Halloween

Happy Halloween Everybody!

I tried to think of something spooky to share with you on Halloween, and this is the best that I could come up with.  So, gather around the campfire kiddies...

Shrine for a Martyr

The Above shrine is located near where I live.  It is dedicated to a martyr who died fighting the British in the early 1900's.  This is one of two shrines that I have seen near where I live.  The guy who led the fight against the British back then was this guy, King Amanullah Kahn (he has his own much nicer shrine in another city):

So apparently I am living where a bunch of people were killed about a hundred years ago in the third Anglo-Afghan War.  I'm not sure what the fabric pillar with the metal thing on top is, but it is interesting to see this every day, it kind of sticks out: 

The actual shrine

 Afghanistan has some interesting history, of which this is just a small bit.  Part of me would love to get out and see some things, but it is just not possible. 

Happy Halloween everybody!

Groundhog Day

I have now been in Kabul for two weeks, but it feels like much longer.  I work 12 hour days, 7 days a week.  People here call it the 'groundhog day' effect (from the Bill Murray movie by the same name) where each day is pretty much the same as the day before.  And while I feel like I have been here forever, I also feel like my days are on fast forward, so maybe  that is a good thing. 

US Forces Afghanistan Patch

Taking pictures here is a little bit tricky because there are a lot of things you cannot take pictures of, but I'll try to get some up here in the next post. For this post I will try something different and hyperlink certain words so that you can investigate further if you like. 

I work at ISAF HQ in Kabul, Afghanistan.  ISAF is a NATO command, but there are a lot of other non-NATO countries represented here as well.  Looking for people from other nations is kind of like bird watching.  Every once and a while I see a new species with a unique uniform with a certain pattern and with certain colors that I have not seen before.  So far on my base, besides Americans, I have seen people from: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and the UK.  When I went to another base nearby I even saw a large contingent of Mongolians!  So there is a very international feel here.  It is kind of like some bizzaro version of Disney Land's 'It's a small world' meets some sort of weird war time Epcot Center.  In case you were wondering, English is the dominant language used by everyone. 

Fun things that I have seen so far:
      -The Germans had an 'Oktoberfest' one day.  They closed off part of a street on base and put up some German flags and barbequed some bratwurst.  One of the female German soldiers even had on a 'beer girl' outfit, although she was wearing combat boots.  Sadly, Americans are not allowed to drink any type of alcohol in Afghanistan :(   - although Europeans are permitted a maximum of two drinks each on their national holidays or festivals. 
     -The Navy celebrated its 236th birthday yesterday (Oct. 13th).  To celebrate, we sailors had a BBQ in the evening.  It was fun.  I've found that these little events help break up the standard routine. 
     -Kabul is located at almost 6000 ft in elevation (think Denver-ish), so it is starting to get pretty chilly.  It has been raining recently so the mountains around the city already have snow on the peaks.  Very calming. 

Well, that about does it for me today.  Stay tuned...

Have Gun Will Travel (Part 2)

Well, I have been in Afghanistan for a little over a week now and I am a little behind in my posting.  So, before I dive into describing life here in Kabul I will finish talking about Kuwait and the trip to Afghanistan.

(mural)

Kuwait: What can one say about Kuwait... hot, sandy, basic... well that pretty much sums it up.  I spent a whole week in Kuwait waiting for my flight to Afghanistan.  It was nice to have time to just hang out and regroup for a few days.  The dining hall there was pretty good, and the USO was top notch.  Some of the barricades around base had nice murals painted onto them from units that had been stationed there in the past (like the one above) - kind of making a wartime gallery of sorts. 

(Starbucks - they're everywhere)

Life in Kuwait is pretty basic.  We stayed in tents (nice tents, but still tents).  Luckily the tents had AC because it was about a billion degrees outside (think Phoenix on a really bad day).  Did I mention that it was sandy?  We were allowed to wear our PT gear around.  The good thing about that: a t-shirt and shorts are much more comfortable when you are on the surface of the sun.  The bad news is that my tennis shoes acted as a filter to let only the finest particulates of sand-powder into my shoes!  There was no running water, so we used port-o-potties for our restrooms and our showers were located in a trailer.  If I left the shower trailer with my feet even slightly wet... you guessed it: sand stuck to my feet.

 (bathroom)

 (my own tent city)

I got to know some of the people pretty well over those previous weeks of training, but then we started trickling out of Kuwait on different flights to different destinations in the CENTCOM area.  And then after a week it was my turn.  I got on a plane, a really big plane (C17), headed to Afghanistan.  No in-flight meal on this flight: 

(not as comfy as commercial)

(stuck in the middle)

And after many hours of sympathizing with sardines, we landed in Kandahar.  I spent half a day there for in-processing and waiting for my next flight.  I am glad I am not stuck at that base, it seemed very crowded, hot and dusty - and the food was terrible.

...and then I got on another large (but not as large) plane (C130):

(webbing for seats, how quaint)

...It seemed that the farther along in my journey I got, the less comfortable the travel accommodations became.  Finally, I made it to Kabul.  I am now a long way from home, and I have traveled thousands of miles with my rifle at my side - and I have finally made it to my destination... which is where I will pick up in my next post...