19-27 August (Paul post)

Aug 19


Today was a fun day. During breakfast I saw some highlights from the Buccaneer’s game and even though they lost (actually got stomped pretty good) it was nice to see football is really back. This should help me pass the time a little easier. I had a homework assignment for my military class, so I felt pretty productive through most of the day working on it. It’s strange when you are excited about homework. When I went to dinner they were serving steak which means its Friday! We finished another week.

As an added bonus they actually replayed the Bucs game on TV here, so even though I knew the outcome I could still see the game. I’m hoping they do replays like this during the season. I already know that on Monday mornings I’ll have to wake up at 0430 in order to watch the Sunday night game. I may not do that every week, but there will definitely be a few games watched.

All that stuff was fun but the highlight was Skyping with Emma. I know I say this each day, but today’s session was the funniest. Jenn put Emma on the ground with the computer while she went to the bathroom. I always talk to her when we do this, but she usually just plays with her toys. This time she turned and looked at me. She then scooted and rolled closer to the computer and smiled each time I said something to her. It was great to actually interact with her. Then she got even more excited and rolled out of the picture. I couldn’t see her, so I just started to say her name. All of a sudden the video started to shake really bad. Emma had rolled to the side of the computer and was shaking and banging on it in response to me talking. When Jenn came back she just started to laugh at the whole scene. I finished off by watching her eat some cereal. She loves the stuff and tries to help Jenn feed her. We’re thinking about trying to feed her some actual baby food this weekend.

I really hope this is the start of Emma responding to my voice and seeing me on the computer. My biggest fear is that when I get home she doesn’t know who I am. It would rip my heart out if she cries when I first hold her. Jenn and I are doing everything we can to keep that from happening.

August 20

I’m not going to bore you with the details of my day because to be honest it’s starting to get VERY monotonous over here. Last night Jenn and I just sat there and stared at each other while we Skyped because we have pretty much run out of stuff to talk about. Today was a little better because, we discussed some issues with our house repairs.

One thing I have learned is when you call a company and say “I’m calling you from the middle of Afghanistan” they have a tendency to actually listen to you. We have been trying to get our house repaired from ice damage last winter. It is almost winter time again (a fact I explained to the contractor). The only thing they have left to do is fix the insulation in the attic. Since they were already repairing the stuff that got damaged, I asked them to let us know how much more to get the whole attic reinsulated. Let’s just say the price they gave us did not take in account the six months that they have been working on our house. After calling them from Afghanistan they will be giving us a new estimate.

Another interesting thing I have learned about deployed people is that many find ways to keep themselves busy. Every night I am serenaded by a violinist outside my door. There is a porch and he practices every night. It is actually pretty relaxing most nights. I asked him how long he had been playing and he told me he has taught himself how to play during this deployment. I always wondered why there was a laptop in front of him while he plays. Apparently the laptop is usually showing videos of how to play the violin. I was impressed because he sounds like he has been at it for years. I’m not sure there is anything that I am really interested in learning over here, so I’ll concentrate on knocking out my military education course. It’s not fun, but I might as well suck it up while I’m here.

August 21

The other day there was a bunch of emails sent out asking for people to donate blood. This happens every once in a while, but there were a few more emails than normal. It took a few days but I finally got the story of what happened.

An Army soldier apparently got into a fire fight with the enemy. He was lying in the prone position, which means on his stomach with his elbows on the ground and shooting. He got shot. The bullet entered near his armpit and went diagonal through his body and lodged in his hip on the other side. He was tore up pretty bad. When he arrived to the trauma unit he had 2.5 pints of blood in his stomach. If you didn’t know, there are only about 5 pints in the entire human body.

I didn’t hear about the need for blood until the situation was already taken care of. They got so many volunteers that they turned people away. I’ve given blood before, but every time I have done it it’s been to add supply through the Red Cross. This situation would have been and felt different. Imagine being in a room and giving blood knowing that it isn’t going to be put in some refrigerator to be used later, but instead it is going to be taken into the next room and pumped straight into a guy from the field. I can’t image that there is another experience that would feel as rewarding as that. Needless to say I will be paying attention to my email and listening for the announcement in case they ever need more.

And since I’m sure you are curious, last update I heard is that the guy is still alive and was sent to a bigger base to be treated. It’s pretty amazing that he survived at all, so keep those prayers coming his way.

