Ad campaign

Just a quick post tonight, mostly to show I can actually update this thing two nights in a row. Anyway, the picture to the right is some of the 'messaging efforts' going on throughout the country. It's basically an ad campaign urging farmers to grow wheat (and be happy!) instead of growing opium (and be ashamed :(

Yup, that's about it for now..

Update

First, it's not completely my fault that I haven't posted anything lately, as there hasn't been any Internet available for almost the past week. I finally got a connection tonight, so I'll share a quick picture.

The picture to the right is of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building here in Kabul. I'm there maybe once a week, processing some paperwork in order to get our fuel cleared to enter the country. It's a campus like setting, with several buildings in the area. The grass and trees are a nice change from the dust and crud that covers most of the city and even the base where I'm at.

I'll have to get a few pictures of the inside, as it's really quite comical. The office I deal with is in the basement, where the power is off half the time and there are just stacks of paperwork waiting to be signed off. Anyway, that's it for now. I have another picture I'll try to share tomorrow.

Ms. Ella Mai

For whatever reason, I've always tried to keep this blog focused on my experiences leading up to and in Afghanistan. Well, for at least once, I have to deviate from that. On February 17th, my wife Lindsey and I were blessed to welcome our new daughter into the world, Ella Mai.


She was a healthy 7lbs, 12 oz, or 3.5 kgs as I have come to appreciate in Team NATO world. Both Ella and mama are doing well and should be leaving the hospital as I type this. For the record, Mai is pronounce 'my' (did you ever go to the bar and order a 'May Tai'?) and is Japanese for 'true love' (a nod to where she was conceived :)


Although I was not able to be there for the birth, I was fortunate to be able to talk to Lindsey for the last hour and half leading up to her delivery. Her sister was able to share some photos (via cell phone) within a few minutes. As Lindsey and I always say, "it could always be worse", we're extremely blessed and I look forward to getting home in a couple months to say hello to Ella in person.


While we're on the subject (of non-deployment related issues), I must say that I left Japan back in October, leaving behind my pregnant wife in a foreign country while fighting military paperwork to get her sent home to Massachusetts in time. So in addition to the normal worrying about a deployment and dealing with your first time pregnancy, Lindsey had to deal with getting the approval to get her home (and before she was 'too pregnant' to fly), packing up everything in Japan, moving in to our new house (which we bought a few weeks earlier), setting up all the services for the new house (oil, cable, etc.), outfitting the house (arranging our shipments from Japan as well as stuff we had in storage before moving), buying all the baby necessities (minus all the wonderful gifts we received at her baby shower), all while keeping her health and sanity. As I'm sure you all can appreciate, no easy task(s). Thank you for a wonderful wife, I definitely have the easy job and will try to make up for it once I get home :)

Busy times

Apologize to all (if there are any out there :) for the long delay between updates. I don't even have any pictures to share or stories to tell. It's more of the same 'Groundhog's Day' routine around here. Except I'm trying to cover at least three jobs right now. Leo (from the German/Netherlands Corps) went home last week and his replacement won't be in until May. Gordon (from the UK) left about a week ago as well on his 'R&R' (rest and recouperation (sp?)) trip home. He'll be out until the end of the month. Hence my 'three jobs'. On top of that, it's a continuous task to try to bring the new guys up to speed on everything.


Anyway, you've also seen in the news the well publicized (sp?) Operation Moshtarak in Southern Afghanistan. Again, to be clear, I have no direct involvment and am not in harm's way in any way :) What Op Moshtarak means to me is that there is a lot of planning (to include logistics; my piece) before, during and after any operation, especially one of this magnitude. It's also very interesting just being here, as I get to hear things (and much more detailed) just before everyone else on CNN / BBC / Al Jazeera. On top of that, there is always much logistics work to be done in support of the well publicized force expansion efforts. Anyway, definitely not complaining at all...it's what I came here to do. It also keeps your mind off of other things (whether that's a good thing or not). It also, somewhat, explains my delinquency in writing letters/emails, making phone calls or posting updates. Just my thoughts for tonight. Happy belated Valentine's Day to everyone (today was also a holiday in Afghanistan; more or less 'freedom from the Soviets day')

Let it snow..

Between last night and this morning, it snowed about 2 inches. It was nice (even if it only lasted for a little while) to see everything look so 'clean' and have some fresh air. By this afternoon, it had warmed up again and everything is a muddy, slushy mess around here. Throughout the country, it's amazing to see how quickly 'draught fears' can turn into 'flooding realities'. Just another thing for us to deal with.

Today was also the Super Bowl. It started at 4am our time. I managed to make it over to the 'Morale and Welfare' tent (yet to be finished with computers/Internet and other things), where they were showing the game on the projector. I must admit I didn't make it over there until the start of the 2nd quarter (about 445am). It was a good game and a nice break in the monotony (sp?), but it did make for a long day.

Speaking of long days, things are almost back into a more 'normal routine' here. I think another night or two of trying to catch up on sleep and I should be back on track. Then we'll see if the new crew has any changes in mind for the schedule.

New Arrivals

Today was the first day with the new folks from the Multi-National Corps - Northeast out of Poland. They are the new headquarters group taking over for the German/Netherlands Corps that's been here for the past six or seven months.

For the team I work with, that means we have a new German General, a Romanian and a few Polish soldiers. We'll see how it all works out. So we're very busy with normal work, a theater-wide confernce, turnover items, farewell events and so on. I think yesterday I clocked a lovely 17 hour work day. On top of it, we have to skip our normal 'Freeky Friday' halfday off routine tomorrow to get some of the work done. And of course the office is crowded and loud, making getting that work done all the more difficult. But enough complaining I guess, we'll see how it shakes out once the dust settles.

Speaking of when the dust settles, I attached a picture we took the day after it finally rained here. The rain really clears the air, revealing that the snowline moved a good ways down the mountains. Anyway, that's about it for now. I need to get some sleep :)