Life

Time has flown by, I look at my last post and think it was so long ago and so much has happend in such a few short months.  I returned home from Afghanistan in late September and hit the ground running, I attended weddings, spent time with my family, ran a half marathon, spent weeks on the road training to deploy again, and all while trying to catch my breath.  Although I am very excited to be returning to Afghanistan in a few weeks, there are times I wish I had worked a few extra days into my into my down time and there are others where I can't wait to get back. However, at this moment I am back in the "I need more time" mode as I scramble to finish my last minute preparations before I leave in a few weeks while fnishing Christmas preparations.  But, now that I am "home" I feel calm, and life is good.

Engagement

In Afghanistan the interactions between men and women is much different then what we experience in the US. Here women do not interact with men unless they absolutely have too. It's not that they don't want to, but rather if they are seen with a man that is not a relative it looks poorly on the family and they could be punished or worse. As a result most marriages are arranged, with the couple having barely met or even spoken before the marriage actually takes place.

I have two young men in my class, Fawad and Nesar, who as a result of the culture and customs of Afghanistan have absolutely no experience with women/girls. When my friend Boris was helping me out, they took the opportunity to ask him how to talk to girls and what kind of things a man would say to a woman. This progressed to how a man should propose to a woman. Boris took pity on them and told them a few things they could say to girls and also showed them how to propose to a girl. Fawad who always wants to make sure to get it right decided to practice on Baba Rob, for some reason it kinda freaked Rob out.

Fawad then came to me, asked me for my hand, proceeded to get down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. At first I thought he was just practicing on me, as he did this multiple times. I even had both Fawad and Nesar propose to me at the same time! I soon learned that he was quite serious, every day he asked me to marry him, referred to himself as my fiance, told me about the beautiful children he could give me, sent me the lyrics from love songs to my facebook, and continued to ask other "experienced" men what sweet nothing he could murmor in my ear.

On his Birthday I decided to have a special dinner, so we ordered out food, and we got him a Birthday cake, deciding to take advantage of the situation he made sure that we cut the cake together and he then fed me cake. Soon after this I had to break it to Fawad that I would not be able to marry him, I am pretty certain he has since healed from the rejection, but on the other hand he was able to practice his proposal over and over again, so the next time he decides to use it, it should be perfect!

Whatcha Talking 'bout Willis?

You frequently see dogs all over in Afghanistan.  However, they are not well liked.  They scavange for food and avoid humans at all costs as they are usually kicked or have things thrown at them by most that they encounter.  There are a few puppies that I feed on a regular basis, they will eat out of my hand, but they will not allow me to touch them.  I named them Lucy and Ricky.

The other morning as I left camp and was headed to AGCHO I looked over onto the street and saw this dog running along the side of the barrier and he was doing this happy bark.  A few of the soldiers were trying to shoo him away and I yelled at the soldier to knock it off as he was throwing things at him.  The dog soon found his way over to the sidewalk where we were walking, he came right up to me and I rubbed his head and his ears.  I thought right away, this dog is different, he is too friendly, he let me touch him without even knowing me. We continued walking, and he just walked right along with us.

He kept walking with us all the way to AGCHO, we had to go through several gaurds, all of whom tried to shoo him away, but I told them that he was my friend and they let him in.  Once we arrived at the GTC he just hung around the building all day while we were inside.  We stepped out every so often to give him a little love or a treat, but he just stayed right there all day.

I thought he might get bored waiting for us all, and decide to move on, so I made sure to take some pictures of him because he was such a sweet dog.  So I grabbed him close and he began to lick my face, soon he had moved behind me, put both of his paws on my shoulders and lowered his head to the side of my neck as if to give me a hug.  It was very sweet.

Once we were finished for the day we headed back to camp and he came with us, but this time we had decided to call him Willis. He walked all the way back to camp and I said good bye to him at the gate.  I had to tell the gaurds to be nice to him because he wanted to follow us in.  We walked in to the gate and past a second set of guards.  I look back and the guards at the first gate had opened it up wide and here came Willis charging down the alley way towards us.  I knew right away that this wasn't going to be good.  There are cats on the base and a few military dogs, but you didn't see stray dogs in camp.  We still had a third set of guards to go through and I was certain they were going to stop him, but they just laughed and let him walk right on through. 

He followed us back to our work area and promptly passed out in a planter.  He spent a few more hours with us and then moved on his merry way.  I haven't seen him again, however, I still have a day full of memories.

Running Addiction

I never considered myself to be a runner, when I was younger I would struggle to get through the mile run at school, I was the big, slow girl in class.  This trend continued throughout much of my life.  There were periods of time when I would do small amounts of running, maybe a mile or so, but never consistently and never truly with a passion.  I never in my life thought I would be able to run a 5k, it just didn't seem to be in me.

Enter Ty into my life.  My friend Ty challenged me to run in a 5k with him here in Kabul, I had never run that far in one instance in my life.  But, one of my goals while I was here was to get into better shape, and I thought that running would definately help,  Besides, how many people can say that they ran their first 5k in Afghanistan?  So I started running, it was pretty slow going, maybe a mile or two a day, but I was running.  I managed to run 5k before the actual race, so I knew that I could do it, however when race day arrived, I was still recovering from a few "graceful moments" and in the heat of the day I struggled more then I thought that I would.  But, the important part is that I finished the race.  My time was nothing spectacular, but I enjoyed the experience.

After the 5k I continued to run, Ty mentioned running in a 10k on the 4th of July and with that as my goal I kicked up my training a notch.  In the weeks that followed I found days where I just felt like running and I ran 5 miles, and I was so suprised at my ability to complete it.  Unfortunately, it did not work out in my schedule to run in the 10k, but the night before I ran my 10k...actually I ran 11k, but I did it!  Again I was suprised at my ability to do this, I have never in my life been a runner.

A few weeks later I was running, and when I started I thought I might do a couple miles, but as I started getting into it I think to myself, no, I want to run farther, I'll do a 10k tonight, only I didnt' feel like stopping after the 10k, I kept going and ran ten miles that night.  I was tired, but I felt as though I could have kept going.  I ran for two straight hours without stopping. Who was I turning into? Because I was not someone who would ever, or had ever run ten miles straight before!

By this time running had become many things for me.  It was a stress relief, exercise, a mental relief, and many other things. After awhile I started to enjoy the feeling I got when I ran, the mindless obliviation that I seemed to settle into as I ran circles around base.  If I didn't get to run for a few days I started to crave it.  I can't help it, running has became an addiction!

