Time to give thanks

Just wanted to take a moment tonight to share some thanks. There are some amazing organizations that support those of us who are deployed, and they deserve some "public" acclaim. Lots of people ask me what they can send - truthfully, we're pretty well set here, but you wouldn't go wrong supporting these organizations. I can say first hand that they deliver. :)

USO: Probably the best known of the bunch. Although we don't have a USO here (and have yet to see any USO shows!) the support we received in Kuwait and Qatar was professional, friendly, and exactly what was needed. :)

Operation Gratitude: I had never heard of this group before I arrived here in Afghanistan. Individuals sign themselves up to receive a package, so you know it's going to someone that wants it. :) I signed up (yes, I was curious!) and literally within a few weeks had a terrific care package.

AnySailor: Individual Sailors (or Soldiers/Airmen/Marines) sign themselves up as liaisons. Mail sent to them is then passed to other personnel who aren't receiving much. There are websites for each of the services, but obviously I'm biased. :)

Sister to Sister Secret Santa Project: No website to link you to, but just wanted to mention this group. They're a small group out of Oregon that used the AnySoldier link to send a bunch of packages this way just for women. Great goodies in the box and very friendly people answering the thank-you email.


I'm sure there are many others, but these are just the ones I've come into contact with personally. It is truly inspiring to see the amount of support here - charities, church groups, schools - you name it, they've probably sent packages. It really does make a difference.

I'll close with just a couple of pictures, both taken today. The first was at sunrise, and the second was this afternoon after the haze had blown away. Yep, I'm a sucker for a good mountain picture. :)

Back to work!

Wow, this week has flown by! Just trying to get caught up on everything that happened while I was gone, plus we have some big projects gaining momentum. It's all good, but unfortunately I've been a little negligent in posting - sorry!

A few people have asked about my jewelry making. It's just a hobby, but I'm glad I shipped stuff here to work on - keeps the creative side of me happy. If you would like to see the type of jewelry that I design (and no, this is not a solicitation by any means!), check out my Etsy website. I bought quite a few new beads in Qatar - all prayer beads (for now!) but they're definitely different than others I have!



ONE more cute cat picture - this little guy really likes to walk right up to a group of people and mingle between your legs. :) I think he knew I had a camera when he decided to show off...



Not much news on the weather front - we still have a lot less snow than Rhode Island! It does snow here often, but it's a heavy wet snow that doesn't last very long. I did manage to grab a picture a few days ago.

Finally, a shout-out to whoever it is that bakes the yummy cakes for our dining facility. I have no idea who it is, but a few times every week they seem to have a cake for dessert at dinner or for a special occasion - here's the one they did for Black History Month:

Well, guess that's all the news fit to post. :) Please keep the emails and comments coming!

Doha Day 3/4 and return :(

Well, as you've probably guessed (either by the title of this post or how long it took me to put it up!), I'm back in Kabul. Unfortunately, my last two days went by all too quickly.

First up, many kudos to the people who run the R&R program. They truly go out of their way to make the entire experience as painless as possible. When you're dealing with unpredictable military air schedules, weather, and a bunch of people who have never met each other, I'm guessing that can be quite a challenge at times. I love the motto: "No boots required."



My last two days in Qatar I was pretty much a bum. :) The third day I did laundry (everything provided, although it has been a while since I've had to do my own laundry!), went to the spa (great package deal!) and the pool (well, the hot tub at least - it was a little cold for swimming), and went to yet another mall that (gasp!) didn't have an ice rink! But it did have Circus Land instead, which makes up for it. :)


The final day I signed up for the sponsorship program, which is great in theory - people assigned to the base come by the USO and pick up sponsorees and take them to local attractions. Unfortunately, no one came by to pick anyone up on my day, so I pretty much wandered around, read, and took advantage of some services on the base.

This the Green Beans coffee shop - we have one on base in Kabul as well. Closely resembles a Starbucks, but with an important difference - they actually give a portion of their profits back to the military they serve (they're only located on bases). Free wi-fi was a great bonus here as well.


Then it was off to the post office. Mom's birthday gift had to get mailed out on time, plus I shipped a few things back that I had bought that I didn't need right away. For the stuff that was being shipped from Qatar to another overseas base, it was free (MPS - military postal system). :) The employees at the post office were simply terrific - best customer service I've ever had at a post office. Once I filled out the customs form and the address label, they took everything from there. They did the customs inspection, boxed, padded, and shipped - all at no extra charge. Why can't all post offices be like this???



