Cell Phones? We don't need no stinking cell phones....

But, wait, heck yes we do! I thought I would be without a cell phone for the next year -- which actually wouldn't be a bad thing. So after I get here, I find out that Afghanistan does indeed have a cell phone company. Awesome! So, I went down to the phone store at the Boardwalk, plunked down $43 for the phone, $8 for the SIM card, and $50 for a phone card with 2500 afs on it. Now what are afs? They are like cell phone minutes over here, but they are not a minute, and nobody can figure out how they convert to minutes. Oh well, who cares!! I have a cell phone again! :-) I use it to keep in touch with the people I know at KAF, and I called home using it the other night. We also have to report in any time there is a bunker call so we can be accounted for.....kind of hard to do if you are away from our camp with no phone.

You know, one of the strangest things I have noticed here is that there are no ringing phones. I spend 12 hours a day in my office and I think I have heard the phone ring 3 times in the past 10 days. In fact, the first time my cell phone rang after I got it someone had to tell me my phone was ringing....I didn't even notice it. :-)




Now kids, if you think the cell phone your mom dug out of the drawer for you because you trashed yours and you aren't due for an upgrade is Ghetto.....think again! These phones are REALLY Ghetto. No fancy buttons, ring tones, colors, etc. Texting on it is quite an adventure as well. If you are wondering just how Ghetto they are, check out the picture below.......

Clean Laundry.....It's A Good Thing

Everyone loves to have clean, Downy fresh laundry. However, accomplishing that task here is quite an adventure!

There is a place here where you can send your laundry out to be done. The problem is obtaining a laundry bag. No dice right now. And besides, the thought of a stranger washing my under shorts kind of creeps me out. So, I go on a quest once a week for clean clothes.

Last week, I went with a couple of co-workers.....at 1am. ICK! So this week, we decided to try going over to the self-laundry at about 8:30pm. HA! Not an available washer to be found. So we loaded all of our stuff back into the truck and headed home to get a couple of hours of sleep before the alarm went off at, yes 12:45am. Back in the truck at 1am and off to the laundry. Thankfully, there were lots of washers available and we got clean clothes. Then back home and back in bed around 3:45am. The alarm at 6:15am was not a welcome sound.

So, I guess that for the sake of Downy fresh laundry, I will be doing a once weekly 1am run to the laundry facility.

The USO Brings Toby Keith to KAF

Here are a couple of pictures from the Toby Keith show last night. The pictures are not very good. I hate that I can't get the video to upload -- it is great! It was pretty good! I'm glad that I went. He sang most of his war songs....Ballad of Ballad, The Taliban Song, Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue, along with a little Smokin' Weed With Willie and Should've Been a Cowboy. We were in a really good spot. My friend Ron went and grabbed us a spot early. I'm glad he did because the place was packed!! Although not everything about TK thrills me, he is good to the men and women who are out there fighting for our country and for that alone I can respect him.

A Typical Day

My day usually begins about 5:30am. I get up with the alarm (if I was actually able to sleep in) and head down to the shower. I am usually ready and on my way to the office by 6:30am. I work until about 6:30pm and will walk over to the DFAC (dining facility) if I am hungry and get something to eat. Sometimes I go to the Boardwalk and hang out with a friend. Then it's back to camp, a shower and in bed....usually by 10 or 11pm. Then things start all over again....Groundhog Day Syndrome. :-) As I learn where more places are, I will vary my routine so that it doesn't become so routine. I will go to the gym a few nights a week and then to do laundry one night a week.

Last night I was really tired. I walked to the DFAC and had dinner with my friend Pam who is leaving for FOB Geronimo tomorrow. After dinner we went to the PX and then walked back to camp. My room has been really cramped and I have been wanting to re-arrange the furniture (and trust me, there are not many ways to do that in a 10x7 room). I had gone back to my office to get my laptop and ran into my friend Edward. PERFECT - help moving the furniture! I wish we could have video taped the process. It was hysterical! We would move one thing and then not be able to move any of the other pieces. Edward finally pulled the armoire halfway out the door, I climbed over the desk and into the corner and we were finally able to shift everything around the way we wanted. Thank goodness I grabbed him or I wouldn't have been able to do it. Edward is my hero -- he's also the one that held my hand in Ft. Worth while I got all of my shots.

Anyway, I really like the new furniture arrangement. It gives me a little bit more room and I can actually use my desk and chair. Before, I couldn't pull the chair out from the desk. :-) I was showered and in bed by 9pm last night and fell right to sleep. It was good that I went to bed early because the fly boys were up and running about 3:00am. I really thought they were doing touch-and-go's off of the roof of my CHU. They must have been flying low because the whole place shook.