It was after running the 10 miles that I realized that I am capable of doing so much more then I had ever given myself credit for.  I decided that I wanted to train for something (I need goals), I thought about a half marathon, but I believed that I could do that now and that it wouldn't really be a challenge for me to achieve it.  So instead I decided it would have to be a full marathon.  I thought long and hard about which race to enter and what the time frame should be.  I decided to enter the Denver Marathon on October 17, a few weeks after I returned to the US.  This would give me 13 weeks to train and as an added bonus, and I was already training at altitude.  Plus, I needed to go to Denver to pick up my cat : )

I am nervous about my new goal, but excited as well.  I know that I will be able to achieve it, I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead of me, and to seeing myself acomplishing goals that I previously never thought possible.  The upcoming months will be yet another adventure and full of many 1st's!

Strawberry Cigars

Generally Speaking my philosophy about smoking is that it is absolutely disgusting, cigarettes are nasty cancer sticks waiting to kill anyone stuipd enough to smoke them and cigars and pipes really arn;t that much better.  However some how, for some reason, I have become a cigar smoker.

It all started out innocently enough.  Every Thursday the men from my department get together and smoke cigars.  It is their way of celebrating "Man Love Thursday".  Generally, I would not be allowed at this party as I am a woman, but ocassionally they let one of us join in for comic relief.  So on one of these days that they so kindly allowed me to say one of my co-workers showed up with a strawberry cigar to smoke.  I got to smell it, and boy did it smell good!  Once it was lit I had to give it a try, and I was suprised by the sweet taste it left in my mouth.  That night I ended up pretty much smoking that whole cigar by myself as the co-worker who brought it left the party and never came back.  And that was the begining of my cigar smoking.

After my first time I figured that I wouldn't mind smoking the flavored cigars as they were light and didn't leave me feeling sick in the morning.  Also, it just so happens that the head dudes of our department all took part in this cigar smoking, so I figured it couldn't hurt to get in good with them...you never know when they might be of some assistance in the future! 

But, that is not where the cigar smoking ended, several of my friends enjoy smoking cigars and one decided that he was going to smoke a cigar every night of the last month he was in country, well for him this turned into some where between one and three cigars a night, for me it was just one, but still...its alot of smoking.  Atleast the company is good!  Once he leaves I will probably be back to the one night a week "Man Love Thursday" cigar party with the boys.

Above is a picture of me squished between two of my favorite seamen on a cigar/pipe night.  I think they want to be like Popeye!

Winning Hearts and Minds One Child at a Time

One of the big campaign strategies for the US military is often called the COIN strategy.  It refers to the winning of the hearts and minds of the Afghan people towards the US and its coalition.  Although this is a good strategy, I and many of my friends feel that the focus of this should be on the children as they are the future of Afghanistan and essentially the most important part.

As a result of our belief in the need to do good for the children and a desire to make a difference my friend Boris and I took on a major project of reconstructing a daycare facility.  The project began as a desire to create a playground for the kids to play in and has evolved as we saw the condition of the facility and the needs that were so obviously there.

It is a two story facility tucked back a ways behind a few other buildings, upon entering you can go straight back to a "Turkish" style bathroon or up two flights of stairs to the second floor where there are two classrooms for the over fifty children that attend the day care, an office, and a kitchen.  In many places the plaster on the wall is falling off, and the paint chipping.  The glass in the windows were broken and cracked, there was exposed live electrical wiring, the walls are covered in soot and ash (a wood burning heater is used in the winter).  The carpets are dirty, the small beds the children nap in are old and worn and there are more children in the small space then probably should be there.  Essentially this place is one that most of us would refuse to live in let, alone allow your child to be cared for in on a daily basis.

After observing these things and many others we decided to do what we could to help.  We wanted to repaint the facility and give it a clean and cheery feeling for the children.  We also wanted to improve what we could.  We started by having a painting party with volunteers.  We were able to paint the classrooms and get a good start on the hallways.  We continued with the improvements and installed ceiling fans in both classrooms, new glass in the broken windows, and the sanding and repainting of the beds.  Once the painting is complete we will be installing new carpets in all of the daycare.  We would also like to install air conditioners and heating units so that they no longer have to rely on burning for their heat and are able to keep and soot and ash out of the facility. 

The play ground area was literally a dumping grounds before we started. We had all of the trash and rubble removed from it and had a new wall built and fresh masonry work done to clean it up.  We intend to put in a small playground, cement the area, and add rubber mats.

It is a huge project that has consumed much of my time over the last several weeks.  However, to see the children happy, the progress that is being made, and the difference we are making has been incredibly rewarding.  I am looking forward to seeing the completion of this project, seeing the difference it has made in the childrens lives and the impact we were able to make in the simple act of trying to make a difference one child at a time.

If you would like to follow the progress of our group please check us out at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31358287&id=1005810794#!/group.php?gid=141531235863844

4th of July Celebrations and Adventures

"Special" Food

My friend Boris has been helping me out at AGCHO while my Canadian is home on R&R.  He has been a great help with the students and getting things done.  However, he isn't the biggest fan of our $7 a month lunches.  So since it was a holiday I decided to send my boys out to get lunch for everyone.  Since there were twelve of us I told the guys to get 11 kabobs, a thing of rice for me, chips, drinks, and whatever else they wanted.  So when the got back and we all start to eat I notice that some of the kabobs seem to be made of a lighter meat then the others.  I ask them about it and I am told it is a another kind of kabob, a "special" kabob.  When I ask them what kind of special kabob they didn't want to tell me.  It was Dave who said, "you have heard of Rocky Mountain Oysters right?"  It was then I understood why they didn't want to tell me.  But they did say that since it was a special day they thought special food was in order.


Accidents Happen


So it being a holiday and all I decided that I was going to dress up and look something like a female for a few hours. So I put on this long dress that I had brought along, and since it was a summer dress I had to wear a shrug so I was "Decent".  I was walking down the street with Boris and this local Afghan was riding by on his bicycle. Like always they tend to stare at me, so being the brilliant man that he was, he was riding his bike and staring at the woman on the side of the road. He then proceeded to do that little eyebrow thing that guys tend to do that says "hey, your looking good, wanna go get busy". I was pretty much disgusted by this, so I looked directly at him and gave him a dirty look. He proceeded to run his bicycle into a cement block. I did a side fist pump and exclaimed "yes" while Boris and I laughed the rest of the way down the street. Seriously, I know that I am an accident waiting to happen, but it is even more fun to be the cause of an accident!
 
 
International Relations
 
I am at a 4th of July BBQ, after standing in line for half an hour to get food my only options are lettuce, meat, meat, meat, and meat. Finally I settle on some meat with lettuce. My friend Boris and I snag the end of a picnic table with a tag along. We were waiting for my stalker and his friend to join us, so we were trying to find a table big enough for all of us. When we first sat down there were a couple of Brits on the other end of the table. But about halfway through they got up, so we decided to move down and take up the rest of the table to make sure we had enough room.
 
