Combat Pin

Today I received my Combat Pin for Civilian Service from our Commander at the town hall meeting.  Civilians received the pin after serving 30 consecutive days in a war-zone.

Farewell Dinner

After a year, my boss is headed home.  Tonight was his big goodbye.  And it sure was memorable!  When you work and live with the same people every day, you bond.  You rarely have alone time which means your every action, good bad and embarrassing, is witnessed by someone.  The farewell dinner is the time for all those someones to step forward and reminisce about the most amusing and embarrassing events during your tour.  While I may not have been here for all of the stories told, I still had tears streaming down my face in laughter.

The highlight of the evening was a two sided poster.  The first side contained a PhotoShopped image of “Mattress Man” which accompanied a story of Andy reallocating a mattress…and getting caught.  The other was an image from the 80’s when my boss was in a rock band.  In the photo, he was playing the guitar in red spandex.  He had made the mistake of sharing his stories of being in this band and had even showed a few photos.  His roommate was kind enough to contact my boss’ wife who was more than willing to e-mail a copy.  That image was promptly blown up poster size to accompany the harassment.  What made this so funny is that my boss is so professional…rocker just doesn’t fit the image.

It was a fantastic evening and a great opportunity to remind me that I too will be in the hot seat one day and I need to watch what I do because everyone else will be too.

RSOI Tent

Right now all the Army Corps employees have a roommate.  ONE roommate.  Compared to the military this is nice as most others are three to a room (even the officers).  However, for civilians, one is one too many.  On our compound, work in underway to get us to single occupancy.  Today we finally saw some movement on what will hopefully be my future home.

On the way to our nearest DFAC, we pass the Reception, Staging and Onward Integration (RSOI) Tents.  This is where whole units stay as they pass through KAF before heading out to FOBs (Forward Operating bases).  Anytime people complain, our J4 OIC (Logistic’s officer) tells them that he would be happy to make arrangements for them to move into an RSOI Tent.

The Alarm without Snooze

I hit snooze a couple of times before ‘The Alarm’ went off.  This alarm I couldn’t ignore.  This was my first rocket attack in the morning.  Seriously?  I am not a morning person and sticking me in a confined space with someone who is loudly humming to a Spice Girls song on her iPod is not a good idea.  Next time, I’m bringing my own iPod into the bunker.  I’ll keep it in my jacket pocket with my socks.  : )

I have been asked quite a bit if I had been outside the wire yet.  The answer is no.  I do hope to get out but will only be allowed if it is Mission Critical.  It isn’t safe.  Several people have died from the rocket attacks on our base since I have been here.  This is definitely not a sight-seeing trip.

Guest Speaker

Found out that I wasn’t the only one taking shelter with a French Soldier.  I learned that there was a French Soldier in one of our USACE bunkers as well.  Turns out there is Military Development Training for our military guys that includes guest speakers.  The other night a French soldier had come to talk about the French Army but had been disrupted by an attack.  I contacted the coordinator to ask if I could attend.  He said yes and invited me to attend the make-up session with the French.  It was fascinating.  His English wasn’t great but he gave a great presentation about the French Military.  I will defiantly try to make as many of these presentations as I can.

Sleep... finally

There is so much work here that I could work non-stop for days.  Unfortunately, my body can’t keep up.  After several late nights, I finally hit the wall.  Yesterday I was exhausted so I made a point to leave early and I was in bed just after 7pm.  Today I feel recharged and ready to go.

My Hair Miracle

I feel like a new person.  Since I arrived I have been having a horrible time with my hair.  I thought it was the dryness or the shampoo until my roommate suggested it might be the water.  I Goggled my hair issues and found a suggestion to try washing my hair with bottled water.  That did it!  It is a pain to drag bottles of water into the bathroom every day but totally worth it!

A new friend

Today is officially my one month mark.  Mike says that everything is fine and I really do believe him.  I am so lucky to be able to focus on the mission here without worrying about what is going on at home.  He is such a good Daddy.