Man It's Foggy Outside.....

Oh, wait!! That's not fog, it's dust!! This is what I woke up to at 5am this morning. I got up early so that I could run, walk, suck wind over to the coffee place and get a latte before I showered and got ready for work. Well, scratch that thought. :-( It rained late last night and was nice and clear and cool when I went to bed, and I figured that it would be a nice morning. Wrong answer! Apparently a sand storm blew through last night and we were left with the nasty, icky, moon dust and close to zero visibility (notice that there is no sign of the mountains in the distance). It is a little after 1pm right now and it has not cleared much at all. I guess it could be worse.....a friend of mine is at one of the FOB's (forward operating base) and she said it was really bad there. So much so that there is an extra 5" of moon-dust sand in her tent.

And the story continues......

Upon arrival at KAF, I was herded around like cattle for a few hours. I had to register with the base and surrender my passport for a temporary badge. This badge required you to be escorted everywhere you go if you are going to leave the camp where you live. Lemme tell you, first, surrendering your passport in a foreign country (on a military base or not) is pretty scary. Second, it is a real pain to have to be escorted everywhere you go. Thankfully, the next day I was able to get some papers from HR and take them to the badge office and get a permanent facility access card and get my passport back.

Anyway, after checking in I dragged my luggage to a little bus to take me to billeting....and I am quite thankful that the bus took me to a private CHU (containerized housing unit) rather than a tent. Remember that it's 1000 degrees outside (where I have been standing for a couple of hours waiting), you are extremely jet lagged, and that freaking luggage gets heavier and heavier. The bus took us to pick up our PPE which consists of a flack jacket, helmet, and gas mask...this adds about another 50 pounds to the luggage, lol. :-) I finally got to billeting, got my room assignment, and got to take my luggage, etc. across a lot filled with huge rocks and up the stairs to where my room was (the luggage does not roll on the big rocks, lol). Thankfully there were a few people around that I knew and we helped each other move luggage.

I got into my room and turned the A/C down to 17 C. :-) I really wanted to collapse onto the bed, but instead unpacked my luggage and the two boxes that I had mailed ahead of time. It was nice to get unpacked and a little settled. By the time I finished all of that and took a shower it was about 11pm. And wouldn't you know it....I was wide awake at 1:30am. :-)

The first several days were really rough since I was not sleeping at night and the thought of food was disgusting. Over the last few days I have been sleeping 5-7 hours a night, which seems to be enough. Food is still an issue, though. I have been eating yogurt for breakfast and then eating either lunch or dinner. The food is not terrible, but it has been pretty rough on my system. I'm sure I will adjust to that as well. As a result, all of the pants I brought with me are too big....I won't complain about that, though. :-)

In spite of where I am, I am doing good. I have been getting away from camp at night and have met some really nice people. Everyone here kind of looks out for each other, which is really a blessing.

Off to KWI

On April 27th, I left Fort Worth bound for Kuwait City. We left DFW about 11:45am and flew to Dulles. Our flight to Kuwait left about 6:15pm, to arrive in Kuwait City about midafternoon - the next day! The flight was very, very long. Someone was at the airport to meet us and help us clear immigration and customs. The whole process was actually much easier than I thought it would be. We all loaded our luggage on a bus and went to the Crown Hotel in Kuwait City.

This is my new friend Pam and I on the bus to the hotel.

The hotel was really nice, although we were only there overnight. Below are some pictures taken inside and outside.

We left the Crown at 5am and headed to the airport for our flight into Afghanistan. Again, clearing customs and immigration was very easy. We waited for about 3 hours before our plane left. Our flight was about 5 hours, with one stop in Dubai to refuel and pick-up passengers.

Let the Adventure Begin

I intended to have this blog up and running before now, but sheesh it's been crazy! :-)

My adventure started in Ft. Worth, TX and the deployment center for the company I went to work for. Amazingly enough, the deployment center is located in the Mariott at Champion's Circle. Not the nicest Mariott I've ever stayed in, but pretty nice none the less. It was very convenient having everything at the hotel, rather than having to shuttle all over Ft. Worth.

The first four days were filled with medical testing - 8 shots (yes, 8), blood work, EKG, etc. We received some other training about the project that we are working on and the mission over here. We also received IED (improvised explosive device) and combat first aid.

After all of that, there was alot of waiting. All total, I was in Ft. Worth for 11 days. I met some very nice people during the process, which made things so much easier.

The first weekend I was there was race week at Texas Motor Speedway. A few of us went over to the track after the race one day and walked around.