hey youtube in this video I want to talk about seven suitable assignments that I learned while staying in Afghanistan I was in Afghanistan in 2003 and I was doing NGO work or following non-governmental organization which basically signifies I used to work for a non-profit we have gone into Afghanistan a crew there’s a unit a total of 25 of us and we’ve gone there to provide medical succour as you can imagine this was right after September 11 th in the United Regime and leave in and kicked out most of the Taliban out of Kabul at least and the citizens of Kabul must these parties hadn’t seen any real medical aid and quite a long time since probably you know the 70 s as you remember they had a lot of Russia Russia had come in during the 70 s and 80 s and had left and then when they left in the late 80 s Afghanistan really fell down a position of tangle and it crumbled where different warlords are struggling to take control over the country and you know different subjects so a lot of these beings when we got there these people had been through some truly extreme nonsense some really tough times to say the least you know it’s just very common to hear stories from people where they watched a lot of family members you know they’ve been killed and these beings really had a really really rough condition it’s a kind of a understatement they’ve been through some really really tough times and so these people that we met and that we were able to serve while we’re in Afghanistan I was there for 3 month these parties they genuinely learned how to survive and they’ve had to learn the hard way again after you know being through so many decades of struggle and engaging things are really tough for him so what I’d like to talk about are seven lessons that I was able to walk away from after being in Afghanistan for those three months again I was not with I was not associated with any military I has no such armed armour we were just civilians living in a part of Kabul is called car to say which is like a third district it’s mostly a one time when pre-war is really nice area and so a lot of the buildings were still standing obviously a lot of you know everything just had bullet pits in it you would understand a lot of punctures in the side of buildings where you know things that different blowups had gone off exactly everything was pretty much destroyed and so while we were there serving the people there was a lot of instructions I genuinely had to learn regrettably some in some cases a hard way the first thing I actually learned while staying in Afghanistan was situational awareness we’re really a society that we’re constantly on our telephones are not truly ever paying attention to what’s going on around the americans and when I was in Afghanistan I certainly had to learn this lesson immediately you really had to keep your head on a swivel and it’s a exceedingly again you know being a westerner being an American for that matter I was what was defined as what what you would call a soft target it’s something that if the gunmen want to make a statement so unlike myself it was very easy to target someone like myself because you know there’s no way I could really engaged or you know again I wasn’t part of the military so I was an easy target and we did have an incident actually while we’re in Afghanistan as a team well we had a hand grenade toss in our van that we exerted transported to the University there at Kabul University and fortunately the it did not detonate we’re very fortunate but there was times where I would go out into the general population and “weve had” status come up that were pretty scary and one including that I was a really performing situational awareness was there was a large bazaar in the downtown part of Kabul and it was called Titanic bazaar I don’t know if they’ve renamed it since then but the culture there at the time back in o3 they’re really obsessed with movie Titanic so everything was called Titanic it was kind of funny so while I was there there was a couple of individuals couple of girlfriends on her team that I went into the bazaar with one of them are an integral part really radiant yellowed complexions on an outfit she was wearing and which in that culture it stands out where most people are wearing like a gunpowder blue-blooded or some kind of earth feelings and so she actually stood out and as we’re in the bazaar there’s a lot of people there and as we were walking about thirty minutes into we turned around to see a huge crowd beginning to follow us at this part I knew that we had to get out of there very quickly I knew something was wrong and the crowd was really suffer down on us by the time we were able to get outside of the bazaar I lost track how many beings are encircling us but fortunately there was taxi that was available where it would jump in and take off very quickly even though we’re surrounded by a horde and it learnt me in that moment that situational awareness is so critical in key you have to really watch what’s going on around you at all eras things can change in a moment’s notice and talking about wearing shining hues will get into that point too but before I finish this one point one things can escalate swiftly if you’re not paying attention it’s really important that you deter you know a good you are familiar with good watch of what’s going around on around you without stirring it obvious I try you are familiar with even into this day and senility I still try for example if I’m at a gas pump only you know watch what’s going on around me don’t really sit there and stare my cellphone homes like that or easy residences you know for someone to you know if they’re trying to steal your vehicle or make money it’s a little exactly a little simple things be it’s not that “youve got to be” paranoid but exactly deter you know keep looking around and understand what’s going on around you at all days the second point as I kind of alluded to a second ago is learn how to blend in what’s also known as a great man approach I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about what a great man approach is you can google it but basically it’s you know not standing out building nothing you know having nothing on you or you know the way you gape the acces you’re the clothes you’re wearing not being any you