On a much happier note, I got to see Emma eat some sweet potatoes today! She seemed a little taken back by it at first, but before long she was grabbing the spoon and trying to shove them in her mouth. I’m not sure if she looks like me or not, but she has my appetite.

I spent some time at the local bizarre today. A few times a week they allow some locals to come on base and sell goods to the Polish and American people. Most of the shops have similar items like trinkets, scarves, knives, rugs, dishes, etc. A lot of the stuff looks really old, but you have to be careful because a lot of the “old” stuff is fake. My coworker bought a metal bird that he is convinced is hundreds of years old and worth a ton of money. He has researched it on the internet and everything. I bought some old Afghan money and a present for Jenn. I can’t say what because she’ll read this before she receives it. The highlight of the trip was meeting the smallest man in Afghanistan and maybe the world depending on who you talk to. He stood next to me for a picture and he’s about 3 inches shorter than my hip. He was a great salesman and really good sport. He charges $5 to take a picture with you. I think he makes way more taking pictures than actually selling stuff.

August 22

I left my nice quiet home of FOB Ghazni today for the metropolis that is Bagram Air Field or BAF as we like to call it. There are a lot of things to complain about when it comes to Ghazni, but one thing I notice today is that I actually really like it. People have been asking me questions about it all day and one really got my attention. Someone asked me if I would rather be at FOB Ghazni or at BAF. The answer was FOB Ghazni hands down.

I came to BAF so I could take my first test for my military course tomorrow. If my plan works as I hope, then I will be making a monthly trip to BAF to take a test. That would mean I would have 5 of 7 completed by the time I headed home. That would be a huge accomplishment and limit how much time I have to use back home to finish the course. I think five tests before I leave is doable, but I could easily hit some hiccups on the way. The most important thing is that my bosses think it’s a good plan.

This plan gives me almost the perfect situation. I get to enjoy the quiet life of FOB Ghazni and my other FOBs, but a monthly trip to BAF means I don’t have to worry about a lack of BX/PX and I can splurge on Pizza Hut each time I pass a test. That gives me just enough of the “big city” life to survive.

One piece of bad news came up today. At FOB Ghazni, we have two guys that work in the helicopter terminal. It may not seem like it, because I have a lot of flights fall through but these guys take care of me really good. I figured I would ask them if they needed me to bring anything back from BAF. One guy wants plain Ruffle potato chips. Apparently someone gave him some French onion dip, but no chips. That’s an easy hook up to keep him on my side. The other guy said he didn’t need anything because he was moving to BAF for the rest of his deployment. His reason why? He got busted drinking. It is a 100% clear order that there is no drinking while deployed. He hung out with some of the Polish troops and drank a bunch of their homemade wine. For that he is getting sent to BAF and will probably end his military career at the end of this deployment. He was planning to get out anyways, but now it may not be on his terms. This just makes me shake my head. If you can’t go a 6, 9, or 12 month deployment without alcohol than you have an issue. He mentioned to me that they advised him to get some character letters. In other words he is trying to collect letters from people in leadership (he’s in the Army so a Captain is considered leadership) to help his case. I told him thanks for all his help and I enjoyed meeting and working with him, but I would not write him a letter. Since I only knew his reputation at work and this happened during his off time I felt like I couldn’t give a valid comment. But most of all, getting in any kind of trouble because of drinking is 100% preventable. I can’t help someone that willingly made a stupid and wrong decision.

August 23

My day at Bagram has been pretty eventful. I started off the morning with a run outside. To most this may not be a big deal, but it is impossible for me to run outside at FOB Ghazni. We don’t have any pavement or sidewalks. The whole FOB is covered by gravel which is mostly about golf ball size. It really isn’t safe for anyone to run on that stuff, but especially not someone with a history of ankle problems.

I followed up my workout by taking my test. This was the first test for this course, so I wasn’t really sure how the questions and the format of the test were going to be. It was 50 questions and I had to get a 70% to pass. I don’t want to brag, but I have always been a great test taker especially multiple choice. With that being said, I have never felt so unsure while taking a test. I could narrow every answer down to two, but was rarely 100% sure of which answer to choose. I was very nervous as I hit submit to get my score. Amazingly I got a 90%, so let the celebration begin!

