Reporter's Notebook

Necessity, mother of invention

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Soldiers from the Afghan National Army’s 2nd Brigade, 205th Corps at Camp Eagle in Zabul Province’s Qalat are getting a new gym (or sports club, as the sign on the door says) and I bet the guys will appreciate their new cardio and weight machines.

It definitely will be an improvement over what they have been using: blocks of concrete and concrete-filled cans attached to steel poles to create makeshift dumbbells and weights. The equipment looked like something out of the “Flintstones” cartoons, one of the U.S. soldiers said. It definitely did, especially as it sat, sadly unattended, next to the machines you and I are more used to seeing at the gym.

The gym isn’t quite finished, but Scott and I enjoyed the tour we got and we each took turns trying out the “Flintstones” weights, which could have been an embarrassing proposition since we couldn’t tell beforehand how heavy those weights were … But, thankfully, neither of us dropped the weights on our feet or hurt anyone else in the process.

I don’t think the Afghan soldiers, who are constantly on the move in the war for their country, need to get into shape, but I bet lifting weights and working out clears their minds and gives them a break from the everyday grind of war, and I have to say I appreciate the way they made do with what they had.

I hope they enjoy their new gym (or sports club, as the sign on the door says, right next to the pictures,  torn from glossy Western magazines, of freakishly rippled bodybuilders).