Camp Nathan Smith's patron saint
Graeme Smith, Globe & Mail, 19 Aug 06
Kandahar — Canada's military base in Kandahar city has a patron saint, and his name is Popeye.
His real name is Fida Mohammed, but the squinty handyman was re-named by U.S. troops who noticed his resemblance to the squinty, spinach-eating cartoon character.
The Americans were just one of several forces that occupied the old fruit cannery over the years, before the Canadians established Camp Nathan Smith within the compound's high walls.
As the cannery's owners changed, and Afghanistan's civil wars swept through Kandahar, Popeye always stayed in the same place.
He hung around the construction site as a child, when Czech investors built the factory on the northeast edge of the city in the early 1970s. He worked there through the 1980s, and when the mujahedeen took over in 1992 he was the official responsible for shutting down the processing lines and handing the facility over to the warlords.
Even during the Taliban years, when the factory was converted into a notorious prison, Popeye was never far away: He set up a gasoline depot nearby, and watched the Taliban guards herding their captives with sticks.
He moved back inside the compound when the Taliban fled in 2001, and the U.S. soldiers who conquered the place allowed him to stay. He's been taking care of the maintenance work ever since, and tending a vegetable garden.
For years, he lived with his son in a wooden shack. But the Canadian soldiers have started to treat him like everybody's grandfather -- he's maybe 56 or 57 years old, well beyond the average life expectancy here -- and some of them decided that such a well-loved personality on the base deserved better living quarters.
Soldiers scrounged for building materials and spent at least four months building a three-room bungalow during their off-duty hours.
It's a modest house, with bare concrete walls, but luxurious by local standards.
During the construction, the soldiers told Popeye that the house was intended as a new office. They summoned him to the building on Thursday with the pretext that they needed an air-conditioning unit installed, then handed him the keys and told him he now owns a house.
The old Afghan didn't say anything in response, overcome with emotion.
But he found words for his enthusiasm today, as he gave journalists a house tour.
As usual in Afghanistan, his pleasure was mixed with sadness. The Provincial Reconstruction Team based at Camp Nathan Smith has been criticized by local people for the slow pace of its work so far, as the death of a Canadian diplomat earlier this year and ongoing fighting near the city have hampered reconstruction.
While clearly overjoyed about his gift, Popeye seemed worried about Afghans living outside the camp's razor-wire fence, people who haven't yet enjoyed the benefits of Canadian generosity.
"I am satisfied with my life," he said. "I am happy. My life is better than the previous times. But hopefully we will have a stable security area outside."
