Dreaming of home...

So I guess after more than 2 months it’s time to get caught back up with my people. 

R&R was great. Instead of heading straight home, I met my wife and kids up in Boston for 5 days. A bit surreal I must admit to get on a plane in Afghanistan, and a day later I am sitting in my mom’s living room. Jolie and the boys had arrived at the airport just 30 minutes after I did and I was standing at their terminal waiting for them to get off a plane for once. When I got on my connection flight in Atlanta to Boston I sat next to guy who had the thickest stereotypical Boston accent. Normally that makes me cringe as I pride myself in not having it myself, but I actually enjoyed it, it was the first time I could really talk to anyone who gave a crap that the Boston Bruins had won the Stanley Cup!

Fenway Park

We had a great time, family bbq on July 4^th, cruised around Boston for a few days, and of course catching a Red Sox game. Being in Boston always makes me want to move back there. Though after being over here any city seems like the magical kingdom. 

Me and my gorgeous wife

We spent the rest of my R&R home in NC. I couldn’t wait to get over to the beach and enjoy walking in sand for once. We spent lots of time out on the water both with great friends on their boat (aren’t all friends with boats great) and we rented our own for another few days. It was pretty obvious after the first boat trip that I don’t spend much time over here with my shirt off or even wearing shorts for that matter….i got quite possibly the worst sunburn of my life, at one point even contemplating if I needed to go to the doctor….how embarrassing to never have gotten one out here in the desert, but was looking like a lobster after 1 day on the water back home!

Being home again was great, it always is, that should go without saying. But being home can also be incredibly hard for me. Sounds selfish yes I know, by no means should that be taken as I don’t want to be home, because nothing could be further from the truth. Stepping off the plane and seeing Jolie and the boys instantly wipes away all the stress, all the exhaustion, all the feelings of loneliness that goes along with being out here away from the ones that you love. But it also smacks you in the face on day one and continues to chase you the entire time. I can’t say exactly what it is, but each time home it has been more and more present. It’s a feeling of disconnection at times, at other times a feeling of guilt knowing that it all passes by too quickly. It’s the pressure of trying to make every minute of every day be perfect wanting to leave the boys with great memories of their time with dad and hoping that it fills them up enough to last until the next time. This last time was on the 1 year mark of me leaving, and for the first time I could tell that I had been gone for so long. It was clear that I wasn’t up to speed on their lives, felt like I had forgotten how to be a dad and a husband at times. It’s something that has stuck with me for the 2 months that I have been back, probably why I am more homesick now than I ever have through all of this. It’s ironic, over hear you get such a bond with all the people you work with, you endure the ever increasing work hours, the harsh environment, the guns, the explosions, the fact that a remote control airplane with a camera on it circles overhead watching you…but we all are hear doing it because we want to make life better for our families back home…the one thing that we miss the most.

My next R&R is due in late October, but we have decided to push it until Christmas for a couple of reasons. My biggest project is due for completion in November and for me to leave less than a month before that is not ideal as it will be an all hands on deck scenario to pull this thing to completion, but also because I really want to be home for Christmas this year after missing it last year and if I go in October I won't be eligible to go again until late January. What that means is that this rotation will be 5 months, I arrived back here a few days shy of 2 months ago…so really today is more like day one of the tour….yikes. Good thing that we are planning on going on a great trip together, finalizing he details now, but somewhere with a fruity drink is all I ask!

There hasn’t been much new going on here lately to speak off other than work, at least if there was I didn’t see it from my office window. Last month was pretty quiet as far as the guns and bombs thing goes. It was the religious month of Ramadan, which traditionally is a quieter time for the war. there still have been the occasional rockets going out, but not at the clip that we had become accustomed to…if you can get accustomed to rockets launching over your head. Ramadan does make pushing a construction schedule a bit of a challenge. All of our Afghan workers and a hand full of others that celebrate Ramadan fast during the day including drinking water. So as you can imagine when temperatures are still hovering slightly over 100 degrees and you have men working in the heat without food and water the production rate comes to a grinding halt. It also affects local suppliers that have taken a month long holiday, and in Dubai, our other main hub for supplies, getting planes loaded with materials & supplies is just as challenging. Someone needs to open a Home Depot over here.

