Arnon Grunberg
Words Without Borders

Zulu Time, Kandahar Air Field

A few more notes on being embedded with the Dutch army in Afghanistan: -Most of the military on the compound, in this case Kandahar Air Field (KAF), is not aware of what’s going outside the gates of the camp.
-For ten US dollars, you can have a delicious back rub by a young lady from Uzbekistan. It's completely legal and allowed by the commander of the camp.
-The back rub is not be confused with an erotic massage, although I have to admit that the lady was touching my buttocks a little bit too long.
-There are two times on the compound. Zulu time, which is the official US military time, and the local time. The US and the Dutch do everything in Zulu time, but the Canadians keep local time. This can cause some confusion.
-For more information on this confusion, I recommend Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22.
-Most of the troops I spoke to expressed the opinion that the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating.
-Tim Hortons iced cappuccino beats Green Bean’s iced cappuccino, at least at Kandahar Air Field.
-There are not enough bunkers for everybody at KAF.
-In case of a rocket attack, which seems to happen two to four times a week in the evening, some of the inhabitants of KAF are urged to lie down under their beds.
-At the time of the attack, I decided to lie down ON my bed.
-There was not enough space for me, my bulletproof vest, and the dust under the bed.
-To my surprise I was happy at Kandahar Air Field, most of time, even though I lost all my games of ping-pong.
-Sometimes before sleeping, I asked myself the question: does the enemy play as much ping-pong as we do?


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