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June
9, 2008
'Some of them were in really bad shape and some of the guys didn't make it out of there,' the 25-year-old Sydney Mines native said. 'There's that side of it, and then there's the story about the kids that they're helping go to school. They're helping to rebuild the country there. We got to see a lot of that stuff first hand.' A first-time visitor to Afghanistan, Fraser joined Horizon Talent out of Calgary for a mid-May performance at the Canadian Forces base in Kandahar. Fraser travelled along with fiddler Troy MacGillivray of Antigonish County and Cape Breton rocker Matt Minglewood, who has performed in front of the troops before. Fraser returned to Boston from Afghanistan, Thursday, where the ECMA winner is a student at the Berkeley College of Music. She said while she didn't feel unsafe during her tour, she also wasn't permitted to leave the base for safety reasons. Fraser and the other performers did experience two rocket attacks, which sent them back to the bunkers, but said it isn't as dangerous as it sounds. 'We had a rocket attack during one of our shows in Kandahar, but it was kinda blown up a bit in the news. They actually happen probably three to four times if not more per week. It's old Soviet weapons that are shot down on the base, but they're not explosive,' Fraser said. 'No one's ever been hurt by them.' Joining the Nova Scotia trio were four singers, two country acts, a bilingual singer, a house band and two comedians. The group performed four night shows, and slept in rooms and ate food similar to the soldiers. 'One of the things that struck me is it's so hot there. It can be 48-50º C there and we can wear whatever we want ' they have to wear their uniforms and their helmets and their weapons... I can't imagine doing that. They're real heroes; they really, really are.' After performances, the entertainment crew spoke with soldiers about their lives and duties in the desert and obtained autographs. Fraser said for her, a soldier's life is not always portrayed clearly in the media. 'They don't get a lot of live entertainment there, so when it comes along they're very appreciative of that. It was a huge honour, just to be asked to go on something like that. Just to ease their minds a bit about what they're doing,' she said.
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SYDNEY
- They call it the boneyard and it might be one of the most powerful
images to grip Cape Breton fiddler Kimberley Fraser during a visit to
Afghanistan, where she performed in front of thousands of Canadian
troops. Consisting of mangled machine wreckage, it's the place where
tanks go after they've been hit by a roadside bomb and it's one memory,
among many, Fraser will hold for a lifetime.