We recently bid on a project here to improve the sewage disposal system,...glamorous huh? The current system has the sewage running off the camp and into the desert. Well there has sprung up a small village right outside the base and they have rerouted the sewage over to their farm land. For obvious reasons they have about the most fertile soil around. Part of this project is to naturally treat the sewage before it leaves the camp, something that the farmers are actually upset with as they see it as potentially hindering their ability to grow there products. We had to meet with the farmer to reassure him that he would still be getting his fair share of poop to put it bluntly, but also to find out how locals grow reed beds in this environment which is a key component of the project. Lets just say that the offer of fruit was accepted, but that fruit didn't even last the 100 yards to get back into the gate before I ditched it....and I am still washing my hands like Lady Macbeth.

Fuel System Project

 

We really have made good progress on all our projects. We are getting ever so close to finishing the Fuels System project and when that one is done I think there are more than a few of us that are going to celebrate. I've never been involved in a project like this. In the beginning myself and me site manager, whom I worked with previously back home, stood there one day and commented on how cool of a project this was for us to be doing, and even though there have been times when i think both of us wished that a well placed incoming rocket would do the project a whole lot of good...I think that as we come closer to completion we are going to be able to stand down there at the end and marvel at what it was that we accomplished out here in the middle of Afghanistan. Trust me, there are bigger and more complex projects going on out here, but at least for me this was the most challenging in my 20 years in the business. 

Driver Training Course

We delivered a really cool project for the British Military that involved building a training course for all the military vehicles, it’s pretty much an obstacle course on steroids for them to drive their million dollar toys over. I was promised a ride through the course by the head instructor once it was done....gotta make that happen.

The entire course was carved, molded, compacted using local labor driving heavy equipment, something that we have starting to refer to as herding cats. Just as you think you get one group going in the right direction you turn your head and notice that the others need gathering again. I have found that you get 2 completely different types of local workers here. Some are rock solid, motivated, want to learn and do well. Others are always looking for the shortcut, the reason why their dump truck doesn't run so they can stop working, or just simply decide to stop working and assume the squatting position that looks like a bird on a wire.

Thankfully the majority of our directly employed locals fall into the first category....one was even so happy to have finished a portion of the days task that he started doing kart wheels...

We also started another project for the US military and myself and the guy that has been running the project in the field took full advantage of the wide open space by going out and hitting a few golf balls. He actually bought a set of clubs online and we finally got over there to test them out. Amazing what 30 minutes of doing something so normal can do for your state of mind. Well most of it was normal, back home I generally don’t go to a driving range that has a guy in a tower with a 50 caliber machine gun staring down at you....talk about pressure.

Here's to dreaming of home......

1 Year In The Books....almost

1 year in the books…almost. Sitting here today I am just 3 weeks shy of my one year mark. Hard to believe it has been this long, the year has mostly flown by. I bet my wife would have a different perspective in the time though. I can’t say it enough, she has the harder part in this chapter of our lives. It might be long hours, and rough conditions over here, but at least I only have to worry about myself. Whenever this is all said and done I owe that woman one hell of a vacation!!

This rotation has absolutely flown by, I can’t believe it has been 3 months already and I am heading home in a few days for R&R. it’s probably since I am leaving on my 95^th day instead of last time on day 132. Add the fact that things are busier than ever for me here and days turn into weeks, sometimes quite literally. I guess it’s better than the alternative, I couldn’t imagine having a boring job out here,  I’d go out of my mind if I had the time to think about it. 

I’ll be heading back up to Boston to start of this R&R, meeting Jolie and the boys up there. We will spend about 5 days seeing family, and of course hitting all our favorite places in Boston…including Fenway park! Should be a great trip. We’ll head home to North Carolina for the rest of the time, I plan on planting my butt on the beach and for once be happy that I am covered in sand. Can’t wait to show off this raging farmer’s tan that I got going on, it’s a great look…might have to fight off the ladies. I’ll have to lather up good, and by the looks of my belly, I might need to use more than normal. Hard to believe that even though I have been running somewhat regularly in the gym, I feel like I have actually put on weight, just goes to show that the food here is aimed towards marines who are training and working out all day, not those of us who use keyboards for a living. A skill I might add that I think I have improved on far too much, some days I wish I could stay out in the field all day and make lots of noise and dust and swear all day. Then I walk outside and the sweat begins to bead off my forehead before I even get to the truck and I realize that it is better to stay inside in the AC and swear under my breathe.