Don't worry about the "No Photos" sign - it's really just a reminder that you have to have a base photo pass to take pictures on base (and yes, I had one). But that is the reason I don't have a lot of pictures of the base itself - the policy is fairly restrictive, as you might guess. Understandable, but it would have been nice to show you more of the base.

Later that afternoon I wandered the AAFES concessionaires - local businesses that operate on base. At one of the shops they were giving a demonstration of how boxes are made from camel bone. It's a ridiculously intricate process that looks beautiful when finished - so of course they're very expensive!

But of course all good things have to come to an end. At the end of our fourth day, they posted our flight time - very, very early the next morning, of course. Random shot of tired but happy Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen/Marines getting ready to head back:

At least on our way back we had a bigger plane, which means a shorter trip and legroom. I was stuck at Bagram one night (yep, back to the same tent!) and then made it back here to Kabul incident-free. Apparently I missed some significant snowfall while I was gone - darn the bad luck! :)

So it's back to work for me... If anyone reading this blog is considering whether or not to take their pass, I would definitely encourage you to go!!!

Doha Day 2

Today was the Doha city tour. I had no idea how truly cosmopolitan this country is. Only about 25% of the people that live here are actually Qatari - the remaining 75% is a mix of Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and some American. It makes walking in the malls quite the cultural tour!

We started the day with the camel market. Camels are big business here - prices start at $5000 and go much higher, according to the camel's weight and bloodlines. Most of the owners were quite happy to have us roam around and look at their camels, but one was nice enough to invite us in and let us take pictures. This little guy is a newborn, probably 5 or 6 days old. He seemed to like all of the attention!


Along the way to each of our destinations, our tour guide Rasheed (from Sri Lanka) and our driver (from Pakistan) were great about giving us little facts about the city. For example, if you're born in Qatar to a Qatari family, you can count on a stipend of $15,000-$60000 per MONTH from the government as an adult - sharing out the oil and natural gas revenues. Wow. Gas is cheap here as you would expect - 70 cents a gallon currently. Most Qataris do not work - who could blame them? Oh, and don't even think about immigrating - there is no "naturalization" process here. :)

After the camel market we had a quick detour into a little touristy gift shop, then it was back to the old souk. Managed to get a picture of the exterior this time (since it wasn't coated quite so heavily in sandstorm!):


Bonus on this trip though - our tour guide knows one of the shop owners, so he took us to his friend's falconry shop and we were able to hold a very compliant falcon. Lots of animals in this post!


After the old souk there was another stop at the gold souk then it was off to lunch. Happy to report it was Indian food again, this time a very good buffet. I think we all ate way too much, but were very happy waddling out of there. :) Last stop for the day was another mall - malls seem to be big sources of entertainment here. This one is called the City Center mall, and it's the largest in Doha. Three stories, an entertainment stage, a large arcade, and of course, the seemingly obligatory ice rink. :)


It was a very full day, and we were all pretty tired by the time we headed back to base. The sun was setting so I tried to get a postcard shot - how did I do?



I had one report that the picture link from yesterday wasn't working correctly - I took a look and re-entered the URL, so it should be up and running again. Apologies for anyone who tried to check out the other pictures but couldn't. I've done the same thing for the rest of today's pictures - just too many to clog the blog page with. Hopefully this works better today - try clicking here. I'll try to post day 3 tomorrow, but it's been the most truly relaxing day - no photos yet!

Doha Day 1

What a day! Shopping galore...

The R&R program here runs a pretty robust tour schedule. Some are free, some are paid (but you're usually just paying for the included meal, so even those are very reasonable). I signed up for two shopping tours on my first day to get the "lay of the land" on the cheap (read: free!).

My day started with the gold souk. Now, I'm not really interested in buying "real" jewelry, so this didn't excite me much, but it was fun to look around. It's a fairly small area - a couple of blocks, but EVERY store is a jewelry shop! How do they all stay in business??? Here's what a typical alley looks like...

Anyway, the next stop was a lot more interesting for me - the old souk. You can buy just about anything here - from belly-dancing costumes to kitchen gadgets, pashmina scarves to toys. We had a couple of hours here to look around, and of course I managed to find beads. :) I had NO idea there would be so many available. :) There was even one section that seemed dedicated to handmade items, mostly sold by women:



My fun was cut short a little bit though when an unexpected sandstorm blew through quickly. It was bright and sunny one minute, and the next minute I could barely see across the street of the market! Apparently these storms are fairly common in summer, but not now - even the shopkeepers were caught off guard. Compare this picture with the one above, which was taken about ten minutes before...


Most of the stores closed up quickly after that, so I sought shelter in an Indian restaurant - the Royal Tandoor. Great service, great food, and I left stuffed! Headed back to base long enough to drop off stuff, check email, and head out again.

