So long Kandahar....it's been fun!

Yup that's right. I'm outta here! In what seems to be a concerted effort to keep me wondering where I am when I wake up...I am being pulled out of Kandahar and will be permanently (if there is such a thing) back up at Leatherneck. I gotta say, I've been somewhat expecting it as the workload up there is continuing to pile up at an absolutely epic pace. I have been bidding jobs up there almost exclusively and we have been winning more than our fair share. What I wasn't expecting is the reason for me being relocated.

Our company is doing a major re-shuffle as we are taking on a massive venture back into the country that got us on the map overseas...Iraq...hello Mr. oil company. So with that the head of Afghanistan operations is jumping over the border, leaving his position for my boss, which leaves my boss's position of In Country Manager open, and in what must have been a scenario that resulted in a massive head contusion, he has chosen me to step into that role. Holy shit! Sorry mom but I have no better words for this one! What a crazy place this is, 4 months into my career here and I am now the new In Country Manager, third on the totem pole in all of Afghanistan. This is a huge step on every level, it's really quite overwhelming to think about the challenge of this. It's had me on brain lock for most of the day. Not just from the quadrupling workload and responsibilities, but I am now going to be directly in charge of the day to day operations of our companies most successful operation. An operation that is now up to over 160 direct employees throughout our 4 beach front resorts (Kabul, Leatherneck, Bastion, KAF). My boss will take up his new position working from Kabul, so thankfully I won't be needed too much there but I will be responsible for the other 3. I will also continue to carry on being the main estimator here and have my hands in on all proposals and active projects, so lucky me, on top of the new gig I get to continue to do my original one as well. Anyone know of a watch that has more than 24 hours on it?? Or any Estimators and Project Managers that what to come live the dream? You know who you are!!!

The timing is still up in the air a bit as this is all still coming together, my guess is that it will be sometime mid to late December, but who the heck knows? The only thing that I can predict accurately around here is the weather and even that has me guessing a bit these days.

I'm actually going to really miss KAF. No really. I've come to appreciate the dynamics here. There's a real connection to things here that I don't really see up at Leatherneck. A feeling like you are really in the middle of someplace here. Leatherneck is extremely generic compared to here, but hey, at least I won't have to worry about the incoming rockets anymore, and the noise level is much lower there. As I sit at my desk right now there is a convoy sitting out on the road about 20 feet from my desk. Needless to say the sweet sounds of diesel engines have come to be my constant backdrop, but that's what you get when you are living on a postage stamp sized compound.

Funny thing happened on Thursday, at about 10am I realized that it was Thanksgiving. It's not that I forgot, I just woke up and subconsciously slummed into the office per my regular morning ritual. And when both people that you are working with at the moment are from the Philippines, there isn't much to remind you of the holidays back home. So what did I do once I realized it was the big day? Nothing. It's not like I could sit and watch the Macy's parade, it wasn't on until mid afternoon with time difference. I did go to the American cafeteria for lunch though, it was the only one here that was serving camel...I mean turkey. The line to get in was more than 1 1/2 hours, oh joy. Once inside I was greeted with the sounds of the Army Brass Band, swan ice sculptures, and absolutely no place to sit. I circled the place twice before finally finding a seat. And nothing says Thanksgiving like sitting with a table full of soldiers from Jordan. I mean no offense to them, but it just wasn't doing it for me. I pretty much ate and left. The good news is that dinner later on was the exact same menu and provided a entirely new opportunity for some good American pride on Thanksgiving. It was like having left overs!

It was kind of an up and down day for me, I just tried to keep myself busy with work. I got to talk to the boys and Jolie, and even her brother Kyle who was in town, but it really made me miss home. Thanksgiving has never been a huge holiday with me, I guess I'm just not really a turkey fan, but I do love the time with family and friends that always surrounds the weekend. But being my first official holiday away from home, it made me think of all the things that I am missing being away from them. I did finish the day with a smile though as the Patriots game was on at 10pm. Speaking of the Patriots, remember that Red Sox flag I found at the local market a few months ago? Well I went back over to the market yesterday, and as I walked by that booth, there it was hanging in the back..........