1 of 3 tanks

Business is good, my biggest project is moving along well at this point. Building 3 massive fuel tanks that will hold 1 million gallons of jet fuel in the middle of Afghanistan was certainly never on my career radar, but man it has been pretty cool. The amount of organization both from the office and in the field has been enormous, and at times it has seemed as if we have been spinning our wheels. But now the project has hit its stride and it seems each week we are hitting milestones.  We have nearly 100 workers per day in the project, plus a night crew as we are working 24/7 right now, and let’s just say that English is not the primary language for the majority….challenging to say the least. It’s great to go down there and climb to the top of the tanks and look around, they are the tallest structure on the base, but don’t go up there in the middle of the day. We have been getting temperature readings on the roof of over 180 degrees. Pour water on the steel and it doesn’t even make it to the edge to drip off. Have I mentioned it is hot here? I have added a photo gallery on the left (click here) with more pictures of the project for those that are interested in seeing how real men work for a living.

The average temperature lately has been right around 120 degrees. I have a thermometer on my desk that has an outside probe on it, in the shade it has been around 114, I laid it on the ground the other day and within a minute it shot up to almost 140….its brutal. Walking outside is like walking into a wall of heat, it honestly feels like the sun is about to land on the earth out here. It’s about the only time that I am thankful for spending so much time at my desk…in the AC. When I get back from R&R it will most likely be pushing 130.

So just after my last blog….a long time ago I know (people can stop sending me emails through the blog complaining now)…well we had the first real attack here at Camp Leatherneck that has happened in quite a long time. About 7am we had a total of 5 rockets come in. 3 landed on the British side in Camp Bastion and the other 2 landed on the Leatherneck side. At the same time they had a handful of suicide bombers trying to get close to the base. Thankfully none ever did. We learned later that they found another 5 rockets out a ways already loaded onto the home made launching rails that they use. To be honest it felt kinda like my days in Kandahar, minus the poo pond! We all lost count around 16 at the amount of those kick ass rockets that we have shooting out over us and towards the mountains. How crazy that I just sat at my desk looking out the window as they all shot right over us. I always wanted an office with a view but this is not what I had in mind.

It was a bit of a reality check here as this place is generally thought of as being safe…at least as safe as can be when you are located in a portion of Afghanistan that is referred to as the “Desert of Death”. One good thing that I am sure has come out of it is that I guarantee they have pushed the patrols out even further than before to be sure that no one slips through again. We all thought that it might be the start of something here, but ever since then it has been pretty quiet. 

So I am sure that you have all heard about the big announcement of us starting to withdraw troops from here. Well I couldn’t be happier about that, for all those troops do, it’s great to think that soon some will be heading home. Well now before you think that might mean that I am out of a job, the work out here has no end in sight. My company in the past few weeks has been awarded contracts worth nearly $6 Billion (yes with a “B) over the next 6 years. 1 contract is for work in over 20 countries though nearly 70% of it is here and in Iraq. Another one that we bid on and have a good chance at winning is to build 5 more cafeterias here at Leatherneck, another one is for additional troop housing.…..so that should tell you something. To be honest, they could remove at least a few thousand just from Leatherneck with no impact to the actual war. I see no reason why you need 10 marines working at each cafeteria checking ID’s and making sure that you sign in, or working in the post office, or just wandering around like zombies. It has always been pretty clear to me that there are two levels of troops here, the ones that fight and the ones that don’t fight. I say get all the non fighters out of here.

Well I better get back to it, 2 more wake ups and I start my long journey home, still too much to do before I go, but that never changes. I promise when I get back I will keep up with the blog better, I have really slacked on it the past few months. The day I return back here will be my wedding anniversary, and will be 1 day shy of my 1 year anniversary of arriving here. If you see my wife on the 18^th give her a hug for me please, she deserves it.

In a towel watching CNN....where were you?

So I have gotten numerous emails and skypes today for obvious reasons. I guess one would assume that on the day that Osama Bin Laden is killed that the middle of Afghanistan would quite the exciting place to be, either for the reaction of the troops, or the reaction of the Taliban. Well I ain’t got nothing for ya. It has actually been an extremely quiet day, heck the firing range next door has even been quiet! I must admit though, when I got out of the shower this morning and turned on CNN as I was getting dressed, I had the same thought as many of you did….”sweet”….”uh oh”. This can only lead to more action around here one would think. But the spring is historically the most active season here anyways so things have already started to increase the alert levels. The poppy harvest is over and it’s back to trying to kill the infidels for a while again. The base has been on high alert for the past week or so, even before today’s news. Random car checks, badge checks, getting the metal detector wand run over you on the way into the cafeteria. For those of you that complain about the airport security wanting to pat you down and check your pockets….try having that with an M16 thrown into the mix. Gotta tell ya though, I am all for it. I think that many people are here on these bases feeling like we are untouchable, especially on this one. Did you hear about the prison break in Kandahar last week where hundreds of Taliban escaped? Guess where they just found about a dozen or so of them? Yup…here on this base working for contractors. Needless to say I have a hiring freeze on locals. We have a large project going on here right now that we just flew in about 60 workers from Pakistan for, they are living here on our camp with us for the next few months, an interesting dynamic considering today’s events.
I'm the first to tell you that I am glad that they got him. Absolutely, 100%. Dude had it coming for sure. I am fascinated for the details of how it all went down. But I gotta say I am not really sure how I feel about seeing the pictures of people celebrating like they just won the Superbowl. It's weird to me. There was a news clip of people in front of the White House, and they had this one woman up on a guy's shoulders, and I was half expecting to see her take her top off like she was at a concert or something. I get the celebration, I get the emotion, I don't get the hip hip hooray though. We wonder sometimes why half the world hates us. Just check out the news and you can see why...people singing "We are the champions" on the front of the White House.....really? 
Rant over.