Less then a minute goes by and another Brit comes over and asks if he can join, Feeling bad that we had the whole table we said sure. Well it turned out it wasn't just 2 or 3 Brits, but like 12. I had gotten up to use the bathroom and came back to find our table had been commendeered by the British Royal Navy. However, there were still a few chairs we had pulled up left, so I said, ok you all can have our table, but I get the chairs (we were going to move them to a smaller table). One of the Brits response was, thats ok, you took our country. I just laughed and asked them if they had had any Tea Parties that day?  I returned a minute later with a festive Patriotic Decoration to put on their table and proceeded to give them instructions to "Celebrate America's Independence" They were afterall at our 4th of July BBQ!

Hugs!

This first part is for all the non-government people:  The government structures the majority of its employees on a GS scale of 1 - 15, I am a lowly peon GS-12, my site lead is a GS-15.  The people higher then the GS-15's are referred to as SES's.  Essentially senior executies. 

Now the group I work with here was run by a US Army Colonel, but is now being co-run by a civilian SES, who I will refer to as Mr. T.  Now, Mr. T is a very nice guy and his office happens to be right next to where my group sits so we always say hello and exchange pleasantries. I have even smoked a few cigars with him!  (Strawberry and Grape flavored of course)

So one night I was hanging out with my stalker and I walked him back to his room.  He gave me a hug goodnight and as we are pulling apart this random guy walks by and asks where his hug is, as I turn in the other direction here comes Mr. T asking for his hug as well.  Since I knew Mr. T I figured why not, so I give him a hug, explain to the other guy why he didn't get a hug but Mr. T did, and continue on my way.

Fast forward 24 hours, I am hanging out with my friend Bruce and I told him what happened with Mr. T the night before and he says, "I would have given him a hug" I just laughed.  Well as we are walking back to our rooms, who do we run into but Mr. T, and I proceed to ask him if he is ready for his hug.  I give him a hug and then Bruce moves in to give him a hug as well.  He turns to me and says "I told you I would give him a hug".  He certainly did.

The next day I run into Mr. T in the guard shack, we both just look at each other and I bust out laughing, he says to me "I know what your thinking" but to be honest, I was just trying to decide if I should ask him if he wanted his nightly hug a few hours early.

Laundry Facilities

I would like to add to the list of things I miss my second hand washer and dryer.  This may seem like a relatively small thing.  But trust me, they are sorely  missed.

For doing laundry at camp I have three options.  The first is a free laundry service where you take in your clothes and they send them offsite to be washed, folded and then returned to you.  The problem with this is that one, I like instant gratification and don't want to wait the day or two it may take to get my clothes back.  Two, ocassionally items are not returned to you in the condition they are sent in or not returned at all.  Three, I feel weird having some stranger handling my "personal" items, especially if I want them washed a specific way.

The second option is the laundry facility, there are two on base.  However, there are so many people on base who want to use them it is a struggle to actually find open washers. When you do see there are open wash, you sing Hallalluah, run back to your room grab your laundry bags, and run back to the laundry facility in hopes that no one else got there before you and put their clothes in the washers.  You then have to wait for the wash cycle to run, generally it is double the length of time that is indicated on the washer, followed by atleast an hour in the dryer.  Nothing you wash will be returned to you with out additional "stuff" on them, random stains will certain appear in places they were not before they were put in the washer and ocassionally you will find someone elses socks mixed in with yours as they didn't get removed from the washer before your clothes were put in there.

The third option is the shower.  By that I mean wash your goodies by hand in the shower stall, ring them out and let them air dry in your room for a few days.  You do this for anything you do not want ruined or you do not trust in the washer.  I dont mind doing it, but things usually take atleast two days to dry...so a pain in the butt!

And of course I have my favorite laundry story.  So I have two bags that I fill with clothes to take to the laundry facilities.  I get there and I wash them, come back 30-40 minutes later and put them in the dryer, and again after another hour I pull them out of the dryers.  I generally just shove everything back into the laundry bags and bring them back to my room to fold so I can put them away.  Well right before I went to pull the clothes out of the dryer it started raining pretty hard, so there were a few puddles here and there.  As I was running back to my room from the laundry shack my one bag of "whites" just happend to hit the ground in the middle of a mud puddle, so my freshly washed and clean white clothes were now muddy brown.  I proceeded to return to my room and did my best to shower wash them and let them hang dry.  Unfortunately, its hard to get muddy brown off of white in the shower...

English Turrets

As a part of our work at AGCHO we teach English to our employees. Dave does formalized training twice a day, probably for about 30-60 minutes a day. Frequently the students will come in with questions about words that they have heard on movies or TV, they will also pick up things that you say and ask what it means etc. There have definitely been some funny words and occurrences dealing with learning English.

After a rough day where Shikeab lost all of the data on his hard drive, he returned the following day with the word “suffering”, I told him I was suffering with him.

Often times I will hear what the students are saying in Dari and think it’s an English word. Once I over heard what I thought was Fawad referring to Nesar as “Honey”, I asked, did you just call him honey? He said no, and then proceeded to ask what honey meant. So I explained it was honey that you eat, but also a term of endearment for your special someone. Occasionally, someone gets called honey.

However, my favorite English story is about Nazir. Nazir will pick up on a word or sentence and then repeat it over and over again, but extremely fast. So fast that I couldn’t always understand his English, so I always have to tell him to slow down and to pronounce each word distinctly. Apparently he speaks Dari very quickly as well, and his co-workers have to tell him to slow down frequently too. I was telling one of my friends about Nazir and how it made me laugh how fast he said things etc, his response, “it’s like he has Turrets”.  And really, how can you not laugh about that?

Peace, Love, and Vampires

Our monthly hail and farewell seems to grow with each passing month. This month I have to say good bye to my site lead whom I have come to refer to as “Daddy Warbucks” this is for a few reasons. First, before I even arrived he began to look out for me in a fatherly fashion, second he is bald, so it pretty much fits perfectly. I am going to be very sad to see him go. He is a great guy and I have truly enjoyed working with him. I also will need to say goodbye to this crazy biker dude from California who has instructed me to refer to him as “The old son of a bitch”. He is going to be truly missed as approximately 95% of our comedic relief comes from him. We have a board where we write down the funny things that people say; it probably should just be renamed for him as all of the quotes are his.

I would guestimate that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of at least 40 people there. To celebrate the fun occasion we got lots of food from the DFAC, this included burgers and dogs, potato salad, beans, chili, chips, and of course ice cream, it was good!

