The Play-doh Offensive Update

Alright gang, we took the liberty of posting an email from Mongo regarding our girl on the scene in Afghanistan.

Hi Everyone,

Below is a really interesting NY TImes slideshow link on a refugee camp in
Kabul. It runs about 3 minutes.

As most of you know, my friend Teresa has been over there with the Navy for
the past year. She is now coming back home -- and currently is in Kuwait
where she has to wait about a week for transport back to the U.S. (And
where she reports "It is hotter then hell outside, and there is nothing but
hot dust to breath in... This place is dry and flat.")

Her duty was to help Afghanis who -- though not refugees -- were in very
similar circumstances to those seen in the slide show in terms of poverty
and the effects of the war. A quick thank you to all who sent over your
boxes of donated items. I think she ended up with somewhere in the realm of
25 boxes packed with school supplies, toys, and clothing. I still have a
small mountain of soccer balls, blankets and toys donated by neighbors in my
office room that will be sent over to Afghanistan when she gets back.

Click here for slideshow.

The end of the email suggests that the Play-doh Offensive is still operational even though Teresa is not in country. We'll have the details and marching orders regarding the hows and wheres sooner, hopefully, than later.

The Play-doh Offensive Update

Our girl on the scene, Ms. Teresa Neally of the United States Navy checked in with Mongo about a week ago to thank everybody who had sent care packages to her in Afghanistan. (Care to contribute?: The what and how, here) She also wanted to pass along some big news: the recent opening of a school built by the military which was funded by American citizens. We promise to pass along more details later. Click on pictures to enlarge. The colors are amazing, aren't they?




















UPDATE #1: Welcome, Readers of Aztec Talk.

Play-doh Offensive Update

This showed up in the mail last week. We are humbled. For an explanation of what this is all about, please click here. Thanks.

Just a reminder....

...one more day to vote in our GPS/Man Law poll.

But more importantly…. Mongo posted this over the weekend so you may not have seen it the first time around. We thought it was an outstanding idea because it involves a little time and a little effort. Scratching out checks to the USO and PVA is goodness but whether we like it or not, we as citizens of this country are fully vested in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and a “deck plates” effort like this is our opportunity to contribute to this fight instead of behaving merely as consumers in the War on Terror as has been, at times, a recommended course of action.

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
- Alexis de Tocqueville

The Play-Doh Offensive: Hitting Al Qaeda Where It Hurts

Substitute here.

If you've sat there in your easy chair wondering how you could hit Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the mouth for the endless grief and destruction they have caused this world, I'm going to give you the address. Ready?

Attn: Teresa Nealley
CoC 163 LTF
Camp Phoenix
APOAE09320

But first, you have to make a bit of a detour. If you want to wipe the smirk off of Bin Laden's face, and make the Taliban cringe, you have to drive first to your neighborhood Target, Wal-Mart, or similar store and load up on a few "war supplies".

Try these:
Box of pencils
Box of erasers
Box of crayons
Play-Doh
A stack of printer paper
Pencil sharpeners

Buy these, and similar items, or even just some baby or toddler clothes, and send them to the U.S. Navy's very own "Girl In Afghanistan", Teresa Nealley, at the address provided above. From her prime spot in Camp Phoenix on the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, she'll know how to get them to exactly the right places. Plan on spending around $35, including postage and shipping materials, when all is said and done if you go by the list above.

This will take you no more than 1 hour, I promise.

Originally documented in a BwD post in mid-October, Teresa is now into her sixth month of a fifteen month deployment. It's been hard on her, but she's determined -- despite the hardships arrayed against her -- to help the poorest of the poor in one of the most hardscrabble countries on Earth. She has asked The Substitute and his friends to help her in the cause.

You can do no more to fight the evils of terrorism and the twisted version of the Muslim religion that The Taliban & Co. have ruthlessly wielded than to stick a pencil or crayons, piece of paper, and the gift of imagination into the hands of an Afghani child. Pencils and paper, education and compassion, are primary tools of freedom's inevitable victory over tyrrany. http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_international/afghan_circus/index.html?SITE=CADIU

This is your chance to make the most direct impact on the War on Terror that is possible. Consider it your own version of a World War II Victory Garden or Pot & Pan Drive. It is your chance to drive a wedge between Al Qaeda's operatives and an Afghani people that have known nothing but war and misery for what is now beyond 30 years.

Kill them with kindness. Show them the compassion and concern that America has historically been renowned for. By the time the post office clerk gets done putting on the postage on your box, you'll feel better than you have since before 9/11/01.

- The Substitute

P.S. Referenced post on Teresa can be found here.

No Good Deed...

B-Daddy here. Yesterday, I traveled with my youngest (on line handle, "mew2ds") with folks from our church to Tijuana to build a house for the indigent. The work was organized by Spectrum Ministries, an organization dedicated to helping the neediest citizens of Tijuana.

The proximate cause of the need was that the family casa of the Belenvillanova family had been destroyed by a mud slide, which had pulled a portion of the house down the hill. The remnants are pictured at left. (Note the neo-Stalinist architecture of government housing in the background.) The family had moved into a makeshift shack on the lower portion of their property pictured at right. The government had told them they could not build on this land because it is unstable, so our efforts yesterday were technically illegal.

The goal of our efforts was to add a 15' by 16' room to the existing structure. By the way, this family was much better off than other families in Tijuana that Spectrum works with. Often, the families are living in a cardboard box and the shelter that is built is their first protection against the elements.

Theses projects are designed to be completed in one day by volunteers with little experience. We certainly met our goal. I thought we could have completed a couple of hours faster if we had pushed it, but that was probably my Type A personality getting in the way of enjoying the experience.

The family was very involved in the work as well, and provided us delicious lunch of stewed chicken, spanish rice and tortillas. Here are some pictures of the project progress. (You can click on any picture in this post and see a lot more detail.)

We did not pour a concrete floor, that was a job left for another day.

A few observations. Even though it was dangerous just to walk up and down the hill side to bring materials to the job, that was not the most miserable part of the day. That would be crossing the border into the United States. Our wait wasn't that bad, one and a half hours, but considering that there were 24 lanes opened, it seemed ridiculous.

One highlight not pictured was getting dinner at "Taqueria Tres Salsas" on the way back. The tortillas were cooked moments before freshly grilled carne asada was dropped into them. Topped with ciantro, guacomole and fresh salsa, they were indeed a treat.

Tijuana is very hilly, with steep canyons everywhere, but that hasn't stopped both the government and the people from just cutting into the hillsides and leaving bare earth behind for whatever project finds that desirable. It was pretty scary to look at.

The people couldn't have been nicer. The Belenvillanova family, the vendors and everyone else made an effort to communicate and be nice, even though only a few of us spoke Spanish. The Belenvillanova family teenage sons worked the hardest of anyone in putting up the addition, I definitely had to respect them for that.

Finally, here is our group shot at the end of the day.