It’s been a strange few weeks; I’ve been in and out of a funk for sure. The coolness of being over here is starting wear off.  It is the true sense of ground hog day. Last week my boss and I couldn’t figure out what day it was, literally….

My boss:  “was that meeting yesterday?”

Me: “not sure…what day is today?”

My boss: “not sure”

This continued for at least a minute before I had to check my emails to see that it was Friday. It’s like I’ve lost my mind at times. All sense of time of day and day of the week are out the window, don’t even get me started about remembering what freaking month it is. 

Easter was 103 degrees, and it has been keeping right there ever since. Even the Easter Bunny was smart enough to stay away. There was no spring time here. One day it was in the 70’s, the next it was over 100. It might be the only time of year that I am thankful to be chained to my desk all day, I don’t know how those guys work all day out in the heat. I do have a fantastic farmer’s tan already though. Should be a good look when I am home this summer and sitting my butt on the beach…farmer’s tan and raccoon eyes from my sunglasses.

Just another day at the office

Kaboom

Last week there were 2 massive explosions from just outside the base, usually we get these on a smaller level and they make you jump a bit but nothing more, well these puppies were the largest since I have been here. They must have been blowing something up out there. The usual mushroom cloud of dust quickly gave way to a fire red/orange glow that as I sat at my desk and looked up out the window, seemed to cover the sky. By the time I took this picture it was a good 10 minutes later and the mushroom clouds were still climbing. I would guess that they were maybe around a mile and a half from the office. We had the maintenance guys go around and check windows…and I checked my underwear.

Reality check #378.

I was on a bid walk last week over by the hospital as a Chinook helicopter came in low and fast. These helicopters are like massive flying elephants, so when they are coming in as low as this one was towards the hospital you know it’s not good. I’ve seen this countless times before though, they drop out of the sky as the ambulance speeds towards the landing pad, sometimes you see someone limp pout the back, sometimes they are carried out but you don’t get the full view. Well this time was different; they came in right over us and were so low that it blew peoples notebooks out of their hands. The dust whipped around us and as I held my breath and closed my eyes as tightly as I could, I couldn’t help but wonder about my career choices. The sirens of the ambulance could barely be heard because of how loud the rotary blades are on that thing. We all stood there and after the dust settled enough could only watch. The Helicopter landed about 50 yards from where we were and immediately when the tires touched down four men ran out carrying a stretcher as another knelt over the injured soldier doing chest compressions. Dangling off the side of the stretcher was half an arm. I thought that I was going to through up. After everything that I have seen here in the nearly 10 months, that is the one that has hit me in the gut the most. I refused to look at the flags on the hospital for the next few days because I didn’t want to see them at half staff. 

On a brighter note I have help coming soon, We've hired a new project manager to come on board and hopefully take some of my workload off of me. I can't wait, I swear I can't get anything done here during the day between trying to do my regular job and dealing with everything else that comes with running this place, I and spread so thin that I might tear soon. Somehow most (not all) gets done though. I guess that has lead to probably the best "review" by a boss that I have ever gotten. Must be doing something right I guess. Funny to be thriving in a war zone.......

 

I'm back

It's like I never left.

What a great trip home I had. I was so burnt out that I didn't even leave my seat the entire flight home, after about 13 hours the woman next to me finally asked me if I needed to at least use the bathroom. It's like pulling the batteries out of a radio, the music just stops. That is what I felt like by the time I got on that plane for Atlanta. I had spent the day traveling out of Afghanistan, something that never seems to have a direct route. Your flight always goes somewhere other than Dubai. This trip I got to visit my old stomping grounds, KAF. I actually wish that I had gotten to get out and see the place again, but I only got to sit on the runway for an hour waiting for the next load of passengers to board.

