Skittles

I've been thinking about a day a spent in the desert. It's absolutely ridiculous, and even funny, but it's another stupid thing that keeps my mind unfocused, so here it comes.

It was one of my first days working with Civil Affairs, in the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. We drove out to a government building in Kandahar, so a few civil affairs and other officers could meet with a local 'governor'. I believe they were going to pay him to organize some sanitation and trash pickup services in the city. At any rate, what they were doing doesn't matter, I was standing out in a field with our trucks, waiting for them to hurry up and get back so we could go.

I was still green, and it was pretty exciting. I remember talking a little to one of the older experienced Civil Affairs guys, he was a First Sergeant if my memory is correct. I made a comment about how cool this was. The look on his face told a much different story. He straightened me out just with that look. It was a, pay the fuck attention to what we're doing, look, this isn't a walk in the park.

There was a lady though, he finally came up to us. She was waving an Afghan dollar around. She was hanging around a lot, and wouldn't go away. I had no freaking clue what she wanted, wearing that drape over her head, I couldn't read her face or anything. I had a pack of skittles in my pocket. Good MRE treat. I finally got fed up with her, grabbed the dollar, and gave her a pack of skittles. We had a local guard, translator with us, who at that moment got her to go with a few forceful words, and physical movements.

I have no idea why this one memory comes back. The after thought that this lady was poor, and desperate enough to approach an American (which could get her in a ton of trouble) disturbs me. And the hilarious thing about it, is I took her lunch money and gave her some skittles.