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!!!