LISBON – Of all the boys’ and girls’ questions, only one caught Master Sgt. David Bernard off guard:

“Did you make any friends?”

The soft-spoken soldier hedged. He told the third- and fourth-graders from Lisbon Community School – his pen pals during a year in Afghanistan – about his long days and little free time. He left out descriptions of a hostile enemy or the dangers outside the U.S. camps.

Instead, he answered questions about the heat, the food, and, especially, the kids.

“I think children relate to children,” Bernard said.

Computer-projected images told much of the story.

As he showed one boy’s face, Bernard talked about the conditions he likely lived in, in a concrete home with no running water.

As he showed another boy, Bernard talked about how this boy helped truck drivers at an American base.

It was a real job, he told the kids. And the boy was part of a child labor force that helps inside and outside some U.S. installations.

“They grow up really fast over there,” Bernard said. “They have to provide for themselves a lot of times.”

The notion drew gasps from the children.

The Maine Army National Guard soldier, home for just 19 days, went to the Lisbon school to repay a debt.

While Bernard served in Afghanistan with the 240th Engineer Group, children from the school sent him letters and packages.

They also sent him school supplies for kids in Afghan orphanages. There were pens, crayons and notebooks, items that were distributed in several places.

Bernard pictured some of them – such as those in a snowy mountain village – in his slide show to the kids.

Bernard also brought back hats and scarves to touch and try on. He passed around a tea bag for kids to sniff the chai.

“Would you like to go to Afghanistan?” he asked them.

“No,” a chorus of child voices said.

The relationship between Bernard and the school was built on family connections. Bernard’s son, Brandon, works as a teacher at the school. The soldier’s niece, fourth-grader Taylor Martin, attends the school.

And the notes from the kids, many of whom Bernard never met until Monday, helped during the lonely times.

“I answered many of them personally, writing to them in longhand,” Bernard said.

The soldier, who turned 50 while in Afghanistan, helped organize military construction across the country, from roads to bases.

The Taliban hold is weakening.

“We are winning the war,” he said after his presentation.

During his talk, there was no talk of the Taliban, though.

It wasn’t needed, said teacher Sue Hardiston, who had decorated her classroom in red, white and blue banners.

Bernard’s appearance – in uniform – accomplished a lot in itself.

“It makes the war real and not some fantasy,” she said.