Painting a picture of danger

"They kidnapped five people today," one e-mail began. "How are you?"

How am I? Worried sick about Caleb Schaber, 33, a Seattle artist who has been sending me dispatches from Afghanistan. He got there a few months ago after stints in Iraq as a contractor and a journalist. Schaber has become my eyes and ears in the Middle East, a pen pal like no other. He knows the ease of a night at the Five Point Cafe but also the uncertainty of war in a place we only read about. He reminds me of how much we complain.

For all our cracks about Dick Cheney, there are more serious shots being fired in the world.

"They are shooting machine guns outside my hotel," he wrote Feb. 10. "Anyway ... ."

You may recognize Schaber's name. He was one of the artists behind the monolith artwork placed in Magnuson Park in 2001, and a bartender at the Blue Moon Tavern.

In 2001, Schaber ran unsuccessfully for mayor, seeking to represent the city's fringe populace. Schaber was more interested in art, anyway, and made annual sojourns to Burning Man, the Nevada art festival.

While working as a construction manager at Burning Man, Schaber befriended members of the National Guard who were headed off to Iraq. Schaber wanted to go, too, and tried to enlist, but the Army wouldn't take him, he says, because of tattoos on his hands.

So he posted his résumé on Monster.com and got a job managing a crew of Pakistanis to build living quarters for the military in Iraq. The contract ran out and he was sent home, but returned to the Middle East after creating the Northern Nevada News Wire (www.nvnewswire.com). For six weeks, he worked as an embedded writer in Kandahar, Afghanistan, with an Army unit from Nevada.

Now he's back behind a bar, this time at Kabul's Mustafa Hotel, where, according to its Web site, "Thursday night kabob night is a must."

Schaber is drawing, painting and learning to speak Dari. And despite the occasional sound of machine-gun fire, he still walks the streets alone. He will return to Iraq in the fall.

Some 250 foreigners have been taken captive in Iraq since the United States invaded; 39 have been killed, according to The Associated Press. Afghan militants have been copying Iraqi insurgents, kidnapping security and aid workers — mostly in Kabul.

"I am a thrill-seeker," Schaber explained. "I am not a person who can work a normal job. While I am not a supporter of the invasion in Iraq, I believe in my friends who are soldiers."

Being there, he said, "has been the apex of my life."

"I don't support the invasion," he said. "But I believe we must see this through, or the world will be a worse place."

He still misses his friends in Seattle. Discovery Park. Movies at the Varsity. His ex-girlfriend.

For all the complaining we do, Schaber told me, "The rest of the world is far more terrible on civil rights and freedom."

Worried as I am about Schaber living over there, I am grateful, too: He's teaching me to better appreciate life here.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Stay safe, and keep writing.