The evening's tour was to the Villagio mall. Fairly new I think... The entrance we were dropped off at was all the high-end stores - Tiffany's, Burberry, Harry Winston, etc. - you get the idea. I was starting to wonder if I could afford to even look in the mall when we spotted the comforting neon glare of TGI Friday's. :) The other wings were more affordable (and fun to look around). There is a canal right down the middle of the main thoroughfare, complete with gondolas and oarsmen. Not very many people took advantage of it though...


We did manage to grab dinner at "The Butcher Shop" which was recommended by my roommate. She has good taste. :)



So after a very full day of shopping, it was back to the base for me to get some sleep. I'm signed up for the Doha city tour tomorrow, so look for more pictures! I know I'm taking many more pictures than I want to put on here (else the page will take too long to load!) so if you want to see more pictures from today, click here.

It's SO nice to have a reasonably fast net connection!!! :)

On the road...

Time to play a little catch-up...

Background: Every individual augmentee has the opportunity for a four-day pass to Qatar during their tour (if their tour is less than a year - if a year or more, they get 15 days leave plus two passes to Qatar). Well, it's very early in my tour yet, but the timing worked out best for me to go now based on other activities/schedules in the office.

My latest adventure started on Sunday with a convoy to Bagram. Bagram is the same base I flew into from Kuwait, so I had been there before, but only briefly. This time I was "lucky" enough to have to stay overnight waiting for my flight to Qatar. Transient lodging is a large tent with cots and nothing provided. The showers/heads are about a five minute walk away - not that big of a deal unless it's dark and cold! Here's what the tent looks like:



Somewhere in all of that stuff I tried to sleep. Unfortunately, the tent is located next to the busiest street on the base - and the traffic seems to get heavier at night. And of course you can't get too far away from the air strip on an air base, so we also were able to hear flight ops all night long. Finally, just for a little icing on the cake, about half of the tent woke up at 0300, presumably to catch their own flight. I'm sure they tried to be quiet, but there's no way that many people can move around a tent, pack up, and leave quietly. :) So fair to say I didn't get much sleep that night...

Bagram does have a lot of facilities that we don't - like a USO. In fact, it's the only base in Afghanistan that has a USO. You might have seen coverage of it leading up to the Super Bowl - it's named in honor of Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinals football player who gave up his career in the NFL to enlist in the Army Rangers. After he was killed by friendly fire, several organizations (including the Cardinals) got together to fund/renovate the USO in his honor.

Lucky for those of us stuck waiting for flights, they have a decent movie selection. One of Pat Tillman's jerseys hangs over the TV used for movies, so it's displayed very prominently.


Bagram also has a very large dining facility and several places to get internet access, so that was all useful in killing time until the flight left. I took this picture on my way into the terminal after roll call.


Inside the terminal is a very cool mural - unfortunately, we got to stare at this for about four hours after our flight was delayed (not that they ever TOLD us it would be late!).


That's all the pictures I have from Bagram. Once we finally got on our flight, it was six hours of fun sitting in jump seats much closer to your neighbor than you would have liked. We arrived after 2200 local (1.5 hour time difference here), then had to get through customs, get escorted to the base, go through a briefing and the requisite admin stuff, draw linen, and collapse into our racks - at about 0300. Needless to say, I slept in this morning. :)

The R&R program here seems very well organized and the staff is terrific. Next post hopefully I'll have some pictures of Qatar to show you!

Camp Eggers Idol!

Barbara and I went to Camp Eggers Idol last night - it was such a great diversion from the usual routine! There are some truly talented people on this base. Think about it - each of the competitors had enough guts to get up on stage and sing in front of people they live AND work with.

The judges ("Simon", "Paula" and "Randy" of course!) were all volunteers. It was "Simon's" birthday, hence the streamers in some of the pictures (he's actually one of the Chaplains here). "Paula" is a civilian who I've had the pleasure of working with on a project, and "Randy" is a former competitor (more about him in a minute). They were funny and kept the audience involved - "Simon" even managed to draw a few groans and boos from the audience.

Here's a shot of all of the competitors. I have to apologize for how dark these pictures turned out - the competition was held in near darkness and the only "stage lights" were actually behind the competitors (the better to see the karaoke words by). At least I can show how effective our reflective gear is!

OK, "Randy's" story as promised. His name is actually Carlos, and he's in the Army. This is actually the fifth "season" of Idol here, and Carlos won the third season. Someone on the staff that puts these events on had videotaped the competition, and put Carlos' routine on YouTube. Someone from the Army's Soldier Show saw the video, contacted Carlos, arranged for an audition, and he was accepted! He'll be on tour with the group next year. OK, so it's not a recording contract, but it's an awesome opportunity. He performed between the two rounds of competition, and he's definitely an entertainer!