I sat next to an Afghan that owns a business on both KAF and Leatherneck, probably the best subcontractor that we use here. He is a young guy, just 32, but my guess was 45. He was born in Kandahar City and now has married and moved his wife and 3 children to Amsterdam. We talked for hours about life and family, neither of us cared to talk about work. It was the most fascinating conversation I have had here. To hear someone talk about life growing up in Kandahar City, the birth place of the Taliban was so interesting that I couldn't get myself to stop asking questions. He talked about how when he goes back, he has to ditch his good clothes, car, watch, sunglasses, etc and attempt to be unrecognizable for fear of being known as a person who is helping the Americans. If that happens, he says he wouldn't last the night. I asked him how he felt about having such a successful business that quite frankly is only established because his country is at war, and he responded by saying that his country is ALWAYS at war, though he admits that he at times feels like he has turned his back on his country by moving his family away. But he admits, if they move back, his 12 year old daughter would most likely be kidnapped within a month. The more we talked, the more we found we are the same. Both here for the reason of trying to provide better for our family's future, and trying to better ourselves at the same time. I had a great deal of respect for him before this conversation, I couldn't possibly have more for him after.

I had a nearly 9 hour layover in Dubai, and my boss was at the corporate apartment as he had a conference to attend, so I headed over their to kill the day. Ended up on conference calls all day...so much for the start of vacation. At least the view from the apartment made it worth it though. Dubai always amazes me, it is so hard to take it all in. And when you are in the back of a taxi that is breaking the sound barrier, it's even harder. We went to dinner with the owners of a company that we both compete against and also team up with on certain projects. At first I was annoyed that I still wasn't able to turn off the work switch, but considering that we went to one of the nicest restaurants in the city I shouldn't complain. So how about this, that morning I was eating watery scrambled eggs made from powder, that night I was standing in this outdoor restaurant looking at the fresh seafood buffet that was laid out before me. My knees were trembling as I circled no fewer than a dozen times not having any idea where to start! Add in the handful of beer and glasses of red wine, and I was as ready as ever to get on that plane! Around 10pm I grabbed a taxi and headed to the airport.

view from the apartment

view from the apt of the world's tallest building

We had a great time while I was home. Just like last time, we just jumped back into life as if I had never left. The first day I was home we went to my son's school for a performance that his second grade class was involved in, all I could think of though was that I had literally been in Afghanistan the day before, it's not just a physical tired that I was feeling, but also mental. After spending all that time away working, only thinking about what you have to do, it's an adjustment to get back up to speed with everything at home. It's just hard to flip that switch. We headed out to the mountains for 5 days, what a great decision that was. That was when I finally felt like I was able to just let go and relax. We skied a few times, and just relaxed in general. When we first got there I just laid in the front yard and enjoyed the silence. It was the first time in a very long time that I was looking up at a clear blue sky and could here the wind in the trees.

So back in the desert I am now, much warmer than when I left. Summer is rapidly coming in, I am sure that pretty soon I am going to be wishing for the rain to come back! The wind has been pretty constant, they call this time of year the 100 days of wind...excellent, and with the wind comes the dust, even better. We've already had a few smaller dust storms come through...I hate them, you end up with dust in places that quite frankly should never have dust. It makes it into your cabin no matter how tight you have your door and window, ends up on your toothbrush even if it was laying out.

With the warm weather comes the flies, those little bastards are the most aggressive everyday fly that I have ever encountered. They don't just fly around smashing into windows like a good fly should. These suckers dive bomb you, they land on your arms, sit on the edge of your coffee mug, land on your keyboard......Last night I woke up because one of them had infiltrated my room and was landing on my face, I ended up sleeping under my blanket because it was relentless.

We have those nasty fly catching paper thingies hanging in the office, it's a good look, fly carnage just hanging from the ceiling. And it's our new office too, we finally finished the new building and have everyone moved in, so great to not be working out of the steel containers, this is a large open building with get this....real offices!!! We then turned the old office double container into a gym, we've had a container of brand new gym equipment sitting here for months, it was officially opened yesterday, so no more excuses for the extra baggage I am carrying around these days I guess.

Round 2 In The Books

Just a quick final blog before heading home for R&R. I actually don't have much to say...shocking I know.

I can't wait to be home. This tour has been a difficult one to put it mildly. But looking back to Nov. 5th when I landed in Kabul on my way back, it honestly doesn't fell that long ago. Thankfully this time when I return I shouldn't have to go through Kabul. That place still makes my skin crawl.