know not constituting yourself stand out that if someone saw you and they had a recall the story of seeing you they wouldn’t really remember anything about you because there’s that’s nothing there was nothing that digest out about you you weren’t wearing a you know a cloak coat you weren’t wearing a NRA hat you didn’t have tattoos on your limb you time look like one of the the civilians when I first arrived in Afghanistan I patently I didn’t look like an Afghan which was obvious I time looked like a usual American and over term what I begin to do is I admit my whisker to grow out you are familiar with I begin to adopt their garb and it attains it a lot easier when I went into public to not really stand out standing out evokes unwanted notice having you know cool tactical garb you know being tactical you know you know backpack with backpacks with Molly all over it and you know things that I speculated look at half my paraphernalium I realize that you know most of my paraphernalium is almost set up that route and it’s made me reconsider how I you are familiar with really the behavior I appear I don’t really want to stand out the next thing in spot three one of the things I learned while in Afghanistan that and again this is not only prepping but this is just good everyday life talents is avoid confrontation one time we were in the downtown area of Kabul and we’re just trying to drive to get this somewhere and a large crowd of beings were chasing this mortal down one of the down down this intersected by at the intersection that we were at and I knew at that moment even though they were about a hundred gardens out the crowd was pretty big I immediately told her driver turn around get us out of there I did not want to be stuck in traffic with a large crowd of people or bordering us there was another time where I was running in a taxi by myself which in retrospect I should have done you know often we would always go at least duos whenever we would go anywhere in Kabul but for whatever reason I couldn’t get anybody to go with me I was by myself the taxi was just I needed somewhere to go it was a very far and it’s a you know a drive that I do every day and the guys start taking me down some weird directions that I time knew he was trying to basically lengthen the time to try you know drive up the cost and when we arrived at my location that he was dropping me off he were starting to hustle me and he got certainly confrontational and he was trying to get more fund out of me I knew what he was saying even if they are I didn’t consequently speak the language that well but I knew enough from his body language and what he was trying to communicate that he was trying to get he was he was trying to get particularly confrontational trying to get money out of me in that moment for me I displayed stupid I exactly kind of departed along and simulated like I didn’t understand what he was saying even though I did and I tried to get away from the situation and try to get someone involved that was adjacent that the members of this house that you know again trying to pass off and move away and it cultivated I paid him his coin and but he was trying to get a lot more out of me and but in that situation I you are familiar with I only played dumb you know I tried to stay cool I did not look for a fight or try to escalate or fight back normally in those situations hostility anytime you read in any type of guidebooks or diaries about situations where there’s conflict especially in a prepper situation where you know you may have crowd or you know individuals trying to you know get something from you still etc at the end of the day you’re just not going to want to try to engage in some gunfight or something like that even though you may be you know you may have weapons on your being and you know you may even have a right to defend yourself or stand your field at the end the day is just not going to play out well someone’s going to get hurt avoided strife where you can if possible and again I have to kept that follow at if possible there are ages where you may not do it back down and you may be stuck in a corner you may have to defend you or your family but if possible stay away from it number four sanitation I graduated with a degree in microbiology I wreaked in the restaurant industry for eight years so understanding basic cleanlines you know you know that what you know basic menu handle you know your own personal cleanlines empty your hands a lot of these things I have learned apparently in college and then you know working in the menu manufacture but truly got to see working in labs in college what just you know how easy it is a transfer illnesses if you’re in a grid down statu you’re in a situation as you know Preppers prepare for being a situation where you know maybe a disaster thumped your orbit understanding exactly basic hygiene like hey how do I cleanse my meals how do I use hot soapy spray how do I use bleach in water to disinfect how do I make water safe for boozing you just can’t drink water out of the river I imply if you ever contracted you already are beaver fever you know what that’s like and it’s not a lot of fun I used to mountain climb and I contracted Giardia when the worst experience of my life I’ll still remember to this day and it’s a reminder why not – or you know make sure you properly sterilize your spray you know one of the second thing and again speaking of sanitation and learning how to do big-hearted you know simply basic avail ourselves of ocean you are familiar with even when I was in Afghanistan where I learn how you know because liquid was so scarce we had to learn how to keep it clean how to take a bath out of a container of sea and that’s it every day and there’s little things like that that you can learn at this time that will really be critical whenever you need those knowledge so I would encourage you begin to learn how to you know rather store bleach in your residence bowl so because these kind of things can come in handy you know disinfectant these things come in handy if there is a great down situation one of the other things you likewise want to have stored in your preps is a good medical gear in the event that “youve had” minor cuts rubs those kind of things if left on tendon can grow into severe places