Anniversary week
On the 25th of this month I hit the 3-month mark for being mobilized, and today is my 2-month anniversary in Afghanistan. It appears that I could be almost one-half way through my deployment and the prospect of leaving at the end of January has renewed my spirits.
The Army recently announced it was going to adjust combat tour lengths to be more in line with those of the US Marines, Air Force and Navy, which only deploy their people here for 90-120 days. Armed with that and other information I requested that this command release me from active duty sometime around the end of January. I learned this week that things appear to be on track for me to return to the US at the end of January!
While this has been a fascinating job and everyone back home has been so incredibly supportive, the fact is I miss home and I'm ready to go. I've tried to remain positive in my blogs and have saved the complaining for personal emails home, but sharing a bathroom with 20 women and eating the same bad food day after day is getting old.
Thank goodness I work with such a great group of people who make the environment tolerable. In fact, I must say that we laugh a lot in this office.
Yesterday one of captains opened a bread maker she got and tried to bake a loaf of bread, which is tricky at our altitude. The first loaf didn't rise at all and after baking looked a lot like a rock. But she was not deterred and tried again. The second loaf didn't rise much higher and took on the appearance of a large biscuit. She was still not deterred and was at it once again this morning. We are all sitting here enjoying cheese/herb break fresh out of the machine! Of course, we have no butter for it because our dining facilities for some reason don't stock butter for us to use, just for them to use to cook. We have to steal butter from the European dining facilities when we have the chance if we want butter. Yes, the US Army is reduced to pocketing butter from the Europeans because we don't get it through our dining facilities -- at least not here in Kabul. Go figure.
I give my captain credit -- she's not a quitter and we have all enjoyed a slice of fresh bread as a result of her persistence. It's the little things in life that help us get by here.
Miss you...
The Army recently announced it was going to adjust combat tour lengths to be more in line with those of the US Marines, Air Force and Navy, which only deploy their people here for 90-120 days. Armed with that and other information I requested that this command release me from active duty sometime around the end of January. I learned this week that things appear to be on track for me to return to the US at the end of January!
While this has been a fascinating job and everyone back home has been so incredibly supportive, the fact is I miss home and I'm ready to go. I've tried to remain positive in my blogs and have saved the complaining for personal emails home, but sharing a bathroom with 20 women and eating the same bad food day after day is getting old.
Thank goodness I work with such a great group of people who make the environment tolerable. In fact, I must say that we laugh a lot in this office.
Yesterday one of captains opened a bread maker she got and tried to bake a loaf of bread, which is tricky at our altitude. The first loaf didn't rise at all and after baking looked a lot like a rock. But she was not deterred and tried again. The second loaf didn't rise much higher and took on the appearance of a large biscuit. She was still not deterred and was at it once again this morning. We are all sitting here enjoying cheese/herb break fresh out of the machine! Of course, we have no butter for it because our dining facilities for some reason don't stock butter for us to use, just for them to use to cook. We have to steal butter from the European dining facilities when we have the chance if we want butter. Yes, the US Army is reduced to pocketing butter from the Europeans because we don't get it through our dining facilities -- at least not here in Kabul. Go figure.
I give my captain credit -- she's not a quitter and we have all enjoyed a slice of fresh bread as a result of her persistence. It's the little things in life that help us get by here.
Miss you...
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