One more wake up and I will be on my way home. I am stumbling into tomorrow. As I have been going through all my stuff trying to find someone to hand it off to for coverage, I have been amazed at both how much I have done, and how much I have let slip in the past 4+ months. It already has me stressed about the pile that will be on my desk when I get back. I have been trying to hide in my office so that I can get organized, but my door is like a turn style these days. A few of us have started calling the time after dinner the time for us to start our day jobs. It really is the only time that you can get some peace and quiet to work without the constant putting out of fires. When I get back is when the official turn over of the keys to this place is going to happen.....have I mentioned being tired?

The rain has of course not left completely, still getting the occasional day of it. Hopefully when  I get back it will be completely gone, unless some vegetation is planing on sprouting up around here I can do without it. It amazes me just how muddy the moon dust gets. I can't wait to get home and see some grass, trees, maybe a flowering plant of some kind would be a nice treat.

Today we poured the final foundation on the large Fuel Distribution project here. And as all good Project Managers do, I showed up for a photo op. This is me and my friend that I suckered into coming over to work with me. The same friend that I had to ask to push his first R&R back almost a month because we would have overlapped.....sense a trend with this R&R thing?

Chris & I with our hands in our pockets while others work.

Can't wait to see everyone back home, I'll be the one sleep walking through the neighborhood.

Rain Rain Go Away

Almost a month since my last blog…I’m becoming such a blog slacker! It’s just hard lately to find the time to sit down and do it. Ya I know it’s not rocket science, I write bad jokes and whine about being tired, blah blah blah…but that’s just the problem. I am running out of bad jokes and the “me being tired” thing must be getting old by now, so that leaves me with nothing!

Let me say this…rain in the desert sucks. The first time it rained I was ecstatic, anytime you can get a change it’s a good thing. But after nearly a week of solid rain, I want the sun back. This place has been miserable. It hasn’t even been a hard rain, just a light constant rain but it has nowhere to go and the ground has no permeability so it just sits on top and turns all the moon dust into a paste like substance, kinda like soft serve ice cream that sticks to your boots like glue. After walking around in it your feet feel like you have concrete boots on. There is also a smell to the rain, not sure what that is all about, the best I can describe it is a musty smell. I am guessing it is from the rain literally washing the dust out of the air. The base was pretty much flooded for days at a time after it rains. You find yourself having to park wherever you can find dry land and walk to get to most places. The past few days have been sunny, which has been great, it feels like spring, minus the clean air, grass growing, trees blooming,……

Today weather was straight out of a movie, nice and sunny all day right up until around 6pm when a storm blew in. A bunch of us were outside talking when in the distance we could see dark clouds rolling in and even a bit of lightning. Within minutes the skies turned black and the wind picked up. We had a full sand storm blowing through before you could even react to it. I ran to my room to shut my window before everything in it was covered. Thankfully the sand blew through pretty quick and just left the wind and rain….again. I took these pictures. The first was right as the storm was starting, and the second was just a few minutes later. The 100 yard run to my room to shut my window was enough to have the taste of sand choking me. I dread the day when a real one comes in, the type that last for days. I hate to even imagine it.

start of the storm

1 minute later

 .

Our guys up in Kabul had a bit of a shake up a few weeks ago. You may have seen it on the news. There is a “western style” grocery store just a few blocks from out villas (we now own 3). It caters to all the westerners that are working and living in Kabul. A man wearing a suicide vest walked in, starting shooting, and then blew himself up killing 9. Our guys are in that store frequently and I guess a few of them had just driven past it within a few minutes of the explosion. The Taliban released a statement that they were targeting the owner of a western security company, but from what our security team has learned, a very prominent Afghan family was in the store and they don’t think it was a coincidence. It's more reason why I am happy to be here at Leatherneck. 

missed it again

dirt berm, firing range on the other side

As I’ve said before, KAF was a constant incoming of rockets, and though I don’t have it confirmed yet, we did just hear that one landed on the base recently and killed 1 injured 18. It landed right up the street from our camp. But here it’s only outgoing. These rockets have taken the place of the F18’s in KAF for me. I never stopped looking up when I saw those jets. Here when I hear the rockets take off I always try to get a glimpse. But like the F18’s I can never seem to get a good picture, I always end up just getting the smoke trail. But here is a video of them launching, obviously not by me, but at least you can get a look at these things that go screeching over my head from less than a mile away. They launch from the far side of the firing range that is located about 200 yards away. After my marathon run yesterday I was walking by the gate to the range and stopped for a few minutes to watch the boys and their toys. All I can say is wow. The range is separated by a large dirt berm that stands about 10 feet tall, so you can’t see over it, but right at the gate that they go in and out through you can get a decent view of part of it. The sound waves come over that berm and even though our camp is 200 yards away, and there is another camp between us, we still get our windows rattled on a daily basis. IF you are on the perimeter road by the berm when they fire…holy cow, the sound “pings” off all the metal containers that pretty much make up the landscape here and puts a ring in your ears. The guys in the tower at the gate seemed to be tolerant of me gawking for a few minutes, but I guarantee if I ever take my camera over there they will let me know real fast how they really feel about us civilians! 

