On the road - and catching up!

So I'm sitting here in ridiculously hot Kuwait (more on that later!) simply amazed by the speed of the wireless (free!) internet available at the Starbucks here... usually it takes me 10-15 minutes to upload the pictures for this blog. Today it was under a minute. Now, if it can be done here.... Anyway, I digress.

Yes, I've left Afghanistan. Hard to believe because when it happens, it happens quickly! But there were quite a few events before I left that I didn't have a chance to write about before I left, so here goes...

My farewell from the SJA shop was a group dinner and my choice of a movie for movie night. For the record, I chose "A Few Good Men" - time to inject a little bit of Navy culture into this Army environment! :) As it turned out, a few of the JAGs were unable to attend due to other commitments, but that's completely understandable (they weren't even on base at the time). Between dinner and the movie was my going-away presentation. Scott made some very flattering remarks (some of which I hope were actually true!) and I received my flag...



The shop votes on the quotation on the flag - we don't know what's on there until we get it. I love mine! In case the picture isn't clear enough, it reads "Desert Sailor: Mentoring on a Sea of Sand" - pretty darn appropriate! :)


That day was actually a double farewell, as one of our attorneys had brought in an Afghan lunch for us. Another terrific meal!!! SO spoiled!

The next day was farewell to one of our mentees. We have two, but we spend a lot more time with one due to his job and what we can do to help. It was very difficult saying goodbye. He brought in lunch for us as well as a few of his senior officers to say farewell. I've kept pictures and names of most of our Afghan friends off of here to protect them, so I'm left with just a picture of the beautiful red blouse he gave me as a farewell present. How pretty!


And then it was time to leave Eggers. I lucked out and my final transportation left the base at a reasonable time, so I didn't have to get up ridiculously early and could still run errands that morning. It also meant that a few more people could come out to say goodbye - here's my goodbye gang...



I lucked out at Bagram and got a room instead of having to stay in the transient tent (thanks Lindsay!). Had to grab another mountain shot though - the low clouds made the mountains appear taller, and what a beautiful day!



After a few days at Bagram, it was time to head to Kuwait. Out of all of the travel we've done so far, this was by far the most frustrating leg. It started out with us being told to show up an extra half-hour ahead of the "real" show time - not that big of a deal, except that the terminal was closed for painting, and the USO across the street (remember the only one in Afghanistan?) was closed for the month of June. WHY choose June, one of the busiest travel months, to close these places??? Aaarrrggh... But as it turns out, those were just really minor inconveniences.

So we sat outside in the sun for a few hours, then palletized all of our luggage. Keep in mind at this point I'm dragging four seabags worth of gear (three full of stuff to turn in once we reach Kuwait), my backpack and both of my weapons, as is just about everyone else on the flight. Then we waited around a couple more hours. We finally load the plane, and it's obvious some rain is coming. Once we're on the plane, they tell us we're not going to take off for another 1-1.5 hours because they can't move the luggage from the previous flight (ground stop due to lightning in the area). Never mind that it was OK to move people on the plane, but can't move the luggage! Sometimes you just have to laugh... Here's Lindsay and me trying to make the best of the situation:


So about five hours after we first reported to the terminal, we finally take off. The flight itself is just over four hours to Kuwait. We get off the plane in Kuwait and immediately I'm grateful the sun has already set - it's HOT, even at night. We get on buses and they take us to a processing tent, where we swipe our IDs and then go to another processing tent. The next 1.5 hours is a little chaotic and a lot frustrating, so I'll just summarize the steps:

1. Get brief about base (most of which I can't hear), get bus passes for the morning bus. Great, we're going to have to stay here tonight.
2. Carry body armor and backpack (I'll just call this stuff my carry-on to save typing) to billeting tent, get tent assignment.
3. Take carry-ons to tent, walk back to get baggage.
4. Change of plans - they're going to get us on a bus tonight. If we can manage to get our group together and all the luggage loaded in under an hour.
5. Find baggage, put in pile to load onto bus.
6. Go back to tent to grab carry-ons, go to another tent to check on bus passes.
7. Help load everyone's gear onto bus.
8. Go back to bus tent to get bus pass stamped.
9. Finish loading gear.
10. Go back to bus tent yet again to get manifested for bus, wait around while they find third bus for our group.
11. Drag carryons on to bus, grab seat and try to get some sleep on trip to other base, which takes about 2 hours.

None of this stuff by itself would be a big deal. But by the time all this gets done and we get to our current base, it's about 0230 Kuwait time, which means 0400 Afghanistan time. As an added bonus, when we get to the base, a sandstorm kicks up so we're trying to offload luggage and can't even see what we're doing. We were covered with dirt and sand by the time we got all of our gear to our tent, so we unpacked only as much as we had to and then hit the showers. By the time we did all of that it was about 0430, so we just waited up for breakfast and then went to bed - luckily we had no required events for the rest of the day.

After catching up on sleep, I went over to the tent to clean my weapons. Since I have two, I figured it would take a while, and it did - but I ran into a few people I know on the way and it was good to catch up. One even helped me clean my M4 (thanks Jeff!). We then headed out in a big group to the movie theater on base and then to dinner.

Today has been a very good day - this morning we turned in all of that gear plus our weapons. Since I had mine cleaned and inspected yesterday it went very quickly. The longest part of the turn-in process was the survey - I forget how many questions, but I quickly tired of filling in little boxes! :) We have a travel brief this afternoon and then we find out our medical appointment schedule (all the active duty have to do a screening here) and our class schedule for tomorrow. The schedule is very relaxed here, and we can even wear PT gear or civilian clothes. Just having time enough to do this (now very long!) blog entry is a bonus. But, it does make me more anxious to get home... just a few more days now!