However, my favorite part of the night was the piñata. One of the girls from the team created a piñata full of candy and all of the people that were leaving tried to break it open. Being the smart person she was, she reinforced it with duct tape, so everyone hit the crap out of the piñata and no one was quite able to break it. But it was certainly fun to watch. As an added bonus, she is a total Twilight fan, hence the awesome piñata design!

5K

My friend Ty decided that I was going to run in a 5k with him. This was determined a little over two weeks before the event. I reluctantly agreed to do it knowing that I had never run that far consecutively in my life, let alone in a 5k race. But, I figured that it would be good exercise, and hey I could say I ran my first 5k in Afghanistan.

I began running almost every day and figured that I should be able to get through the race with a little walking. My goal was simply to finish.

Race day came and went with a few difficulties. First, I had a few “graceful” incidents that took me out of the running train for most of the week leading up to the race and the day of the race was quite hot, (I had been running at night) and it made it more challenging. However, I made it through, I completed the race in a much faster time then I had anticipated and was glad for it. There were several people from my team that ran, and it was fun to see so many people participate. There were all kinds of runners, from the Mongolians who sprinted the entire race, to the slow pokes like me who were just trying to make it through. Apparently my next goal is a 10k in July. Lord help me now!
Myself, Ty, and Daddy Warbucks before the race

And we're off!!

After the race...I squatted down so they wouldnt feel so short!

Just call me Grace

As many of you know, I am a walking disaster. If there is a hole, I will find it, step in it and trip. If there is not a hole, I will still trip and fall…I am just that good.

Saturday

I go out running in the evening as it is cool and I had finished work for the day. So I am running along and low and behold I find something to trip over and fall down. I end up severely bruising my right knee cap and cutting my right hand. Truly, a great way to end the night.

Sunday

I was sore and hurt from the night before and I didn’t sleep well, so I was running late for work. I stopped off at the DFAC to grab breakfast and head to the office. Now, one of my new obsessions has become applesauce. So I was carrying a TOGO carton with a bowl of applesauce on top of it. I walk into the guard shack and put down my food, put my phone on the shelf, pick up my food and turn to enter the combination for the door, as I do so my applesauce falls and I end up with applesauce on my shirt, pants and in my shoes…not a good way to start the day.

Monday

Monday was a seemingly normal day, until dinner that is. We frequently will eat dinner outside on this patio area. So after eating our meal we decided that we needed to have some ice cream for desert, so I go to get up and end up catching my foot between the chair and table and going down. I bruise myself all the way around my ankle, my left knee, hip and shoulder. Luckily, the patio was only half full, so only 20 or so people saw my graceful fall.

After that point I thought it would be a good idea to start taking bets on how many more times I would fall this week. Unfortunely, once the next Saturday rolled around, I again biffed it at the DFAC, I am now keeping a running total on my stay here.

What I miss and how it has changed me

Being away from home and from your known suroundings definately throws a person off.  You are no longer able to walk down the street to the grocery store or head into walmart, you can't go camping in the woods with your friends or do any number of things.  And I am ok with that.  I volunteered to give that up,

What I miss are more simple things;

I miss my family.  My family is going through an extremely exciting time right now as we look forward to the birth of the first grand baby into our family.  I am supper excited for my sister and her husband and cannot wait to meet the little guy.

I miss my electric toothbrush.  I'm not really sure what changed, if it is the food, the environment or the voice of my mother in the back of my head, but I have become obsessed with brushing and flossing my teeth,  It seems as though I can't keep my mouth clean enough. 

I miss my close friends, and the ability to call them up and go visit and hang out when I needed someone to be with.  I got lucky when I got here and was quickly able to pick out my Afghanistan Best friend, Ty, he quickly became my shortkick and we really enjoy hanging out togehter.  I feel lucky to have him in my life as a friend and confidant, However, I miss my old friends too, and communiation is hard with a crazy time different among other things.

I miss the ability to get into my car and just go somewhere, here I walk everywhere I need to go, and if its on base then you can go anywhere, your just very limited on where that is.

I think that one of the biggest things I miss is privacy.  Privacy is at a premium.  Even in my room there is no true privacy as my roommate can hear everything I do, and everywhere you go there are people, sometimes I just crave solitude, and a little time to regroup and regenerate.  I always liked my alone time, but never realized before now just how necessary it truly was.

Missing those things are difficult, but I still feel that the job I am doing qne the experience I am getting more then make up for what I am missing.  Here I found a new family, the people I work with are crazy and great and I have come to love them.  My boss immediately took me under his wing to look after as a daughter, I have recently dubbed him Daddy Warbucks.  My Canadian Baba Rob has grown on me imensely and I am already sad at the idea of him leaving in a few months.  My other co-workers all have their unique quirks and good personalities that make working with them so much fun.  There is not a day that goes buy that we do not laugh until there are tears pouring out from laughing so hard.  It's what happens when you put a bunch of crazy old men togehter in one room...

What has Changed me

I think the biggest thing for me is self confidence in my abiliteis and my skills and my future.  I also have a better sense of myself.  The confidence has allowed me more freedom to explore different areas of myself and be able to search those areas and determine the true me.  A time of reflection was good.  Now I need the strengh to stand behind those lessons learned and do what is best for me.  And it will...it may just take time like anything else.

Camp Life

Remember what it was like to live in the dorm at college?  Where you and a roomate share this tiny space and there is a floor full of rooms just like it filled with even more people?  That is pretty much exactly what it is like here.  I live in a connex, which is a building made out of shipping containers, basicually each room is one container and is shared by 2-3 people. They named it the SWAMP, which I love since I am a huge Mash Fan.  I am lucky in that I only have one roommate, her name is Doll, she is pretty cool and tolerates my wicked ways well enough, so I can't complain.  We partitioned off the room to have a litle added privacy but is still a shared room and you can always hear what the other person is doing.  I am also lucky in that the bathroon is just across the hall.  There are three shower stalls, two toilets and two sinks.  Im not exactly sure how many woman are on my floor and share it, but i would say 10-15.  Some mornings it can get a little hairy, but so far it has worked out.  The only problem comes when there isn;t any water and you cant take a shower, wash your hands, or flush the toilet.  That has only happened a few times in the month I have been here, so I guess it could be alot worse. 

