A few days ago I was with the Afghan Logistics Officer and we had breakfast in an office. Eggs, fried potatoes, beef all mixed together in a red sauce (not marinara think a bit greasier). The bowls are a bit bigger than normal and there must have been 10 of us eating out of two bowls. They give you big naan bread (1 piece was about 16 inches round) and you would tear off a portion and use that to "pinch" and eat the food from the bowl. It was a good meal.
So I thought I would reciprocate today. I told them to get the same bunch of guys together and meet me at their office at 1100. I brought out a package of graham crackers (they called them biscuits) with some flatbread crackers and a jar of peanut butter. All this stuff came from care packages.
They have never seen or had any of this food. After an explanation of what all the stuff was they had a bunch of questions. So I opened it up and gave them a knife and the crackers. It was funny to see how they only took a small amount of peanut butter the first time just to try it. After that for subsequent crackers they put on a thick spread of it. After a few crackers one of them came up with the idea of putting a cracker on top of the peanut butter too. Thus, they even invented the peanut butter sandwich cracker.
They said they really enjoyed it and wondered why there isn't any peanut butter in Afghanistan. One of the guys said he wished he could share with his kids. Another said he wanted to eat the whole jar because he is malnourished. We spent the next 30 min talking, eating, and drinking chai.
Everyone enjoyed it and they told me to thank you all for sending out such a nice gift for them to try. I also echo their sentiments of thanks. Sharing food in their culture is a big deal as their pride is tied to their ability to properly host their guests.
Yes it was hard to share the peanut butter as it is an item in continuous short supply. They tell me that we will get our first shipment sometime next week.
Please send on so those who sent boxes can read about this adventure.
Since we have LOTS of peanut butter, we'll be packing up some special boxes for this unit. They will have plenty for themselves and plenty to share with the hungry Afghans that have developed a taste for our American treat.