I love it!! The Afghans clearly love Boston sports teams!!!! Haven't I told you that I have felt a connection to the locals??

So I guess the possibility exists that the next time I have a chance to blog I may be gone from here already, not likely, but neither was the chance of me taking a job in Afghanistan.

"Bring Two Set Of Body Armor....One to Wear, One to Sit On".......wait, what?

Oh the places I get to see. I guess this tour here is all about letting me see the sights and meet the people. Yesterday it was a Forward Operating Base (FOB) located about 30 miles south of Leatherneck in an area called Lashkar Gah. We have been invited to bid on a massive service contract through out Afghanistan and this is one of the locations that it would cover. Friday was a day full of meetings about the contract along with our safety briefing for both the flight and the area surrounding Lashkar Gah. Crazy stuff. We had to shut off phones, no notebooks, etc before the briefing started. We heard pretty much everything that had happened in this part of the country within the last 48 hours. Lots of madness out there for sure. Lots of stories of young Afghan children being used as "runners", as shields, and as signalers when coalition forces came near, and even a story of a donkey at the side of a road that had TNT hidden IN it and a control wire running from it's but. Luckily seen before it was too late. They concluded the briefing by announcing that we should bring an overnight bag, etc in case the helicopter became grounded and we couldn't return...in the words of my lovely wife "oh like a sleepover"....she's a funny one huh? By a show of hands they asked if anyone still wanted to go. Mine was about half way up I would say. Later our security director would suggest to me that I "bring two sets of body armor, one to to wear, one to sit on".....nice.

We would be riding down by helicopter as the FOB is too small to have a runway. The trip would take only about 20 minutes. And what a 20 minutes it was. We rode down on a British Royal Air Force Merlin helicopter. It seats about 15 passengers, has 2 pilots, and 2 gunners- 1 in the front ride behind the pilots and 1 who kneels out the back on the ramp that they leave down. So basically the whole back of the helicopter is wide open. It was crazy. We took off and started hauling ass low and straight out over the desert, after about 5 minutes we climbed up a bit and stayed up high for the majority of the flight until we got within a few minutes of Lashkar Gah. As we approached, we suddenly dove down low and began to snake our way over the houses. We literally could see the faces of the people and the wind from the helicopter was blowing the trees as we flew over. The helicopter was rolling side to side almost in a zig-zag pattern until we hit the perimeter wall of the FOB, then the nose of the helicopter shot almost straight up to the sky, through the tail we were looking straight down at the ground as our speed dropped down enough that we could drop down onto the helipad. Once we touched down they got us off and they were back in the air within minutes. We were still on the perimeter of the helipad when they were already taking back off. I had some pretty obvious questions after that little video game of a landing, and of course I asked. The reasoning for it is pretty simple actually, if you come in high it gives them more time to set up and aim, plus the weapons they use are not good for close range, they need time in the air before exploding. Plus if you come in high, that means you need to hover and lower yourself in a straight line down....easy target. So they figure it is better to come in low and only have small arms fire than up high where they can get you with the rockets. Good idea....I guess. They say that they get small arms fire every once in a while, I can only imagine what that looks like when the gunners unload all that fire power back down on them from just 100 ft up. Yikes!

Grenade Alley

We spent the day out there., nothing too exciting. About 1,000 soldiers are living there in what is a very small and tight space. Lashkar Gah is an old Afghan city that is considered to be the capital of the Helmand Province. It now has a base right smack in the middle of it. The houses quite literally are right up to the perimeter wall. So close in fact that one side of the FOB has a road named "grenade alley". Nice of them to tell us this after we had been walking along it for a good 100 yards. We went through the compound where the explosives technicians are, interesting place I must say, plenty of recovered bombs, rockets, etc. But the thing that caught my eyes was the wall that had single shoes nailed to it. Me and my big mouth of course spoke up...turns out they are shoes from suicide bombers that have tried to attack the base. I need to keep my questions to myself more I think.  Lots of local flair out there, strange to see a few large gardens in the middle of the base. And get this...the food in the cafeteria was also better than at KAF.

