Home…oh how I miss thee

2 months in. Is it possible for time to fly and stand still at the same time? Some days I wake up and it seems like I just got here. Other times I feel like I have been here forever. But in a place that few stay for extended periods of time, it won’t be long before I can consider myself an upper class man.

Time is a funny thing here. I’ve had to adjust my relationship with my watch. I use it now strictly checking to see if I have time to grab something to eat, or to make sure I didn’t miss yet another conference call on skype. Most days, time is not important. The task of the day is what will determine when you can crawl into bed. I quite literally don’t know what day of the week it is most of the time, nothing here differentiates it. Work is around the clock and 7 days a week, even though we are supposed to get 1 day a week off, it doesn’t really happen. For example, today I was planning on at least sleeping in a few hours, I ended up having a conference call at 8am. So much for that sleep in I guess.

Nothing here is easy. Sleeping is a challenge when you live in a place that never stops, if it's not the rocket attack siren, it's the cargo planes going overhead all night, or the MRAPs idling on the street gearing up to go out the gate. I even get woken up from time to time still from the compound next door with their karaoke machine blasting, funny when I have needed to go over there to talk to them they never speak good enough English to answer me. Well the truth is revealed as they can be heard singing American classics at 2am, unbelievable. Enjoy the show here. Sorry, no good visual.

Driving is just a disaster, imagine people from all over the world driving around on dusty dirt roads with absolutely no rules…now add military vehicles…now add the local “jingle trucks” that come on base with deliveries. This picture is a common site. The guy forgot to lower the cargo bed and hit some wires. They call them jingle trucks because they all have chains, metal ornaments, etc all over them, so they "jingle" as they come down the road. Some are completely decked out like a parade float. I never have my camera out when the good ones come by though. Night time driving is just downright dangerous. Half the people here don’t wear their reflective belts that are handed out, and they just walk out into the street, I can’t even count the amount of near misses I have had when a group of people…in camouflage….on a dusty road, have stepped out in front of me.

Eating can be almost demoralizing. The menu NEVER changes. All they do is mix around the combinations. My pallet has gone away to the point that I just pick at the food. There is no flavor, no real taste. Just the same stuff over and over. White rice is the constant, every meal has it, can they serve anything with less nutritional value? On top of it will be some sort of goulash…pork, turkey, chicken, veggie…and they all taste the same. I had a pork chop last night, it was about ¼” thick and so overcooked that I couldn’t cut through it with the plastic knife. i had to pick it up and eat it like a bear. Add a side of pasta with a sauce that was more soup than sauce, and you’ve got yourself the typical dinner. And the best part is that they now only give you 1 plate, so everything was piled on top of each other and the pork chop was covered in the pasta sauce, but at least it made it less dry! Oh…did you want something other than water to drink since you will have drank at least 12 waters by dinner time? Step right up…here are your choices….coke products, and every flavor of TANG that you can imagine. That’s it.

There are other options though from the cafeterias. The boardwalk has some take out places that are ok, but now you’re talking about having to eat outside in the dust, no thanks. Plus one of them is that darn NY Yankees Kabob House, and I can't eat there for religious reasons. I actually ate at the T.G.I.Fridays that is here. How ridiculous is that? But after the waitress told us that pretty much ¾ of the menu was not available, I ended up having to get the $18 burger. I asked for cheese on it and they melted 2 mozzarella sticks on top of it. Nice. Just what I had in mind…..check please!

I have tried repeatedly to get food from the PX (KAF store), but unless I am in the mood for energy drinks, beef jerky, chips, candy, or muscle building powders, I am out of luck. If you find a box of granola bars, you may have to wrestle someone for it. Think I am over exaggerating? There are 8 refrigerators- 6 have energy drinks, 1 has coke/pepsi, etc. and the last one has non alcoholic beer. There are 5 isles of food, 1 is muscle building powders, 1 is chips, 1 is candy/cookies, 1 is beef jerky/sunflower seeds, and the last has crackers and the occasional box of granola bars. Yesterday that isle was completely empty. I don’t care what time my plane lands when I get home next month, I want to go straight to the beach and each some fresh seafood. I’m getting depressed, time to change the subject, I think I am about to cry….

I don’t have a scale here, but I am starting to feel the pounds starting to drop off, not to the point that my pants are falling down though, must be all the water weight. Finally that darn spider bite has cleared, so that shed off 10 lbs at least from my forehead!

So I started out here desperately missing Jolie and the boys of course, than I was able to hit a good stride where I could put it in the back of my mind, but this past week has been a real hard one. Maybe it’s because they just started fall baseball and had their first soccer game last weekend, and it’s the first time in about 6 seasons that I haven’t been the coach (Jolie has actually taken over, and won 8-1 in the opener!) It’s possibly the hardest week I’ve had here as far as missing home. I really turned it up a notch on the old temper meter too the past few days. Nobody that didn’t deserve it mind you, but still, I can tell that I’ve been on edge. This place can certainly do that to you. It's the simple things that I miss most. Playing catch with Tucker at his request nearly everyday, we have the best conversations about absolutely nothing as he snaps another bullet into my glove. Absolutely being cracked up by Luke daily by him well, just being Luke. And having that best friend in Jolie that can give you the immediate feedback on a situation. There is a large support system here within the company for issues related to work. We all understand the issues that others are dealing with in trying to do our jobs, but when it comes to non work, it's a solo gig. There is one  guy from the UK that is similar to me with a wife and young kids back home, so from time to time we'll talk about family. But we both try to keep that limited, all it tends to do is make you miss them more.

But as always here, just when I start to complain about how difficult things are, and boy have I done that on this blog, I get reminded of just how good I've actually got it. There is an engineer from Pakistan who has been working on my job site for the past few months. He is an impressive man. Quite knowledgeable, speaks perfect English, interacts with the client better than I could ask for. I am actually getting him a job within our company as competent foreign engineers are hard to find here. Well he was telling me the other day how last Christmas he was traveling back to Pakistan from Afghanistan when just as he crossed the border, his car was stopped by the Taliban. He and his colleague were held at gunpoint in a cave for 5 days. They had to pay for their own release. He gave everything he had with him, $7k, and his colleague gave $5k. They then had to have their employer give additional money to get them released. How do you live like that? Like I've said before, taking things for granted is all about which side of the fence you live on.


I am getting on a plane in 29 days to go home for 2 weeks. I can't wait.