Fascinated by the Culture

Strangely enough really intense culture which fascinated me but also brought me sorrow because of the conflict I think these older, I think third world countries have a huge advantage because they are naturally a little bit slower, don’t work as much and they are connected more as a people so I saw a sadness that these people weren’t connecting without their own prejudice. They could be so enlightened and they could be so much farther than they are but because of prejudice it’s holding them back and I saw that. And I like that too. I like that I saw Betawin camps and I saw women walk at least, I’m going to say, it’s a guess but twenty five kilometres and I know for a fact because they are in the rich desert and that’s where we do our test fires and then they had to walk all the way to this, I don’t even know what the river was but it’s on the edge of the rich desert north and south of Spurro and Gar (inaudible) for those who are listening. And they get the water and then they would walk back. But their camp would be moving as they would be going so that’s like talk about incredible. We also saw aqueduct systems or irrigation systems that the Mongolians destroyed and they still don’t know how they work. So there’s lots of history. Lots of beautiful parts of the culture that I loved and I loved all my friends and I loved hearing the sounds of the mirages and I loved the intensity of being a pure human at that time and survival. So there was a lot of good but every one of those good is a straight up for me a double edge sword. And I talk only for me personally because I went so extreme in who I was that it caused my own great pain through that extremeness of environment and my job and taking it so seriously.

While on deployment, Larimee shares his feelings about witnessing the extreme cultures of the Afghan people and how it affected him

Arthur Larimee

Mr. Arthur Larimee was born January 23, 1986 in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up in Alberta and being involved in sports, Arthur always understood the importance of camaraderie and with this, was drawn to the idea of joining the military. With the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Arthur trained as door gunner. He was a weapons technician and deployed twice to Afghanistan. After his second deployment Arthur left the military and together with his spouse Brittany, a fellow PPCLI, fulfilled his aspirations of opening a gym with the desire to have a place for countless service men and women to come together for support both mentally and physically, maintaining that bond of friendship experienced during service time. He and his wife have opened a clothing line and are proud entrepreneurs of the Iron King Gym Ltd in Kingston, Ontario.