Tonight I made a new friend… while lying in the dirt.  My coworker and I decided to break from work and walk up to the DFAC for dinner.  The food was the usual disaster but we ate it anyway and headed back.  Half way back to the compound we heard a huge thud.  My friend said "I think that was a rocket".  I replied, "probably not because the alarms didn’t go off".  We kept walking and a few seconds later, the alarms went off.  We dropped to the ground then took shelter behind a structure.  We're supposed to find a bomb shelter but we didn't see any close so we just stayed there.  A very nice French guy had the same idea so we weren't alone.  We had a delightful conversation with him.  That is one of the coolest aspects of this base, the people, not the rocket attacks.  I learned about his job and what life in the French Air Force is like.  He was also married with two kids at home.  He was a great guy and although he apologized for his English, I had no problem understanding what he was trying to say.  While we were there we heard a few more rockets hit and we were in the dirt again.  It was probably an hour or so before we finally got the all clear.  We said goodbye to our new friend and headed back.  What a great experience this is!

An evening with my friend

Last night was a welcome break.  My Navy friend and I finally connected and spent the evening together.  She arrived here about a month before me and lives on the far side of the base.  She came by after work and I gave her a tour of our compound.  Then we went to dinner over at the Asian DFAC.  It was pretty good.  I haven’t been able to get anyone else to go there because it is so close to the Poo Pond.  I understood what they meant when I walked out the door after dinner and got a big whiff.  Kind of ruins the dining experience.

After dinner she gave me tour of her living quarters.  Wow, I understood why she was envious of our shower when I saw hers.  The room was about the same only we have wardrobes and they don’t which makes a difference.  He roommate was nice.  Because of her rank she is only two to a room where most soldiers are three to a room.

I really enjoyed my visit and felt recharged after I said goodbye.  Living and working so close to each other makes a visit from an outsider very refreshing.

Kandahar Base Tour

Today was eventful although not very productive.  I woke up to the sound of my new roommate spraying what sounded like aerosol hairspray.  It stopped then it started again, and again.  I laid in bed baffled as to why she would possibly be spraying so much hairspray.  It turned out to be spray starch.  She was ironing her uniform!  I remember those days.  Once upon a time I might have considered it.  Heck when I got here it even crossed my mind, but then I realized that dropping to the ground during a rocket attack in a freshly pressed uniform just doesn’t sound right, so a warm dryer and my hands is as close as I'm going to get.

The morning started as usual as did lunch on the lunch wagon.  I had a taco which was an exciting change.  I had to cut up sliced tomatoes and lettuce to put on it, but hey, it at least tasted good.

After lunch I walked over to the Bazaar only this time I actually brought money.  I ended up getting three movies for $5.  Now, what I find fascinating is that these are clearly bootleg copies.  We are bringing these vendors onto the base and allowing them to sell these copies.  The general consensus seems to be that we are helping the economy and it helps moral, but I still think it is odd.  However, that didn’t stop me from getting Salt, Letters to Juliet and Yogi Bear.  Two out of the three played well.  I'm guessing the Yogi Bear isn't on DVD yet so the copy I bought is a camera in the theater copy.  I walked over and asked to exchange it and he said ok.  I haven't checked this one yet but if it is bad, of well.  I am not about to argue over $1.  They are real good about exchanging bad copies but I don't think it was the disk as much as the method.

Then I tossed my laundry into the machine and headed back to work.  I had only been working about an hour when we got an email message that they were going to take down our .mil to reposition the satellite link.  That was the beginning of the end.  I went and moved laundry then headed back.  Three of us were chatting in the office a few minutes when the admin realized that my coworker and I had not been on a base tour yet.  So we jumped into the truck and off we went. 

Wow this base is huge.  We circled all the way around the back side of the airfield.  It was really neat to see all the different areas...all brown of course.  We were driving along perimeter road where the admin told us we might be able to see camels.  There was quite a bit of traffic and the speed limit is 12 MPH (no that isn't a typo) so we were just relaxing looking out past the wire for camels.  All three of us were so focused outside the wire that none of us realized we were at the end of the runway and that there was a fighter taking off.  While we were clear to drive where we were, the noise of the afterburners scared us and we all grabbed our ears and ducked.  I swear I thought the plane was having issues and was going to crash right into the side of us... it was that low.  I quickly grabbed my camera and managed to get a quick photo of the second one taking off right after him.  We all got a good laugh out of that.  And we never did see any camels.



That spec is the second plane.  The smoke you see is from the burn pits.

Typical military lodging.  Stacked RLBs.

After we wondered back to the main part of the base we swung by the "Poo Pond".  There is construction under way for a new waste water treatment facility but until then, it all goes into the Poo Pond.  Some days we can even smell it from our compound.  I can't even imagine what it will be like in summer.