My ride coming in for a landing.

At the end of the day we stood out by the helipad and waited for our ride. What a cool sight to watch them coming in from the distance, doing their dodge and weave, and dropping right in just a few feet away. Cameras were not allowed on the first flight, but there were a few soldiers that had theirs out filming as the choppers came in, so I took that as a yes and grabbed mine and was able to film the entire flight home. I spliced together some of it and you can watch it HERE.. Sorry about the audio, the combination of noise and wind did wonders on the microphone. We flew home on a British Royal Navy Sea King. Pretty much the same as the Merlin except it has a side door gunner and not the rear. We took off and immediately buzzed the roof tops and out into the open desert we went. 20 minutes later we were back safe and sound. Do I have the coolest job or what?

I'll admit it, I was nervous. More from the unknown and not from the I'm gonna get shot. I've got pretty good faith these days, even before coming to this place, and I figure that between all these soldiers and the big man, I'm good for a while.

What days like yesterday do is really open my eyes to what happens over here, seeing how these guys operate out in the war zone and not just around the base is a whole different world. Those guys were locked and loaded, and all business. Probably annoyed to have another group of civilians watching them like they are some kind of reality show. I've said it a thousand times, I could never do what they do.

I'm wrapping up my time here in Leatherneck, heading back to KAF tomorrow if I can find room on a military flight. Between my R&R and my time up here I feel like I haven't been there in forever...it's been hard to get to sleep without the rocket attack sirens.

On a great news note: a great friend who I worked with a few years back has accepted a job to come and play in the sand. I've requested he be sent to me at KAF, but in this place you never know. Who knows, maybe he will become my Wilson!!

Back Where It All Started

Back at Camp Leatherneck
So here I am sitting in the office that I had originally thought was going to be mine in the beginning. I must say, this place looks nothing like it did when I was here for those 3 short days in July. The company has nearly doubled the footprint of the compound. They now have their own concrete production plant, a metal building fabrication shop, twice the living quarters, and are finishing a new 4,000 SF office building. Oh...don't forget the gym, basketball court, and the entertainment area. A bit more room than my little 1/2 acre set up at KAF.

When I was first here I was fresh off the plane and scared out of my mind. I think that those first days here were by far the worst I've had. My nerves were a mess, I missed home already, and I was doubting this decision big time, add in the jet lag and I quite literally freaked out those first few nights in my room. I don't mind telling you that I wanted to turn around and go home on the next flight, I didn't care what anyone would think about me, I just wanted out. This was the ultimate eggs in one basket scenario.

Fast forward almost 4 months later, and here I sit again, this time with a much better head on my shoulders, and a much better understanding of what it takes to not just live and work here, but also to succeed here. I've been fortunate to have had a very good first tour, and right off the bat in the start of the second I am hitting the ground running. With the help of the Head Designer, we have just completed what might be the most complex pricing package yet over here. A contract that allows the UK Works Group (British Gov.) to pick and choose tasks from a list of 496 items as if ordering off a menu. He did the write up, I did the pricing. Nothing like jumping back into the deep end! I started on it on Wednesday morning, and after working on it literally every waking moment, we are just finishing putting the package together and it is ready for delivery on time tomorrow morning. All this while both my 2 bosses are out of the country and unreachable. Daunting when we started, but incredibly satisfying to be completed. That's what I like best about working here, everyone knows how to do their job, and everybody just does it. I wish that I could say that I will catch up on the sleep I've lost by working an average of nearly 20 hours a day since Wednesday, but I have to finish pricing a 78,000 SF building that is going to be the command center for all of Afghanistan and is valued around $50MM by Wednesday night......I knew I should have left the estimating part off my resume!