Heading outside there are several  more buildings that look just like mine.  Many are housing buildings and some are workspaces.  Across the street is one of the chow halls...it has the longest lines, but in my opinion the best food.  Not too much further down is a gathering place for many, there is a fun patio with a tree and flowers, a video shop, the green bean coffee shop, mwr where you can rent movies and games, they also have pool tables and fooshball tables as well.  Next to that is one of the gyms, and inside the gym is the movie room with couches and a big screen tv.  My friend Ty and I frequently enjoy relaxing on the cumfy couches and watching movies...sometimes we even get to choose what we watch! (We are in the midst of the Star Wars Saga as I had never seen them.)  Outside of the gym is the clam shell, this is where all of the big activities take place.  Any group training is done here, church services, and the fun stuff like bands, salsa night, karokee night etc.  Througout the area there are many places to shit and chat and relax.  It is nice to have so much so close.  My office is a bit further away...it probably takes 2-3 minutes to walk there. and from there it is another minute or two to the other DFAC. 

DFAC's are very important places.  Firstly because I love to eat.  Food is GOOD!  So I always make sure to get in there for dinner and then I stock up on snacks and necessities that i might need for later in the day like cookies, cereal, beef jerky (for the dogs) fruit, and beverages.  I have to say that even though I enjoy and appreciate having someone else cook for me, I would much rather cook for myself.  And for some reason no one has thought up Veggie burgers or morning star products.  Might make things easier.  But I guess there is always salad.

Overall its a pretty small camp. I have found that once I become aware of a person I see them everywhere and because it is the same people over and over again it tends to begin to feel like stalking...just ask my stalker he'll tell you.  I like the closeness of the community though.  It seems like you cannot go some where and not know anyone, kind of makes me feel like I'm on cheers or something.

There are some luxeries there though, there is a pizza place that should stay open for another few months, there are several haji shops where you can get rugs, scarves, various knick nacks, and a custom made suit for $60.  There is a nice courtyard filled with gazeebos and roses where lovers go to cuddle up and where the rest of the guys just go to hang out because it is so pretty! There is also the lovely Green Spa that I told you about previously as well as the PX.  The PX i have a love hate relationship with.  This is for a few reasons.  Ihe first is that the flooring and stair structure of the building are really odd and being the klutz that I am I frequently trip over the floor or invisible stairs.  However they have things that I like a need, a little secion on skin care and personal hygiene, a large section of growth hormones for guys trying to get ripped, a small secion of various household goods you might want.  as well as a junk food sction an electronics area, and military supply area.  I have found that my favorite area is the junk food section....i try not to eat too much junk food, but i have a hard time resisting sour cream and onion ruffles and as i was waiting in line i spied a microwave bake brownie, so I had to get two.  Bake that bad boy up, throw on some ice cream and hot fudge I scored from the DFAC, We were in heaven.  I mean you can almost have it like you were back home.  Love it! 

Cheese Whiz

I had intended to bring some treats to AGCHO for my birthday, but withit being salsa night the night before I just didn't make it to the PX tobuy anything. But I did go to the PX on my Birthday and bought some snacks (think elementary school). It just so happened that the Easy Cheese had been talking to me for the last four weeks and I decided to indulge. I told myself it was my substitute Birthday Cake. I ended up bringing the Easy Cheese and Crackers to AGCHO with me and since I had to have a few for myself I set it out for everyone. Rob and I were enjoying it and Mariam our interpreter came up and grabbed a cracker and took a bite, I told her,you have to put some cheese on it, she looked at me a little questioningly and I took the can and showed her how to put it on her cracker. She duplicated my efforts and then popped the cheesy cracker into her mouth, it was then that her eyes lit up, after she finished eating she said "that is really good!" eventually the rest of the students came around and Rob taught them how to put the cheese on the crackers. And they all were soon addicted. Apparently they had never had cheese whiz before! It was a lot of fun to be the one to introduce them to something new, especially since they all liked it so much.

My favorite part though came when Fawad took the cheese and three crackers and spelled out WWE (He is a WWE fanatic). It reminded me of how my mother used to spell out our names and varous things on crackers with cheese when I was young. I can't help it, I am always smiling!

Afghanistan Women

Many people are aware that Afghanistan women wear burkas and keep themselves covered.  For some there is a religious reason, for others it is a safety measure.  Covered here would be always wearing pants or a long dress, wearing long sleeves, and a covering for their head.  Most of the women that I have seen simply wear a scarf wrapped around their head and shoulders and show their face.

Being American and coming from a different culture and religion, I have a very different opinion of what is proper and acceptable to be shown in public.  Coming here to work I was ill prepared to be a woman working among the Afghan population.  By that I mean that I did not have the proper wardrobe.  Even though it is summer I cannot wear short sleeves, and my polo shirts that are long sleeved, well, they have a womans cut to them and therefore are not designed to be tucked in and as a result, my back will often show when I sit down etc.  This is not a good thing and as a result I have needed to be creative to make sure that I am covered from the neck down with nothing peaking out where it is not supposed to be. 

I also make the choice to not cover my head.  I believe that I am being respectful to the culture by covering my body, I will not cover my head.  This is not a problem with the people that I work with, but rather it has garnered me a great deal of unwanted attention.  Esentially, I am an oddity here, I have pale skin, and I do not cover my head which shows hair that is a rather unique color for the region.  Walking to work the men all stop to look, the gaurds all want to shake my hand and touch me, but the funniest part, is that they all want to take a picture with me.

A camera is an expense that not many Afghan's can afford, however, they all love having their picture taken, so when they see American's they know that we have cameras and ask to have their picture taken, and this is how it goes down.  Dave, Rob and I are walking to AGCHO, we get stopped by soldiers or guards and asked to take a picture, Dave ALWAYS goes for his camera, and the guards/soldiers immediately move to stand near me.  They don't just want their picture taken, they want their picture taken with ME!  I find this to be rather humerous, and have decided to start a collection of pictures with me and random guys...I'm not sure how many have been taken so far, but there will certainly be many more taken in the future!

After we took this picture the guard on the right asked for it every day. Now, first off, I didn't even want to take the picture with him let alone make the effort to print it out, Second, I had no desire to give a picture of me "uncovered" to a guy that I didn't know. However, the insistent peppering for the picture was starting to get irritating. So Rob being the smart man that he is came up with a solution. He said, lets give him the picture but put a burka on you. I said, you know that might just do it, this way my picture was not in the hands of a random guy, and the guard still gets his picture. So we had our new guy Peter photo shop a burka onto me and we will be giving it to the guard on Saturday, Rob is going to be armed with his camera to document the guards reaction when he sees the photo. I am pretty excited myself. Now if I can only get the head guard to stop asking me for my picture I will be good!

The Green Spa

Regardless of what many people think military bases in a war zone are civilized places, and at the one I am on there is a spa. It is run by a bunch of women from Kyrgyzstan. Needless to say they do not speak a great deal of English.

