation centers taking care of the children while the parents are occupied elsewhere with legal matters and travel plans.

What we have learned so far is that Wisconsin will be accepting almost 400 refugees. Currently, the Green Bay diocese has welcomed 23.

While we are here we are staying at a rental home with three other volunteers. The home is being paid for by the USCCB.

 

We hope to update this blog during the next week or two. We probably will not be sharing it on social media. They are some people who don’t like the fact that the Afghans are here, some feel they have “jumped the line” as far as immigration is concerned.  Some people just don’t care and others may feel that we are grandstanding by keeping this blog.  After all, many people do much more than us on an everyday basis in our community. We will be sending out notices when this blog is updated to the people we think might be sincerely interested in what’s going on here. Until then, Salam Alaikum.

Ken and Cathy