Cool Down

I exercised today for the first time in about 3 weeks. During lunch, I ran the perimeter roadway within the base walls. Each lap around the base is about 1 kilometer. It was sunny and close to 90 degrees. After three laps, I was spent. I was soaked with sweat, huffing, and my legs were on fire. I started to cool myself down under the awning of a building with a bottled water. I wasn't sure how I was going to climb the steps back to my room.

One of the base guards, who is a local Afghan, walked by. In very broken English, he asked:

"You're family, is good? Family good?"

"Yes," I replied, "my family is good. How is yours?"

He said, "Good. Thank you. Garmi! Garmi!" and starts fanning himself.

I said, "yes, hot. Very hot today. Garmi."

He comes up to me, and points at the side of my head, my temple, and says, "Araq! Araq!"

I look at him puzzled, thinking he is saying Iraq (as in the country). He then draws a line down his own face with his finger and says, "araq."

"Sweat," I say. "Araq. Sweat." He nods approvingly.

He waves, and starts to walk away. About ten steps later, he stops, and comes right back to me, face to face. This man is probably in his mid-forties to mid-fifties, but he looks like he lived a very hard life. His face is weathered like leather, and I don't think he had ever been to a dentist. His eyes look tired and kind of sad at the same time. He comes within a half-foot of my face, lightly pokes me in the chest and says:

"Afghanistan good. America good. You good. I good," and then turns and walks away.

I ran one more lap.