The "Poo Pond"

Back at the compound I put away my laundry and managed to get back to work.  Then the alarms went off.  As I was lying on the floor I thought, "I am just not going to get anything done today."  I grabbed my jacket and dashed off to the bunker outside for some more "bonding" with my fellow Corps employees.  I had only been back at my desk a few minutes when the admin asked me if I wanted to walk up to chow.  Why not?

Once I finally made it back to the office and got back to work I was tired.  I’m guessing the last few days working past midnight are starting to catch up with me so I decided to call it a night.  Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful and I will feel like I am actually making a dent in my mountain of work.

New Roommate

My roommate left early yesterday morning for Herat.  She was a good roommate so I suspected that I would not be so fortunate again.  She needed to go though before someone got hurt.  She had a coworker whom she did not get along with at all.

Turns out this woman’s roommate wasn’t getting along with her either so the roommate sought refuge in my room.  She is very quiet and I think I might have gotten lucky with two good roommates in a row.

Here are some photos of my room.  I live in the back.

My room on the right, bunker straight back. 

Spinning Butt

I think I bruised my pelvis…more specifically my the ischial tuberosity (I had to know the name of the part of my body calling attention to itself all day.)

I miss home but I REALLY love my job.  I have a new project that I am working on that I didn’t want to leave to go to bed.  I was finally showered and in bed at 1:30am which made the 6am alarm come very early.

Spinning

We are constantly reminded that there are people who want us dead.  I just didn’t think the Spinning Instructor at the NATO gym would be one for them.  That workout was intense!  I had heard good things about the classes here so my co-worker and I decided to give it a try last night.  We had already heard that you must have separate gym shoes that have not been worn outside, so armed with our plastic AAFES bag of shoes and our reflective belts we headed to the gym.  It is about a 15 minute walk from our compound.  Once we arrived we switched shoes in the entryway and went inside.  The first line we stood in was to gain access to the gym.  Even though the gym is huge, there are a lot of people here and it was packed.  The line moved slow but steady and after about 20 minutes we were at the counter where we exchanged our dog tags for a locker key.  After putting away our jackets and dusty shoes, we went and stood in the line to sign up for the spinning class.  There are only about two dozen bikes, if that, in the class so we had to stand in line to be able to get a spot.  The line went right through the center of the weight machines so there were people working out on both sides of us.  It occurred to me that we were spending quite a bit of time waiting to work out.  (From the time we left our compound until the start of the class was about 90 minutes.)  Half an hour before the class started, registration opened and our line started moving.  This time when we got to the counter we got a pair of bike shoes that clip into the bike.  In the class we snagged two bikes along the wall. 

The instructor gave us a quick rundown of how to appropriately adjust our bike, then class began.  The seat was horribly uncomfortable but I learned that was a mute point as most of the spinning class is spent standing.  I was proud of myself for finishing the class (and staying on the bike).  The walk home felt good but I am going to be sore tomorrow.

Loud thuds

During the night last night I woke up to the sound of loud thuds.  I am still trying to learn all the sounds Kandahar has to offer.  I expected the alarms to go off but when they didn’t I knew that it wasn’t a rocket attack.  It continued for what seemed like forever, but in reality was little more than an hour.  I learned in the morning that the sound was that of outgoing rockets.  Of course I don’t NEED to know what is going on, but I sure am curious.

While being away from my family and basic American routine is not fun, I will say that my job is.  I love every second of it so far.  Having a 3 minute commute to work is nice and the long hours really don’t seem so long when you enjoy what you do.

This is my walk to work.

My desk.

This is my walk home.

Our compound is under construction which will hopefully be complete by spring.  We are building both office space and lodging.  The goal is single occupancy.

The door you can see is my room.

Tactical Vehicles

We weren’t able to get the van for our usual lunch run today so a few of us walked over to one of the closer DFACs for lunch today.  Because it is dark when I come in and dark when I leave I don’t have a lot of opportunities to take photos.  I happened to have my camera on me and was able to take a few.

The tactical vehicles are just cool to look at.  I can’t tell you what they are or what country owns which, but I thought I would share.

Happy New Year

I hid from 2011 under the covers of my bed.  I didn’t have to work on New Year’s Day so I took advantage of the time to sleep.  I fell victim to what is affectionately known as the “Kandahar Crud.”  Basically it is a cold/flu that reminds you that you, and your body, are not at home anymore.  I had been able to drag myself to work the remaining days of December and on the last day got a ride to the PX to get a packet of chicken noodle soup and crackers.