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........