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.