Leatherneck is the polar opposite of Kandahar. For starters, it's just the US Marines. Camp Bastion is connected to it and has the British Forces, so you do get a mix, but when you go around the place you are pretty much only seeing 1 or the other depending which side of the base you are on. Compare that to KAF where you have troops and people from the entire NATO coalition and you start to think that the place is pretty vanilla. Another major difference is that although you still can hear explosions, they usually are just from the firing range, there's not much incoming action here at the base. Now when they head out, it's just a nasty as everywhere else, the Helmend Province is one of the historically violent areas of Afghanistan, but it never seems to reach the base, it's almost weird actually....no rocket attack sirens, no strange explosions at night....I could almost get used to this. But what's funny is that I kinda can't wait to get back to KAF. How strange is that? The whole time in KAF I've been somewhat jealous of the guys up here, better living quarters, better office, lots more people, MUCH better food...but what it really does is make me want to succeed at KAF that much more to say that I was the one that turned KAF into an operation like Leatherneck. Maybe it's my self loathing side, or maybe it's been the professional spark that was part of what I took this job for. I was on a conf call with the VP of the company last night about these bids, and he mentioned that we are going to be making a major push in KAF in 2011 now that we have started to establish ourselves there, I say that's more reason for me to be there...make sure I get the best room!

Today we had to go over to Camp Bastion for a few minutes, there was a ton of activity, reporters, extra security if that's possible out here. Turns out Prince William is here. I was thinking of seeing of young Billy wanted to maybe grab a coffee, kick the ball around a bit. But I am guessing that the amount of security around him would most likely have a different idea.And no there are no pictures for the ladies to swoon over. There is a strict no cameras on this base, even to document the construction projects takes getting permission first. I even am not supposed to take pictures inside our compound. I swear all these places make up there own rules. at KAF I can literally take a picture of anything except the airfield. Here they check your bag for cameras when you get off the plane.

It's almost 1am right now...outside temp of 39 degrees....are you kidding me? It quite literally is freezing here at night. I walked back to my room last night around 2:30am and i couldn't top shivering...and I was wearing a fleece! Then the generator that feeds the area where my room is shut down for some reason around 4am, by 4:30 I could see my breath in my room. Those metal boxes we live in pretty much have no insulation in them. I found myself lying there praying for summer to return quickly. The days are around the 70's for the most part, but there is a constant breeze here, I don't know if it is seasonal or always like this, but I didn't notice it in KAF.

This whole time I have been writing this I have been waiting for the Design Manager to finish up his portion of the proposal that is due at 10am, he's now done, so now it's time to start pulling it all together and tying a bow on it. Gotta run....and then maybe get a few hours of sleep.

And So Begins Round 2....ding

Thank god I'm back in Kandahar, now I can get some rest! That whole parenting thing is flipping exhausting, more reason why I think that Jolie might have the harder half of this deal. Everyone keeps commenting on how tired I must be. I might be working around the clock, by at least I only have me to worry about.Props to my lady.

What a great trip home it was, The flight actually went by easier than I had anticipated, thankfully the seat next to me was empty so I could spread out a bit. Plus on the flight from Kandahar to Dubai I had two beers, which pretty much got me loaded I think. They were the best beers I have ever had by the way. Ice cold Heineken (sorry Cramer it's all they had) and after 3 months without, they tasted wonderful. Our personnel manager was on the same flight when I boarded, and considering how much business we give that airline, they were buttering us up with beer. Nothing wrong with that by the way.

I got home on Tuesday morning the 19th. Jolie and the boys met me at the airport, what a great sight. After a quick shower we went right over to the water, sat outside, and had some nice seafood for lunch, couldn't have asked for more. The best part though was that as the 4 of us sat there, it felt like I had only been gone a week. I must admit I was somewhat curious to see if there would be an adjustment period of any kind with the boys. I've never been away from them for more than a few days at a time. Thankfully we all just fell right back into place.

The first few days at home I was definitely feeling wiped out, not to the point of being asleep on my feet, but I probably could have gone to sleep at anytime if the opportunity arose. But you see, being married to my wife, those opportunities don't come up, that woman doesn't sit still! But truth be told I wouldn't have wanted to sit around being lazy, it was great to be out and busy, and great to be with her.

