Larcenous little ones swarm Marine Female Engagement Team

MARJAH, Afghanistan — She was about 5, adorable if grimy, and all smiles as she walked over to the interpreter. She darted a small hand into the interpreter's pack and sped off with a bottle of water.
 
"Did you see that?" said an unamused Heela Nasseri, part of a Marine Female Engagement Team, an Afghan by birth but American at heart and by citizenship. "She stole my [expletive] water."
 
That was just foreshadowing.
 
The inner door to the elder's compound opened, and its secret world lay revealed. But there were only seconds to take it in — the old woman washing pots, the clothes hanging on overhead lines, all the women laughing and chattering in their dusty velvets and sequined scarves, two headless chickens — before chaos descended.
Scores of children of all ages crowded around the FET and a reporter.
 
 
 
FULL STORY:
http://www.stripes.com/news/larcenous-little-ones-swarm-marine-female-engagement-team-1.133128