For my birthday I decided that I wanted to spoil myself a bit and get a pedicure, since I was there I decided to get some waxing done as well. My eyebrows needed some shaping and according to my sister Emily I need to do my lip and neck as well (damn Arnold genes!). So I figured that since I was there I might as well get it taken care of.

The Pedicure was done in what was previously some kind of bathing facility/corner of the spa, in place of a massage chair there was a padded office chair straped up on a pedestal, and a plastic foot bath placed in front of it, there was also a padded wooden stand that my feet were placed on when she worked on them. The lady did a nice job getting callouses off and shaping my nails, she painted them and did a nice design.

Next, I was scheduled to do my waxing, the lady seemed to be in a rush as she kept coming over to the gal doing my pedicure asking her if she was done yet etc. (this was all done in a different language so I assume that is what she was saying, but, I am not 100% certain) So as soon as my pedicure was done I was wisked behind the waxing curtin. I was instructed to lay down on the table and then the woman asked me what I wanted done she said eyebrow and lip, I said yes, but do my neck and anywhere you saw long hairs. Her response was "Oh my God!" and she ran out of the room. I was thinking to myself, really? It didn't seem like that strange of a request to me, but maybe she had someone else waiting and she thought it would take too long. She returned a minute or two later and proceeded with my waxing. She waxed nearly my entire face! From cheek bones all the way down my neck! Now I guarantee you I did not have hair in all of those places, so I assumed that there was some serious miscommunicationthat had occurred as my entire face is now completely fuzz free. She then moved on to my eyebrows and (sorry Emily) gave me the most intense eyebrow shaping experience of my life. I don't think I have ever had anyone pay so much attention to the shaping of my brows, but they did turn out good.

Now I am sure you all are wondering the cost of such extravagance in Afghanistan, well, let me tell you, the Pedicure was $18 and the Face Waxing was $12...all in all I thought it was a pretty good deal especially since the whole time I was getting waxed I was thinking about how much fun it was going to be to blog about. Tomorrow I am going for my $20 - hour long massage....I am excited!

A Quarter Century

Today was my 25th Birthday and I have to say it was pretty AWESOME!  I got to spend the evening prior to my birthday Salsa dancing with several good looking men.  Upon reaching my office my coworkers serenaded me with Happy Birthday. At AGCHO the English/Dari words of the day was Happy Birthday Bebe Sarah.  I got to have dinner with a close friend and am about to go spend the evening watching movies curled up on a comfy couch.  That alone would have been enough to make me happy, but there is more.  First, my birthday package from my parents and family arrived on my Birthday, it could not have been any more perfect then that.  I am super excited about all of my fun new games and my Lego man electric tooth brush!  Thank you all!  In addition to that for the last few days I have been getting emails from people from all over the US wishing me a Happy Birthday.  Today I was bombarded with Birthday wishes.  I feel so touched and overwhelmed by all of the people who took the time to wish me a Happy Birthday.  It has truly been an amazing day.

Baba wa Bebe

In my learning of dari I have taken to saying specific sentences about certain people.  When I learned the word baba, which means old man or grandfather, I said Rob baba ast (Rob is an old man), about my Canadian cohort.  My sentences have started to stick, and soon the students were referring to Rob as baba or baba Rob. 

My other sentences which I repeat often are Fawad bisar tefel calon ast (Fawad is a very big baby) this is because he is the youngest in the class.  Nesar bisar mar calon khatarnak ast (Nesar is a very big dangerous snake) this because it is funny. Shikeab buinak ast (Shikeab is smelly) this because it is also funny.  Eshan muschkil sauce chucha ast (Eshan is a little trouble maker) he is a little person and he is always finding things wrong on peoples maps!  Needless to say we laugh alot at my limited vocabulary and the few sentences I can actually make. 

While I am learning Dari the students are learning English, my cohort Dave teaches them English for atleast an hour a day so it is fun to go back and forth with words, for instance the other day I thought I overheard one call me honey, and I then had to explain what honey was and how it was used as a term of enderament.  It now gets used as a name around the room.

This morning Fawad comes in and we are talking and as usually I call him a tefel, and he responds with Sarah bebe ast, I thought he said baby and said no, you are the baby.  He said no, do you know what bebe means, and he wrote BB on the board, I said no why don't you tell me.  He said it means grandmother, now we have Baba Rob and Bebe Sarah...I think it is rather ironic that I became a grandmother before I even had children, but what the heck, why not?

Stalk her 'til she likes you!

About once a month my directorate holds a party that is deciated to "Hails and Farewells" (Hello's and Good-bye's) to any new people and to anyone leaving. Gifts and awards are presented and a few (or alot) of words are spoken. Last week there was a party where I was welcomed and a few others were sent home. Part of the going away process is writing down what you learned while you were here. One of the guys was a younger guy had a very memorable quote that I picked up on "Stalk her til she likes you" I thought it was pretty funny and have passed it on whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I was talking to a Senior Chief I had met and he was telling me how his recruiter had pretty much stalked him to get him to join the Navy, at which point I had to interrupt and tell him my new quote. He thought it was great and asked me to email it to him as he has a memory like Dori (Finding Nemo). So the next morning I sent him a quote of the day. He responded with his appreciation, I then told him to let me know how the advice panned out for him as I was curious to know how it worked. His response was that I would be the first to know as he would just stalk me.
 
Six hours later he was waiting for me at the gate as I walked back into camp.  I asked him what he was doing, his response "I'm stalking you, remember?" I'm not sure yet, but I am pretty certain that just backfired on me!

Fish Update

Today as promised Fawad brought me fish.  My $20 bought me six fish, two of good sized and four of varying smaller sizes.  One of the big ones was even orange!  Were thinking possibly a variety of koi. 

The fact that Fawad brought me fish is not the funny part.  The funny part is the fact that he arrived at work after lunch with a plastic shopping bag full of water and fish!  The bag had not been tied at the top and air pumped in...it was open, and he had carried it all the way back from the bazar! 

Well now we had our fish, but no container to put them in as if we had put the bag down all of the water would have flown out.  So we made a makshift bag holder until my boss could get there with a garbage can to transport the fish back to the pond in!  So far they are all still alive, and hopefully we can find them some food so they stay that way.  But regardless, the adventure was definately worth the $20!

Fish Pond

The camp where I live and work was once a rather upscale neighborhood of Kabul.  Many of the buildings and walkways are made of marble, there is some really neat architecture to be seen in some of the buildings.  My particular office is a connex (shipping containers) placed over top of a swimming pool.  Outside of my office is a patio with a small pond.  Some of the people from other offices have worked really hard to make the patio a place to hang out and get together, they have also made use of the pond, but filling it up with water and having filters, pumps, etc. sent from the states, so we actually have quite the water display going on. 

