Super Busy

Well, I've had little time to devote to writing any sort of description of what I'm doing. But I'm gonna do that now...sort of.

I've started getting settled into my job a little more now and learning what's what and creating my contacts for getting stuff done. That's what supply officers do, they get stuff done by talking to the right people. However, I don't think I ever got the run around as much in the Navy as I have so far in the Army.

Largely, I'm reviewing, creating, renewing contracts, and getting the day to day stuff for the base. The COL also appointed me the Visit Officer, which means I get to baby sit the people that come visit us. That's kinda cool, but truthfully, I can see it being more of an annoyance when I have to get real work done, like, I don't know, making sure we get the building materials to construct housing? It's not hard though, just another small collateral.

If anyone has checked my Facebook account, I've posted tons of pics. I would love to post them here, but it takes forever to upload here (well, it takes forever to upload period in this country), so I'm just leaving them there.

Ok, so I've also started learning Dari, the major language here. You don't really NEED to learn it, but it certainly makes it easier to deal with the locals here, and they will often give you a better deal if you at least attempt to speak to them in their language. And all the ANA (Afghan National Army) are nice here, so it's not difficult to speak to them, assuming they know english of course. Yesterday, coming back from the chow hall, a truck full of ANA came driving at the three of us walking back to our base (we have to walk up the hill to eat, it's great for "appetite justification"). I mean, they were hauling tail comin up on us and fast. Then they hit the breaks real hard, swerved, and then waved at us while laughing! I actually found the whole episode pretty funny, and it goes to show that even though we're in a war zone, humor isn't lost on either side of the language barrier.