November 21, 2009

Preparing school backpacks for Daman School

Okay, this story might be the highlight of my deployment. I am writing this in three separate parts.

I am writing this now because it just happened today. =) Yeahhhhh!!!

Okay, let’s go all the way back to September 19, 2009. On that day, I received an email with a pdf file attached from Chaplain Satterfield. I did not know this but, Chaplain Satterfield had submitted a small paragraph about our Project Afghan Language (PAL) course along with a picture of him handing us a box of school supplies to Officers Christian Fellowship a month prior, and it got published online in September.

That little article was read by a retired Coast Guard attorney and he, along with Chaplain Satterfield, got in contact with Operation Iraqi Children (OIC), which was established by actor Gary Sinise. Then I received an email again from CH Satterfield that I would be receiving about 130 pairs of shoes from OIC. With a little research I found out that OIC was established by Mr. Sinise, and I shared the exciting news with Niemi, a member of our treatment team.

Dr. Rafi and Asad working on Daman School distribution.

Niemi then suggested that I should write to Mr. Sinise since he is very involved in helping children and soldiers out. This was October 18, 2009. That night, I emailed Mr. Sinise and to my surprise, the next morning I received a response back from Mr. Sinise. That was just so cool. Getting an email back from a super celebrity like him…. I could not believe what just happened to me! =) Before I sent out the email to Mr. Sinise I had it checked, of course, by our Commander CPT Kramer to make sure I did not violate any military rules. Since then all my emails and correspondences have been scanned by the Commander, CPT Kramer.

On my email, I bluntly wrote, “… I would like to invite you to fly over to our location and help us distribute your donations to two small schools near our COP….”

Then he wrote back, “… I will be in country (Afghanistan) from November 21-26th playing three concerts for the troops with my band….. Getting out to you may be difficult as they have told me they will not let me do any FOB hops while I am there. This was very disappointing to me but for security reasons they are saying I cannot. I would love nothing better than to come to you and deliver our supplies…. So, tell me where you are and how big a deal it is to get to you and I will see if I can nudge the powers that be a little.”

More people came to help us... =)

Wow…. I could not believe what I just read. That night, after I sent an email out to Mr. Sinise, I shared this with one of our visiting Chaplains and he was pretty doubtful about the possibility of Mr. Sinise’s visit due to such short notice unless he was already in the country during the time I suggested for his visit. (I suggested any time in November.) I felt the same way…. However, I did not doubt that God was working on this one. Then, on his email, he mentioned that he would be in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving. How cool is that? Awesome!

He was doubtful himself that he would be allowed to take any other trips than his three ‘LT. Dan Band’ concert dates, but then towards the end, he also asked me how big a deal it is for him to come to us. Wow… I saw a light and I wrote him a long email back about how inspiring it would be for him to visit us.

Then on Oct. 21st, he wrote, “I am looking into getting out to you.” How amazing it that? My heart started to pump hard. Mr. Sinise was not sure and he couldn’t promise anything, but he said he is looking into it. I, then, knew God was working on this one. From then on, deep in my heart it was already a done deal. He was coming, it echoed in my heart! Then, on Oct. 24, Mr. Sinise, wrote, “It’s 50/50 at this point.” From zero possibility to 50/50 in 5 days. That was incredible! It was already a miracle to me.

Then on Oct. 27th, Colonel Shock from the Pentagon wrote me, “They will work with you to get Gary out there on the 23rd of November.” Wow…. Things were happening super fast. I just could not believe what I was reading. I was jumping up and down in my seat. (not literally. =))

And in a separate email on the same day, Col Shock also wrote, “I spoke with Gary again this weekend and he is really excited about this possibility.” Yahooooo! It is unbelievable. Mr. Sinise is also excited!

Again, all related emails have been scanned and supervised by our chain of command.

I originally asked Mr. Sinise to visit two elementary schools, Daman and Kharbandy elementary schools, but due to his time constraint he could only visit one, and I picked Daman for him to visit with us. I called Daman, the tent school. He suggested a short visit to Daman and a short visit to our outpost to do a ‘meet and greet’ with the soldiers.

Then all the rest of the official arrangements were done with CPT Kramer. Then, all I had to do was to get ready and wait for the day to arrive.

About 5 days prior to his visit, CPT Kramer informed me that everything was arranged and things would happen accordingly on the day. The only concern was that Mr. Sinise had to fly everywhere, and we had to arrive at Daman school before he arrived to pull security for him.

Two days prior to Mr. Sinise’s arrival, CPT Kramer was informed that all the gifts (school supplies, shoes, blankets) were held back and would not be brought with Mr. Sinise, so, Dr. Rafi, Asad, and I had to work on the distribution gift packages for all 125 students, which took us the entire day.

We brought out all the children’s shoes, school supplies, stuffed animals, sanitation kits, socks, sweaters, school backpacks…. We had to put everything into the backpack, and arrange them by their classes.

<Part 2 – continues tomorrow>