In an effort to make the area as fun as possible they have decided to add animals...the first addition is four tortoises.  They are currently in a box that is about 2ft x 2ft, however, they have a elephant coffin sized box that will soon become their home. Many of my cohorts enjoy feeding them and watching their antics.

From the begining I have thought that we needed fish for the pond, since I can't go out into the town myself I have recruited one of my students to do my bidding for me.  So last week I asked Fawad if he could get me live fish.  He came back a few days later and told me it would be $3 for two fish that were about as long as my palm.  Since the pond is rather large I thought we would need several, so I gave him $20 and told him to get as many as he could.  Since Thursday is a half day for them, I thought it would be a good day to transport the fish back etc.  So about 1030 Fawad and Nesar leave to go get the fish, about 1115 Fawad returns holding one fish by its tail.  The fish is not moving, he walks into the room and puts the fish down on the table next to me.  I said Fawad, you were supposed to get me fish that were alive, he said that the fish ran out of water on the walk back, I said where are the rest of them, I gave you $20 that should have bought me alot more then one dead fish.  His response was that I could eat it for lunch.  I thanked him but said that he could have it for lunch if he liked, but that I would pass.  Eventually, he told me that the man at the Bazar did not have any live fish today but that he would bring them on Saturday, however, he thought he would atleast bring me one fish today so that I would not be disappointed. Apparently he got several funny looks as he walked back to work holding a dead fish by its tail...I wonder why...

So as an end result, Fawad still has my $20, I have no fish...atleast none that are alive...and I am not certain how he disposed of the one, but the Canadian figures that we should be able to smell our way to it in a few days.

The Pakistani Embassy

At AGCHO there is a special bathroom reserved for foreign counterparts and guests. This is done because from what I hear the bathrooms for their employees are pretty gross...now I have never dared to enter one, but one of my co-workers who has ventured into the Afghan mens restroom informed me it was only a hole in the floor. Walking around AGCHO it is not uncommon to see water leaking into the hallways from the bathrooms or being tracked out. Sooo since most foreigners would consider those bathroom conditions unusable, they have special accomodations for them, we (the Americans) share it with a group of Japanese guys. My predecessors have dubbed it the Pakistani Embassy since it is such a nice place!

We have a key that we use to open the door as it is kept locked (so only the special people can use it), It reminds me of an old skeleton key. When you walk in immediately to the left are four dirty sinks (the Japanese clean their floor mops out in the sink and dump their coffee grinds down the drain), two of which actually work I think, the other two drain to the floor as the hoses have been disconnected. Luckily there is a handy floor drain for such things! If you continue on to the back of the restroom there are four stalls, each individually doored with actual toilets. A few things to note, the door frames are made of solid wood and are exactly 5'10, it REALLY hurts when you hit your head on it as you walk through! Three of the four stalls have broken toilet seats, so there is only one that I can actually use seeing as I am a woman. It is not uncommon to see water draining from several of the stalls to the floor drain as the toilets leak. Overall the bathroom is disgusting by our standards, but its better then a hole in the floor!

Now keep that picture in mind, I just wanted to give you a little background and a visual for the stories I am about to tell.

Story One

As I mentioned earlier we share the Pakistani Embassy with the Japanese, so one day I am going into the Embassy and a Japanese guy follows me in, I go into the one stall that I can use and he goes into whichever stall he decided to use. Seeing as he is a guy, he finished first washed his hands and left, as I was exiting my stall and heading to the sink, he was locking me into the bathroom. Apparently he had forgotten that I let him in to the bathroom in the first place! Luckily, my key also works from the inside.

Story Two

On this day I went to the embassy only to find that the door was unlocked, so I headed back towards the stalls only to come face to face, or face to back with a Japanese guy standing in one of the stalls with the door wide open! I quickly reversed direction and waited by the sinks until he had finished and I could comfortably enter my stall. I was happy to see that that Japanese guy did not lock me into the bathroom when he left.

Story three does not take place in the Pakistani Embassy, but in one of the Connex bathrooms back on base that is designated as unisex. It still seems weird to walk out and see guys at the sinks.

Story Three

I go to use the facilities, and you know how you get into a routine and generally use the same stall...well the door to the stall I like to use was closed but I always check to see if it is open anways. In the back of my head I had a feeling someone was in there...but I tried anyways, so I push down on the handle and to my surprise it turns, so I'm like ok and begin to open the door, only to see a uniform through the crack standing up facing the toilet...I quickly close the door and move on to the next stall and remain inside until the other party had vacated the bathroom without washing his hands...seriously though...what is it with guys and not locking the stall doors?

So although these stories take place in a more "personal" place, I get a laugh out of them every time I think about it so I thought I would share the laughs and adventures.

Learning Dari

Learning a new language is not an easy feat.  It takes time to memorize the words not to mention the different sentence structure. Lucky for me I have a wonderful translator Mariam, who is willing to help me learn.  So every day after lunch we sit down and pull out a bunch of flash cards that I made and work on dari.  I have found that I am learning, slowly if nothing else.  I am able to put together simple sentences and recognize words.  The two words that I use most often are fulcalata (fantastic) and buinar (smelly).  My sentences frequently are SoandSo is smelly (____ buinar ast), or SoandSo is fantastic (______ fulcalata ast).  Today I learned to say SoandSo is not fantastic/smelly (________fulcalata naest).  So my students got a kick out of me saying some people were or were not fantastic/smelly.  However. Mariam and my favorite sentence that I have concocted is "Men are snakes" (Mard mar ast.)  I can't help it, it cracks me up.

It seems the biggest chanllege I have is prounciation, ast being the hardest thing for me so far...it should be pronunced like mast, but without the M, only I am always saying Ace-t, or est...I blame my spanish days.  but I continue to see improvment everyday.  I am not able to put together longer more complicated sentences madAr tu fulcalata ast (your mother is fantastic), _______ shumA kar fulcalata ast (____ your work is fantastic)...I use fantastic ALL the time, but it is fun and I am learning.  I don't know if I will every truly be fluent, but I definately think that after 6 months I should be well on my way to atleast being able to understand what is being said around me if nothing else.

The Poor Man

My role here in Afghanistan is a special one as I am able to work directly with local Afghan nationals. I work with an organization called AGCHO - Afghanistan Geodetic and Cartographic Head Office. About a year ago a group of nine AGCHO employees were selected to learn how to produce map products. My organization has been sending over mentors ever since to continue to teach the students and to oversee their production. That is my role. I am lucky in that I have two additional people helping me while I am here, one is our first foreign partner from Canada (I tend to make fun of him alot). The other is a gentlemen from my organization who focuses on geographic names (the correct, local names for towns, cities, villages etc.)