We left for Disney on Sunday night, spent 4 nights and went home on Thursday night. It was great, officially scared the crap out of the boys right off the bat. Their first ever Disney ride was Space Mountain. There was no request for a repeat ride by either of the boys. We had a fantastic time, it was perfect. I even didn't mind that Mickey had his hand on my wallet the whole time! That's why he wears gloves ya know.

On Friday my son's teacher asked me to come into the class and give a talk about my time in Afghanistan. It was a blast, but man was I nervous...presentation to the planning board in Kandahar- piece of cake...talking to a room full of second graders- yikes! The spider bite pictures were a big hit by the way.


Back in the dust...and cigarette smoke. I might be the only person in the entire country who doesn't smoke.
Coming back here I had to go through the fun of getting another visa in Dubai. They again have changed the rules. I had to get yet another visa in Dubai before entering Afghanistan. It's kinda funny actually, they are making it harder and harder to get a working visa which would allow you to move more freely than the tourist visa they gave me last time. But to get those, you have to jump through hoops and prove to them that you are an educated person, they also will only give you one if you tell them that you are an engineer. So needless to say they must be thousands of engineers running around Afghanistan right now. It's their way of justifying all us westerners "taking their jobs". I tell ya what though, find me a local who can do my job and I'll give it to him. Seems ironic in a country where the majority cannot read or write that those of us who are here trying to rebuild the place need to prove ourselves.

This new visa required me to go to Kabul before coming back to Kandahar. I didn't mind it though as it gave me a chance to see the guys at our Kabul office and quite frankly, I got to see Kabul. And see it I sure did, what a crazy place. As you fly in over the Northern part of the country, the mountains are everywhere, some even had snow top peaks already, actually quite beautiful. As you get closer to Kabul and you start to descend, you feel surrounded by them, at one point the peaks where actually higher than the plane, is it me or shouldn't we be as high as we can at this point? As we got close to the airport an F-16 pasted below us...nice. I was imagining that Kabul wall a very mountainous city, but as you get over the peaks it flattens out and you just drop right down.

Customs at the airport was a trip, lots of pushing and shoving and what I assume was swearing in Afghan. And I think a lot of it was at me, most of them were clearly not happy to have me in front of them in the line, the backs of my ankles can attest to that as the guy behind me was jamming his cart into me without mercy the entire time. The guy who was checking all the bags to be sure they belonged to each person was choosing to fight with everyone about it. I don't know how they all prove that they have the right bags, most of them are simply sacks that are rolled up and tied shut with thick rope around them. Once through the customs it was out in to the wide open city. My company owns a villa about 20 minutes from the airport, they sent a driver with the security team to pick me up, interesting ride to say the least.

I called to say I was there, and about 1 minute later an SUV pulled up, guy jumps out, asks my name, then tells me to get in the back. Either this was my ride or I was about to be glad I read the section of the company handbook about how to survive a kidnapping (no joke, it's in there). We have a group of about 10 armed security guards working in Kabul just for personnel movement, we have even more out on the job sites. The driver told me it wasn't a good idea to be taking pictures....I left it in the bag for most of the ride.

I have no words for the ride to the villa. The main roads are loaded with everything from vehicles, bikes, animals, livestock, people, trash, etc. You are constantly weaving your way down the rode. Misc Afghan Policemen just standing in the rode trying to make you stop. We made it past 3 of them before we had to stop, the driver rolled down the window, half yelled with the guy, and then gunned it, starting the weaving action again.

The area around the airport is the poorest section, and I mean POOR. Houses looked more like refuge camps. Storefronts along the streets where selling lord knows what, people where everywhere. Trash is piled up in the streets as kids pick through it filling up baskets. As we got closer to the villa, he told me that we were entering the nicer portion of the city...all relative I guess. But I must say, if you take away the constant threat of death..it really would be a beautiful old city. The villas are huge, and some of them have gorgeous detail work on them. The one our company has is 4 stories, marble on every floor and wall surface, massive wooden doors, etc., all the villas look similar, the problem is that they all now have huge walls with barbed wire above them, and without exclusion they all have armed guards in front. Kinda takes away the warm and cozy old city vibe.