It’s always funny to see the faces of the new people when they first hear the firing range, it’s kind of that “I’m really concerned by this but I want to act all cool as a cucumber” type face. There is a guy here from the internet provider who is installing some new equipment in our fancy new office that will be opening soon, yesterday as I was heading out for my run he was standing in the middle of the basket ball court and right as I walked by the range started up. I stopped, turned around, and said “it’s just the range”, he said “ohhhh, ok, thanks”. He clearly thought that the world was about to come to an end. Now when they get their first look at the rockets, that more like the face of a little kid on Christmas, what can I say…it’s so cool.

So I ran 2 miles yesterday, is that enough to be ready for the triathlon? Anyone want to team up and do the swim, bike, and first mile of the run? I am excited for it, just wondering if I am going to even finish! By the way, I guess I should clarify something; I am NOT being forced to do it by my wife. I guess people are thinking that my time at home is going to be like the movie Misery. That clearly won’t be the case because she would have to break my ankles, and if that happens I can’t do the triathlon. See…problem solved! I will state for the record that I said I would do the triathlon with her. You guys are a tough crowd. 

Just 16 days left before I start my long journey home for R&R. I can’t wait. That extra 5 weeks is killing me. I can mark on my calendar the day that I started becoming a monster around here..the day when I should have left for home. It is true what everyone here says, your mind knows when your 90 days are up and any extra time just sucks the life out of you. It was nice to book my flight last week, at least I have the travel plans figured out which makes it all seem like it is really going to happen soon. Admittedly the time has passed pretty quickly all things considered, but the extra time has been rough for the whole family. We have plans to head out to the mountains for a few days, a friend of ours has a great house out there that we used last year as well. It will be a perfect place to get away and spend time with the family away from everything. 

I was on a call the last week with my boss and a few other higher ups, we were talking about the new projects in Iraq that we (I) am bidding. It was 8pm and the next bid was due the next morning. I explained to them that I have been so busy that I hadn’t yet even looked through the bid documents, that lead to my boss saying that if I was at my max capacity I needed to raise my hand and ask for help. Well being the company wiseass (a position that is desperately needed in this environment) and being a tad bit on the irritable side, I turned on the video on my skype and put both hands above my head and waved them frantically. Point made. It still didn’t help the immediate need though and I had yet another all night bid preparation, the second of the week for an Iraq project. There is a point in the middle of the night though when all is finally quiet, that I do sit back and think that I have a pretty cool job. Not many people will get to say that they sat in the middle of Afghanistan, in the middle of the night, and came up with a price for a project in the middle of Iraq. I just wish the middle of the night part could go away.

Oh, by the way…my warlord buddy sent one of his guys to see me today. They want me to come out to see him again, he wants to talk about supplying me with more materials. Personal invitation by a warlord to talk business….check.

No story on this one, just more of my people over here in the desert.

6 months down....who knows how long to go

2 days ago was my 6 month anniversary, wow.

It's been three weeks since my last post. So much for my plans of trying to blog once a week. I honestly honestly thought it had only been two weeks until I just signed on and saw the date of my last one....man. I cannot believe how fast time is flying by right now, and that's a good thing considering my R&R being delayed. Things here have been crazy busy. I don't usually log my hours to the minute as I basically spread my hours across all the different jobs I am managing evenly (5 right now), but a few weeks ago I kept a tracking of my time as accurately as I could...126 hours, that is an average of 18 hours a day for 7 days. That week included 2 5am'ers too, had I not slept late one morning my hours would have been over 130....so not healthy. Can you understand why I haven't been blogging recently? Anytime I have a few minutes to myself, the last thing I want to do is stare at my computer more. I don't think that I have ever spent so much time with an object as I have with this computer. The keys are already starting to discolor and fade. But what might be the strangest part of this is that I am actually getting used to it, it is what it is, the work isn't going away, and no one else is going to do it for me. On the nights when I get in bed early around 2 am, I can't fall asleep, I just lay there and think about the work I didn't get finished yet.They are trying to ramp up on new hires but that takes a while to get them over here, so for now it all falls to me. Coffee coffee coffee. 

