Whew

I know, I know...2+ weeks since my last post. Between my job and the internet being down about 23 hours out of 24 every day, I haven't been able to update.

All in all, things are going pretty well. Camp Julien is nice and relaxed, as I said before, and I've gotten a handle on about 75% of my job now. The other 25% I can say will get figured out, probably the hard way, but it'll get done. One of the challenging pieces of this puzzle can be the management of the trillion different things I'm managing here, none of them difficult. It's death by a thousand paper cuts if you don't treat each one quickly.

I ordered about 10 trucks of gravel to cover some bald spots on the base here, and they brought me 18...not sure why, but I think the vendor felt guilty for bringing me 2 trucks of nice, small gravel, and 8 of the bigger, ankle-busting variety. So he sends 8 more of the grapefruit size crap...THANKS! Even more fun was trying to tell these local drivers where I wanted to put piles of gravel. There is one road on base that I wanted several piles about 100' apart. Now, I know *I* made it pretty clear. What the end product became was more like one long, sinewy pile of gravel down the whole road. Lost in translation....

I sent a bunch of stuff home (70lbs worth!). I've been spending my money to stimulate our economy...yeah, that's it...wait, wrong country. But seriously, it's easy to amass souvenirs, so everyone stand by for STUFF. These guys sell you something cheap (according to us anyway), then give you something as a gift to get you to come back. Take for example the blanket I bought my first week here. I buy that and a bronze ornate peacock. The guy says "I make special business for you. This gift for wife." Okay, cool. As he is shifting items around, moving his merchandise to find this well hidden gem, I'm thinking it will be another statuette or something. Instead, with a big grin on his face, he hands me a clear bag with ornamented clothing inside. I pull it out and can't help but laugh. It's a belly dancer outfit! Seriously...dude...okay, I'll send it home and see how that goes for me. He even gives me a fitting demonstration.

"See, hook here if she small. If she bigger, hook here. If she really big, hook here!"

Nuff said.

I've gotten some cool videos and pics lately, my favorite being the herd of goats and sheep crossing the road. Also, a video of some kids giving us a thumbs up...though I've had kids kick dirt at us as we pass by, too. Who knows. When you're driving around Kabul, you see all kinds of stuff: people riding donkeys next to cars, ghetto taxis (a guy pulling a wooden cart on wheels with people on it), vendors wearing large plywood display racks on their back, full of sunglasses. I imagine Thailand might be more interesting, but that's about it.

And I have yet to get a picture, but the DMV would have a proverbial bovine birthing incident if they saw how people stacked their "jingle" trucks here. I mean, seriously, bags full of ... something... stacked as high as the truck can handle, then stacked even more until it's hanging over the sides and tied down. It looks like it would just bust, but these people have been doing this for years. I guess they got it down pat. I have to get a picture, it's truly amazing.

Other than that, things are pretty calm most of the time. One of the SGTs here likes to banter back and forth with one of the locals who works here about who's wife fusses more. Just goes to show, some things don't change no matter where you are....the banter or the fussing.

Steve sent me pics of when he was checking on Noah and I bust out laughing at those BCGs (Birth Control Glasses). I have some too, and maybe I'll start wearing mine now just to get looks from people. I'm just teasing ya man, I know you have to wear those....lol! Good to see you're doin fine though. It's such a liberating feeling, being done with your intital training. I'm proud of you and by the way, I got you a cool graduation present, I want to tell you what it is, but I won't. You'll like it.

Alright, Secrist Out.