It was Friday, which is the day off at the Kabul office, that worked out great. It was a no stress environment and I got to relax and take in the place. I went out on the 4th floor terrace and sat out there for a while. I took some picture from up there where no one could see me from the street. There was a loud speaker that was broadcasting what I was told to be the usual Friday propaganda, typical down with westerners type stuff. I took a brief movie from up there and you can hear it in the background. Once it ended our security manager asked if I wanted to go grab a burger...I thought he was joking...he wasn't. Soooooo he called downstairs and told them we were going out, they then get a truck ready and check the roads to make sure that there is nothing blocking them, we get in the truck and they open the gate and away we go, we only went a few blocks, but the roads are so chopped up and bumpy is some parts that you cannot go more than a few miles an hour if you want your guts to be in their proper place. We pulled over to the side of the rode and he says to me "hop out so I can park"....uhhh...say what? I jump out and he pulls up tight to a building, once he gets out, kids come flying out of no where yelling his name, he pulls out his wallet and hands dollar bills to them all. While he does this, armed guards start coming out into the street smiling and waving to him. The guy is like the mayor of Kabul or something, he tells me later that as long as he treats them all well, they watch his back...good plan.

So we walk toward a solid metal gate, and I'm wondering what the hell we are doing there, it doesn't look like a burger joint. A guard opens the gate and as he is about the let us in he says "guns or knives?" Our security manager answers "no, those are dangerous" to which they both get a chuckle...jokes...great,,ya, funny stuff people. As we walk in, he tells me that this place is owned by an American, suddenly I hear country music, and we walk around to a courtyard complete with nice wooden tables, and sitting there already were a few guys from the office enjoying a beer. Yup, I was at an American owned bar in the middle of downtown Kabul, sitting outside. 5 of us sat around a table and ate and drank for a few hours, totally bizarre, but what over here isn't? oh, and the burger was the best I've had here. We eventually made our way back to the villa for the night. Happy to be safe and sound after my first day in Kabul.

Saturday morning I flew on a Military flight to Kandahar, just me and about 50 of my closest friends with guns. Funny to put your bags through a scanner in between all the weapons and body armor. We flew on a C-130 cargo plane, not the most comfortable seating I've ever been in. You sit sideways on what amounts to a fold-able bench you might take camping with a cargo net as your back support. All jammed in there, yet again the only guy without a gun. Flight was as smooth as can be expected. They take off what feels to be straight up and land going straight down. They passed out earplugs, and I couldn't get them in fast enough once they started up those massive propellers. After we were in the air for about 10 minutes I realized that I was probably the only one that was still awake. So I did what I had to do to fit in. I must say though, hard to keep your head from snapping off when you are falling asleep with a Kevlar helmet on.

So now I am back here in KAF, but only for a few days. I'm heading up to Leatherneck in a few days for a couple of weeks while my boss goes on his R&R. He wants me up there to help cover for him and we also have a few huge proposals to do and it makes sense for me to be there with the design staff to work on them. Not really sure when I will be back here, but I think I might need to get used to that, It sounds like I might be doing a bit of jumping around here for a bit. If nothing else it will help make the time go by quicker.

Oh, just for the record, my first meal back I chose the "vegetable macaroni & cheese", I'm sorry...is there any other kind? Makes me wonder what the regular kind has in it.

The weather here sure did change in just a few weeks, I had to turn on the heat in my room last night, those drafty doors and windows were letting the 30 degree air right in. When I went to the office this morning I could see my breath, I wore a fleece most of the morning. I love it. Couldn't be happier.

By the way, you may notice the clock up there on the left shows now that I am 9 1/2 hours ahead of the east coast now, no daylight savings here, had me all kinds of messed up here.

Just 85 days until R&R........