The students work approximately six and a half days a week. But do keep in mind that their days are a bit shorter then ours. I would say they actually work an average of 4-5 hours a day. The students are rather young most being in their 20-30's. Many of the students have attended university and I would consider them to be a part of the professional working class. For their efforts/work they are paid a salary of $150 a month. This is enough for them to support their families and live a decent life.

Being American and living the lifestyle that I do $150 seems like so little to me. I want to feel sorry for them because they make so much less then I do and do not have the standard of living that I do. Yet someone who I felt sorry for very easily put things into perspective for me.

On Tuesday we had a going away party for the person who I was replacing and another mentor who worked with AGCHO. The Americans/Canadian all pooled some money (probably around $70) to buy lunch for everyone, approximately 18 people. We sent the students out into town to work their magic. They returned with 18 8x6x4 containers full of rice (mixed with carrots, raisins, and some kind of meat) 18 kabobs (a large piece of nAn (bread) filled with several pieces of seasoned meat (think Gyro)) a large pile of nAn (which is AMAZING!) a container of fresh veggies (onions and peppers mostly) a large bag of bananas, a large bowl of apples, and another large bowl of a small fruit that reminded me of peaches. The food tasted fabulous and we had a great send off.

Before and during the meal I noticed a man hanging around our building peeking into the door and windows. I assumed he was a gardner as he was in the garden area. His clothes were dirty and a little ragged, but he kept his shirt tucked in and his hat on. After the meal the left over rice/meat and nAn was piled together and handed to this man. (I had been told that the left over foods were given to the outside workers, so I was not surprised by this) The left over fruit remained in the room as many of the students were still munching on it. At the end of the day I asked the remaining students if they would like to take the fruit home as we were going to be away from the office for three days and I did not want it to go to waste. Instead of accepting my offer to take the food home one of my student got up, called to the man I had noticed earlier and offered the food to him. My student told me later that he was a very poor man. I felt extremely humbled and touched by this gesture. Here were people whom I felt were poor and in need of a helping hand, helping someone who they felt were in need of a helping hand. I could not have felt more humbled and fortunate that I did at that moment.

Settling In

     Going to a new place, where you don't know anyone, don't know your way around, and don't fully understand the job you are to do can be very daunting.  Throughout my traveling process and the first few days in camp I ocasionally found that I was second guessing myself and my decision, wondering if I had made the right decision or if I was even qualified to do the job I was being presented with.  I was excited but, uncertain of my abilities and what I would be able to achieve. 
     It didn't take long for me to realize that I could indeed make a difference and an impact and do a good job.  Within a few hours with the students and learning the ropes I could tell I was catching on quickly and begining to understand what was going on.  Obviously, I can't expect to know everything instantly, but I was able to see that I could indeed be of use.
     The students all speak Dari and we use a translator to communicate.  However, after a year of working with American's many of the students are able to communicate to some extent with the instructors.  I am trying to pick up a few words in Dari, so far I have hello and good-bye...when I can remember them!  I hope to learn more soon

Afghanistan

Yesterday I arrived at my new home.  After a night of very little sleep I proceded to the airport where I was loaded into a a huge cargo plane (C-117) and flown into Kabul.  The change in planes was almost like being upgraded to first class.  By that I mean I had as much room as I could possibly have wanted on the place.  It was this big open bay with a big piece of Machinery anchored in the middle.  There were maybe eight passengers who could chose from any of the fold down seats on the sides of the aircraft.  Not necessarily the most comfortable seats ever, however once the seatbelt sign came off we could walk around and I made myself a little bed on the floor to stretch out and rest for a bit.  It would have been perfect had the floors not been hard medal and had I not been freezing my butt off!

I figure that I had gotten maybe four hours of sleep since I set off on Tuesday, so I was about ready to drop when I got here.  Filling out paperwork I noticed my hand shaking and figured that was a pretty good indicator.  After a dinner at the DFAC I headed over to my temporary housing and I was out!  I slept so soundly that I didn't wake up at all to the bluegrass band that was playing right outside my door.  I woke up refreshed and ready to take on the world!

New Continent!

     Local Qatar time: 3am, Central time: 7pm, Lets just say my body is severly confused as I am wide awake. So I will write my first entry of this blog. Leaving DC Tuesday night I boarded the biggest plane that I have ever been on, they cruely made us board from the front of the plane so that we had to walk through the first class cabin into Economy (first class gets lots of room and chairs that actually go horizontal! Economy was SLIGHTLY more squished.  I was lucky in that I only had to share the three seats in my particular section with one other person, however, somehow his feet still ended up in my space! My brilliant idea of sleeping through the flight did not go well, I just am not good at sleeping while sitting up, and my butt got sore! Luckily the airline was equipped with these personal entertainment devices that have you the option of watching hundreds of movies or tv shows or playing various games. So instead of actually sleeping, I ate a few meals, watched a couple movies, and tried to keep my butt from growing numb!
     Arriving in Qatar the first thing I noticed was while standing in line at immigration was that I was the tallest person there...kind of a strange feeling. Once on the base I found exploring it to be interesting. All of the military employees always have to be in their uniform or pt gear, so at the bar (yes there is a bar, but you can only have three a night!) everyone is hanging out in their workout clothes, with the exception of the few of us who don't have too...we kind of stick out. The bar area is open all night long, and people continue to hang out all night long.  It is definately like another world, being unaccustomed to the ways of the military I had to ask how to do simple things such as get food from the DFAC (Dining Facility) and I had no clue where the bathrooms/showers were located. It can definately be a humbling experience.
     I am staying in a tent for the night with a few other people who are also passing through the base. Everyone else seems to be accustomed to the local time and I am still on state time, so after not being able to sleep it was getting up and dressed in the dark so as not to disturb the others. I need to go back in a few hours and put all of my stuff back together so I can catch a flight to my final destination. I am looking forward to getting there and settling in.

Hello Friends & Family,

Welcome to Sarah's Adventure Blog! This blog has been created by Sarah's family so that she can share stories and posts about her adventure in Afghanistan. We thought it would be a great way to keep in touch and let her know we are thinking of her. She will always be in our thoughts and prayers as she goes where no Arnold has ever gone before! Feel free to wish her well!

Sarah we love you so much and can't wait to hear about your great adventure! You are such a special woman who we love and admire. Please come home safely!

Hugs & Kisses,
Mom, Dad, Rachael, Mike, Emily, Steven, Melissa & Baby E