At lunch I had ice cream. It was cookies and cream with some chocolate sauce. It may have been the best ice cream ever. Then I did some shopping for stuff to take back to Ghazni for me and others. While there I couldn’t pass up cold M&Ms from the refrigerator. They were fabulous. I came back to my room for a little reading and a nap. When I woke up it was time for my real reward. I went and had a personal size Pizza Hut pizza. It was a Meat Lovers and it exceeded expectations. It was washed down with an ice cold Coke. I was motivated to start studying for the next test just so I could have that meal again.

As I walked back to my room I stopped to check on a potential flight back home. I found out there is next to zero chance I will ever be able to go directly from Bagram to Ghazni. I’ll have to stop over night at another FOB. I’m ok with that, but to find out my show time to try to get on a flight is 2:30 in the morning. This is going to suck. I had a chance to chat on the phone with Jenn, but there isn’t any where for me to really Skype while at Bagram. Getting to Skype with them will be reward enough to show up for a flight at 2:30am. I’m going to try to get a little sleep and also recover from a crazy upset stomach which was obviously caused by my overload on sweets. Hopefully if my plan works out I’ll get to do it all again next month!

August 24

My day started off super early. My show time for my flight was 2:30am, but at least I got on the plane so it was worth it. I landed on FOB Sharana and headed over to the helicopter terminal. I thought I got lucky because there were two flights to Ghazni, but sadly there were only a couple extra seats and ten people ahead of me on the list.

Since I wasn’t getting out today, I got a room set up and just wanted to sleep. Lucky for me they were doing construction right outside the door so no sleep for the weary. And since I was so exhausted I couldn’t even hit the gym. There aren’t any flights to Ghazni tomorrow, so hopefully I make it out on Friday. I’ll get some good sleep tonight and do a really good, long workout tomorrow. I have to start working off all the junk I ate in celebration at Bagram.

Due to Jenn traveling to Texas today and the time difference, we couldn’t Skype today. And since this FOB doesn’t have phones in the rooms, we couldn’t talk on the phone. Today is the first day since I left home that we didn’t Skype or talk on the phone. Even though that makes me sad I can’t think about anything besides how lucky I am that we can talk as much as we do. We traded a few emails and we’ll talk tomorrow.

August 25

Not much to report today. Jenn made it safely to Texas and Emma was an angel on the plane as usual. I did a lot of sleeping and napping today to recover from my marathon day yesterday. This may be the shortest entry I ever do. Good night.

August 26

Today was another day of traveling. I made it back to good old FOB Ghazni. It is nice to be back. Another week has gone by and I’m down to about 20ish left before I’m home. The FOB had a talent show tonight which was an interesting change of pace. Only three people decided to perform and all of them played the guitar and sang. Sadly, I tried to think of what I would do if I was to perform and I don’t think I have a single talent that is stage worthy.

On a happy note, today is Emma’s six month birthday. I can’t believe it has already been six months since she was born. That day will always be one of the happiest of my life. I have never been so consumed by pure, raw emotion like I was that day. I’m sure every parent feels the same way. The first time I saw her and heard her cry brought a wave of love that before then was unimaginable. To see how much she has already grown and changed brings tears of joy and sadness to my eyes. I love to see her strong and healthy. She is learning so much and seems so interested in the world. The years of joy that our lives will have because of that little girl will be priceless. The sadness is due to some selfishness. I hate that I’m missing these months. I’m jealous of every person that gets to hold, hug, and play with her while I’m gone. But Jenn brought up a point that made me so happy. When I get back she’ll be getting to that age where she can be my little buddy. I see many trips to Home Depot and all kinds of other places with just the two of us. I can’t wait!

August 27

Today was the big day. We had our Fantasy Football Draft for my league back home. I Skyped into it, so it was nice to actually talk with some of my friends. Although the draft took longer than expected, it is after midnight, it was a good time. In honor of the tradition of eating and drinking crap while doing the draft I had a couple chocolate chip cookies and a Coke. Although both were good, I am kind of feeling like a sugar overdose. I’m very committed to fantasy football which is demonstrated by the two water bottles I filled because I couldn’t bear to leave and miss any of it. I’ll have to poor those out later. There were also about three explosions outside during the draft, but I stayed strong. It’s a late night so I’ll be heading to bed. I’m going to head back down to the bizarre tomorrow to try to get a few more things to send home. It’s my new Sunday tradition.