abruptly imagine a grid down situation where you know you may not have access to a doctor or basic medical facilities having good cleanlines is going to be critical point number five be flexible one of the things I learnt from Afghanistan is things don’t ever go as proposed it’s a living in Afghanistan charity the country is a beautiful place but it’s a third world countries country that was at the time I was there was right you know they just come out of major you know the decades of fighting and war and the concept of organization and things that you and I take for granted in the United Commonwealth where things are organized and you know really well kept together things rarely croaked as scheduled when I was in Afghanistan you could plan to go and got something or go to the bank or you know try to book a airline ticket and their systems has only just been not organized there and so you were lucky if you got something you thought would take an hour it would maybe take all day and so you haven’t learned how to be adaptable you can get annoyed and you have to have backup programs okay if this doesn’t work okay how do we go and do this a plan a does it use what’s our project B in this situation ever have a back-up plan be adaptable and when things don’t go right don’t freak out I’m a button freak I adore things being done a certain way that I had learned very quickly when I was in Afghanistan that things just can change on a moment’s notice and there’s an old saying in the prepping parish two is one and one is done this kind of applies here having a back-up plan you may think this one thing is going to work properly and it doesn’t and you know it’s good to always again have backup strategies figure six the best interests of the a unit a crew is so critical again I worked with a squad of 25 or there’s 25 of us in total at most of time I was there most of the team was comprised of physicians we have parties on the team with a lot of different skill sets with a handyman so many different skill sets that came in handy really my kind of position on the team was a jack-of-all-trades I facilitated where things were needed cured teach a lot of Kabul University school English and be sure you know to begin to develop relationships in advance in your neighborhood detect parties with skirts and particular skills and abilities then one if you can find somebody with military suffer that’s huge number two determine somebody that is a physician begin to build a relationship it’s not that you have to sit down with this person and precisely dump all your information that hey I’ve got all these preps over here and which starts yourself a target but very begin to build relationships with parties that have skillsets that’s it you don’t have that can complement areas where you’re weak point number seven when I learned in Afghanistan is hinder a positive outlook one of the things that’s interesting if you read any type of survival journals is the aspect of morale and continuing a positive demeanour there was a book that I believe it was unbreakable it came out Angelina Jolie did the movie about a year and a half ago the book was amazing if you haven’t read it I would encourage you to do so but there’s a big part of the book where the main courage in the fib is strand on a raft with one of his fellow pilots their plane went down in the Pacific and they had to survive I want to say 46 days it was some crazy number there was a third being on the boat that he didn’t survive simply because his attitude was he just gave up and they all had the same troubles they all had the same lack of available resources but one’s one of the people on the boat his attitude was he couldn’t make it the other two even though just really adverse predicaments he picked those two chose to stay positive and to keep fighting and propagandizing onward and they lived and so one of the things I really learned quickly “re gonna have a” positive outlook is critical in a situation where you may have grid down you may have things just going wrong it truly facilitated doesn’t help to be negative again I know this I’m speaking you know to myself here I tend to be very negative a lot and it’s easy for me to focus on what’s wrong as opposed to focus you know choosing to say you know what I have to choose to have a positive attitude and are progressing with that attitude especially if you have a family they’re gonna be looking to you I was very fortunate was in Afghanistan most of the team that I worked with was Filipinos on our crew some of the most happy parties “youve been” gratify these lot of the people that are on our crew that were Filipinos they came from situations that weren’t abysmally different than what we were living in certainly there was it the war-torn aspect but you know they didn’t they didn’t really come from you know really nice houses and all the things that we have as Americans they came from very little and so they genuinely challenged me a great deal in my own demeanour they just were constantly happy and it made a big difference it originated the team overall extremely positive because we’re able to feed off that energy so again what I’m not preaching is some kind of you know just happy-go-lucky nothing’s wrong attitude but prefer in Europe you have to really choose in your own mind hey am I going to let this turn me down and be negative about it because that’s infectious you know what are you going to let that begin to tear you down because that can affect everybody else as well it can spread a lot of negativity I urge you to try to find a way to be positive and you’ll get through it so so those are the seven lessons I learned while I was in Afghanistan that as I’m cook my own home for any potential situation that may come I live in Southern California one of my biggest threats that I face is earthquake and so these are things that I hope that it you know should you know major tragedy happen in my area I’ll be prepared for by simply take such instructions that I learned in Afghanistan and working it in my working life my “families ” I hope it gives you some meanings as well as you prepare for everyday status as ever I look forward to your feedback in specific comments below and if you like this channel please subscribe and again appreciate you watching this video
