4 July 2010
What a month. I want to apologize to anyone who’s been waiting for the next chapter in my blog. It’s been a whirlwind and there is no stop in work flow.
Well, time to catch you up in what has been going on.
Where “I” Is
As you probably figured by now, I have made it to Afghanistan. I am currently station in Maz E Sharif. It located in northern Afghanistan. Most people who are familiar with Afghanistan call this place ‘RC-North’. The name of the camp is Camp Marmal. Rumor has it that this piece of land was bought by the Germans and have since built a thriving base that supports about 500 soldiers. Not bad! The roads are paved in black tar and if you’re on the right street, you even get a chance to walk on a sidewalk. To those of you that just read that and said “a sidewalk?”, let me tell you, a sidewalk is a luxury in a combat zone. Everything here is pretty much German. Even have to use Euros to shop at the local stores. (Euro) Makes the dollar look like crap. Oh well! One day America... one day.
Along with being German, they also have German street rules. If you haven’t been to Germany (such as myself), you will quickly learn that the vehicle has the right-of-way. I kid-you-not, I almost got run-over. Lucky someone alerted me and I quickly moved out of the way. The Germans also built a market-square type of building. The people here call it “The Atrium”. It’s a patio area surrounded by several buildings in a rectangular shape. They have a gym, a lounge, a bar, a restaurant, and a recreational room. It’s quite amazing to see such a structure in the middle of nowhere.
Oink, Oink... Here Piggy, Piggy
Being that we (my unit) arrived into country with nothing but a dumb look on our faces, we had to use the German Dinning Facility while our kitchen equipment made it’s way into country. German dinning, what can I say... it’s different.
For breakfast:
Pancakes
Potatoes
Bacon
Sausage
Pork Chop
Bland Oatmeal
Lunch:
Pork Chop
Pasta
Bread
Cucumber Salad
Dinner:
Pork... again
Pasta
Soup d’jour (Soup of the day)
Rice
Potatoes
This is daily. I can’t believe the amount of pork these Germans eat. Way more than I could ever imagine. Don’t get me wrong. It does taste pretty good.
4th of July... A Day of Celebration
Well, today is July 4th. Happy Independence day, y'all! Speaking of food. Today is the official first day of the American dinning facility, in full operation. Breakfast, to me, was a hit. Some of the guys complained. It was greasy... Hey! That’s the way I like it. Rumor on the street says that we are having steak tonight. I guess we’ll see.
First Flight
Speaking of ‘first’, today was my first flight in Afghanistan. I was looking forward to it. It was getting too hot on the ground and flying up in elevation is so much cooler. The highest we flew today was about 7,500 feet. It was quite interesting. Since the ground, from the altitude where we live, is scorched and dry, the local Afghani people harvest crops at the top of the mountains where the land is much cooler. Flying around I kept asking myself “How in the world do they make the journey all the way up here?”. Looking around, I figure donkey or mule. Still, quite amazing.
Infrastructure? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Infrastructure!
This place is a mess. Wow! We are 2 months too early. When we arrived, there was very limited rooms available... and still is. For my first night, they stuck a couple of us (about 10) in an area named “RSOI”. What a dump! Green Army tent with a wooden floor. Inside the tent there was 10 tightly packed bunk-beds. Barely enough space for our bags to wedge in between them. The mattress on these beds were still in plastic. I thought “Cool. New beds.” Not the case. I believe that the sole reason these beds were not unwrapped was because the plastic helped with the strengthening of the mattress. This matters was a mess. It must of had at most 20 mattress coils for support. Good enough for the working man in China but not the American working man. So, before going to bed someone catches wind to “Hey! Don’t get too comfortable. More people are coming and they will be bunking with you.” What!?
So, morning came, and no sign of the extra people showing up. Oh... one thing about morning, it starts at 4:00 a.m. here. What do I mean by “starts at 4:00 a.m.”? Full sunshine, my friend. The sun is in full bloom, armed and ready to lay a beat-down on your skin. After tossing and turning in bed from all the sweat and trying to convince myself that “It’s not that hot”, I finally gave in around 7:00 a.m. It was too hot. Well, now that I was up, I decided to take a shower in order to freshen up. Once I got dress, guess what?... It was still too hot! That same morning, we were taken on a tour of the camp. Yep! Still hot. Once we got done, we went back to our tents and a hung out in order to avoid the scorching rays of the sun. Not that great of an idea. The tent came equipped with two A/C units which only provide enough ‘cool’ for whomever sleeps right next to it. Needless to say, I made my way over to the one bunk closest to the A/C and hung out there while the owner of that bunk was gone. Ahhh! relief. Not for long. I got really thirsty and went in search of water. There was two pallets of water by the bathroom I saw earlier. I went over and got me a bottle. CRAP!!! That water was boiling-hot. How is anyone supposed to drink this stuff. I grabbed a stack and took it back to my tent. Hopefully there, the bottles will get cooler. I place the stack next to my bed and went back to my job at monitoring the coolness of the A/C unit. It’s about 9:30 a.m. by now. I’m fat dumb and happy. I’ve got water, I’ve got shade and I’ve got A/C. What more could I ask for? BAMM! The A/C unit goes dead. Why? The power gets cut off anytime the demand for electricity gets too high. Let me see... hmmm... daily? Now I am stuck in a tent with no A/C, some ‘too hot to drink’ water, and a tent who was once providing shade, will now eventually begin to cook me due to the lack of ventilation. This is the best the Army’s got?
Long-story-short... I managed to escape that Hell-hole within 24-hours. Some of did not get so lucky. Some ended up living in those conditions for at least 2-weeks. I, myself, got hooked-up with a spot in the new living area. Total opposite living conditions. I went from a tent where being ‘naked’ was the only option to stay cool, to a tent where you HAVE TOO wear a jacket or you’ll catch a cold. Brrr! But I love it.
