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  The bunks have been removed and have been replaced by 13,000 portable camping cots which were brought in by the Red Cross.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