My personal favorite showman of the night. Not the best voice of the group, but definitely a terrific stage presence! (Doesn't hurt that he's Navy either! )


The winner of season 5, by popular vote:

All in all, a really fun evening, and you definitely can't beat the price. I hope they do this again before I leave!

Groundhog Day

Happy belated Groundhog Day everyone! I read that Phil saw his shadow so looks like six more weeks of winter. Appropriately, it snowed today. :) I took this picture of some of the frozen rain on a tree outside the dining facility - unfortunately, it's more of just a "pretty picture" because you can't really see the water. Oh well, can't win them all. :)


Just one other picture tonight - me and my boss ready to hit the road. :)


MUST remember to take the camera out of my pocket more often! There are a few places that we go that cameras aren't allowed, but I'm sure there are good pictures that I'm just forgetting to take!

Some good news on the hobby front... I found someone else here who brought jewelry making supplies with them! Her name is Barbara, and she's an Army Major. Her specialty is transportation - not something I would want to do here! We've spent a few evenings together each working on our own stuff - nice to have someone to critique things as you work! I showed her my Etsy site and since then I've sold two pieces, so I think she's good luck for me! :)

We spent today at a conference for legal mentors for the Afghan National Army. The challenges they face are a lot different than the ones we do, but it's still very interesting to see how the other half lives. :) We are very fortunate in that our schedules vary enough day-to-day that the "groundhog day syndrome" hasn't really set in (and I hope it never does!).

Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm now DRIVING on this country's crazy streets? Lucky for me my boss likes to drive, but every now and then I have to drive for one reason or another. The vehicles we drive are stick shifts... that took a little "remembering" after not driving a stick for about seven years!

That's about it from this end (at least for tonight!) - please keep the emails and comments coming! :)

Odds and ends

Hi all! Sorry for the gaps between postings - talk to my ISP! I honestly could not get a single image to load for the past two nights... very frustrating (especially when you consider the exorbitant rates charged for the service!). So I'm trying much earlier tonight and so far so good...

So I'm getting a bit of flak for so many cute kitty shots in my last "real" post. I promise if there were ANY cute dogs I'd be posting them as well, but they just don't seem to be popular pets here. I'll stay on the lookout! Give me some credit though - I did find Getta. :)

I've been to a couple more high-level meetings in the past days. Maybe it's just naivete, but I'm still floored to see so many people from so many countries coming together with a single goal of assisting Afghanistan. Of course everyone has different takes on the best way to get it done, but it's still a humbling experience. I was at an all-U.S. meeting as well and was simply amazed at the quality of the people there. I don't know how the various agencies find them all (and I know that's not easy - there are a number of vacant positions) but someone is really doing a great job at recruiting.

One of the constants around here is a high turnover rate. We had a hail/farewell scheduled for the office, but the "farewellee" left early (flight schedule change) so we decided to hail the three (!) newbies anyway. Our office is split into three sections that work in three different locations, so the result is that these gatherings are the only time I see some of the people that supposedly work with me. :) This was taken at the pizza place on base - frankly, I don't see how they stay in business, considering the DFAC does a good job with pizza, but I guess it's nice to have the option to order whatever you want sometimes.



OK, now for some (hopefully!) funny stuff. Some days you just walk around the base and wonder "WHY???" Here are a few of those moments for you...

Why is it that the Green Bean (our Starbucks-like coffee shop) runs out of milk, yet the PX is fully stocked on expensive toys? PS2, XBOX, and the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero series is available for purchase (and they don't stay on the shelves long!). There was almost a stampede last time they got the Wii in stock.



I realize the next picture's a bit small, but I wanted to give you some context. There is a fire pit area that some people like to use as a hang-out area. Given the random schedules of people here on base, you can usually find someone hanging out there most of the time. The base just put new signs up (white sign with red lettering in the center of the picture) that says no wood-burning before 1900. Why??? What's so magical about 1900? I could understand if it was "no fires before dark" or something like that, but... :)

Finally, I was walking back to my room today and stumbled on this (OK, not literally!). I must walk past this location at least five times a day, yet I've never noticed this rose. It's FEBRUARY, it's COLD (OK, not really today, but we've had snow and ice!) and yet this rose is still in bloom. Things that make you go hmm... And you'll notice there's not a green thing to be seen around it!


Hope you enjoyed the random thoughts. Keep those questions and comments coming! :)