Looking ahead

Well, the rounds of farewells have begun, so I figured I'd better get my lists up quickly before I become consumed with packing and shipping. :)

The short one first - things I'm not looking forward to:
- Laundry. You get used to someone else doing it for you REALLY fast. :)
- I was going to add commuting, but I am sort of looking forward to that. One thing you really miss around here is privacy. Having an hour each day alone with my NPR doesn't sound so bad anymore. :)

Now for the longer list - things I'm looking forward to (beyond the really obvious stuff of being with family and friends!):
- Indian food! OK, really any cuisine that's not served on a buffet line and that I can actually choose. Honestly, the food here really is pretty good, but it does get repetitive, and some days it doesn't matter how good the food is - you're stuck on the fact that you have no choice in the matter.
- A nice bottle of wine with dinner. 'Nuff said. :)
- Being back at sea level. I'm sure this high altitude stuff works for Olympic athletes, but I'll take all the oxygen in the air that I can get!
- Driving my Prius (a LOT smaller than the vehicles we drive around here). And not having to get permission to drive anywhere. :)
- Having control over my computer. They have the network locked down so tightly here that I can't even change the date/time on my work computer. I know security is needed, but even NMCI (our computer system at work in the States) lets you do SOME things without an administrator!
- Brandy (my dog). I've missed my happy mutt a lot, especially with all the working dogs around here that remind me of her. Can't wait to see that silly tail wag!
- Being able to read documents without having a translation done first. Adrian and I experienced this in Japan too - it's hard to be a functional illiterate. At least here I have four people I can call on to translate for me, but it's still frustrating.
- Having a bathroom in the same building I work in. Not something I paid much attention to before - until you don't have that particular luxury and it's either pouring rain, snowing, or just too cold/too much of a bother to want to make that trek.
- My iPhone. We text a lot here - easier to not interrupt meetings, etc., with phone calls. And every text I sent I was wishing for my nice virtual keyboard on the iPhone - not to mention all the fun stuff that goes along with it.
- Buying a new pair of running shoes. Between the gym and just wearing them around base on Fridays, I think the ones I brought with me have just about had it. The selection at the PX is horrible, if they even have women's sizes at all. It will be nice to go into a store where there's actually a selection and hopefully even my size in stock. :)
- Being able to wear what I want... well, at least on evenings and weekends. :)
- And a million other little things that I hope to remember to not take for granted.

I don't want anyone thinking I haven't enjoyed my time here - I have, and it has been very rewarding, both professionally and personally. But it's just about time to go, and I can't help but to think of all the things waiting for me.

The weather cooperated today and gave me a beautiful view on my last trip to the top of the Ministry building, so I'll leave you with that picture.

A lot closer

Hard to believe it's my final week here at Eggers... then again, everyone else that I've been hanging out with has already left! Here's a quick picture of me and Dan as he was getting ready to leave. Dan is headed back to civilian life - best of luck!


I had the good luck to be invited to an Army promotion ceremony this week - yep, they do things a little differently. I don't recall pushups being involved in any promotion ceremony I've ever been to. :) Chelsea is a 2006 graduate of West Point, and continually gave our Navy divers fits during her time there. She was promoted to Captain (a Navy lieutenant equivalent) and was lucky enough to be joined by her husband, who's deployed to another Afghanistan base. Don't they just look like newlyweds? :)


I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to remember from this tour, and have actually come up with a couple of lists. First up is what I will and what I won't miss about being here...

What I will miss:
- Not doing my own laundry. :) Other than ruining my sports bras, the laundry service here has been really good.
- Travel. Ok, we don't get to do a lot of this, but even in the little bit we have been able to do it's easy to see that this country really does have a beauty all its own.
- The roses. They're everywhere! I have yet another picture at the end of today's entry...
- Independent operations. We really have a lot of freedom here to craft the job that we have, and we've been privileged to take advantage of that freedom.
- Uniforms. Ok, they're not the most stylish in the world - but you have to love wash-and-wear that feel like pajamas after a while. :)
- Cell phone battery life - I'm not sure how it works so well, but I only have to charge my phone here every 1-2 weeks or so - and I use it all the time! Now if only my iPhone would last that long...
- The commute. I'm pretty sure that no other time in my career will I be able to leave "home" and get to work in less than five minutes with no car involved.
- The people. Of course the people. The Afghans that work in our shop are young, idealistic, smart people who really believe they can help their country. Even on days that weren't going so well, their attitude was really refreshing. They look forward to coming to work, and that makes the job here so much more rewarding.

What I won't miss:
- The smell of the sewage truck in the morning. And at lunch, usually right outside the DFAC. Oh, and just about every other time I walk outside. Really, really not going to miss that one at all...
- Sharing bathrooms and showers with 31 other women...
- Having a roommate. No offense to mine, because I've been really lucky, but I prefer choosing who I live with!
- Eating every meal in the DFAC with plastic utensils. Real silverware, here I come!
- The Army culture. It's not for everyone. This experience has made me really, really glad I chose Navy.
- Ridiculously slow internet in exchange for way too much money.
- Carrying weapons wherever I go.
- "Suiting up" with body armor whenever we leave the base. That stuff is heavy and uncomfortable! I have a whole new respect for the guys out in the field.
- AFN commercials. AFN is the Armed Forces Network, and it's how we receive TV shows out here. AFN gets programming for the military for little to no cost, but the tradeoff is that they can't show commercials (nope, not even during the Super Bowl!). So they fill the commercial time with public service announcements, weather spots, news updates, etc. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't running a lot of the same commercials as they were running when we left Japan - in August of 2006!

OK, enough for tonight. I have one more list - things I'm looking forward to and things that I'm not - I'll try to post soon. Until then, I leave you with yet another rose picture. :)