Starting tomorrow the workload here is going to triple for me if that is even remotely possible, my boss just left for R&R and most likely will be heading straight to Kabul on his return, one of my site managers leaves for his on Monday, and the guy who is pretty much my field operations manager is heading to join our new division in Iraq. He's got a 6 hour drive from Baghdad to Basra on a road that let's just say is not the one you want to be found on. The war there might technically be over, but the violence is still rampant. The guy who is heading up our operations there previously worked in Iraq for our company for about 4 years before starting things up here. He's got plenty of connections there fortunately, when he got to Baghdad last week he was holed up in a house in the city for 4 days before being moved by 9 security guards to Basra. Luckily he somehow knows a general in the Iraqi Army who has been providing security for him....for free! How bizarre. The plan there is to not do government or military work but rather hook up with the big oil companies, they are predicting nearly $10 billion in construction activity there in the coming years as the oil that they have discovered has been said to dwarf Dubai. There have been whispers of the head trying to pull me over there, I don't think that there is much of a chance of that happening, but again, I never thought that I would be siting at a desk in the middle of Afghanistan.

So I have said previously how safe this base is....it is, but last week they had an attack just outside the gate, kinda close to where I was chillin' with the warlord. A car of locals that were on their way to the base for work got hit with a grenade, than was all shot up with bullets. One died, the others got rushed inside the base and I believe that they survived. at the same time they put the Leatherneck side of the base on lock down as there was a report of a possible suicide bomber inside the Afghan National Army compound which connects to Leatherneck. Nothing ever came of it though, but it was the first time here that I had any thought about the danger. Granted, they've been firing rockets out of here towards the mountains more than usual, they launch from just past our camp, maybe 3/4 of a mile away. It's intense, by the time you hear the burn of the rocket it is already almost out of view. The only time you really get a good view is if they fire another one and you are outside ready for it, the other day I got a perfect view of the second one, it launched...paused in the air for a fraction of a second before a fire ball fired out the back and it shot into the sky as faster than I could follow without turning my head. It's cool being near the launch site for those, but that also means that we are near the practice firing range, and they are lighting it up out there right now, I say on the news that a new wave of marines just got here, and you can tell they are being put through their training. Explosions are as frequent as ever right now, each one rattles the windows more than the previous, yet no one even bats an eye, conversations continue without a stutter.

We have a few job site on Bastion- the British side, one of them is right near the hospital and the helicopter emergency landing pad. Plus our client, the UK military, has their office in the same general area, so I am up there at least once a day. I have noticed a significant amount of helicopters landing there lately. it is literally like having them land in a park across the street from you. You hear the helicopters all day, but these come in fast and low, a clear sign they have and injured soldier. Before you know it, the dust is kicking up and they are dropping from the sky as the medical staff sits in the ambulance just feet away ready to rush them in. They come in two at a time, not always are both carrying injured soldiers, but they fly in pairs. And just as fast as they land, they take right back off and blast away. You can feel the thumb of the rotor blades on your chest as they lift and turn back.

Last night was a great night. We handed out raises to the majority of the laborers. One by one we brought them into the office and had them sign new contracts- all non US employees are considered contractors and work under a contract. So if you give them a raise you issue them new contracts. It really was great to see these guy's smiles as we told them why we called them in. They all work so incredibly hard, doing whatever we ask, and for very little money compared to what the rest of us make. Most of them start out at $800/month, the more skilled make just over $1,000, there are a handful that make around $2,000. So when you give them $100-$200 raise, they can't contain their happiness. I loved it, but it made me feel awful at the same time. I just can't wrap my head around them making so little money, can you believe that they are working here for such little money? The majority of them are Filipinos, some are from Pakistan and India. All of them say that they can't make even close to this much money back home.

We have about 24 Afghans working full time for us and living on another camp we have here on the other side of the base, those guys are only making $500-$600 per month. Think about what must go through their heads when they make the decision to not only work here, but live here. You know they must have their names on a list out there somewhere for helping those pesky infidels! We actually had to pull them all together a few weeks ago and give them a lecture on of all things...how to use a toilet. Let's just say they prefer to stand and hover, their traditional toilet (if you call it that) is what we around here call a long dropper, it's a hole in the floor with two marks on either side to place your feet, thus the long drop portion of this description. So when they are presented with a real toilet, they climb up on the seat and assume the long drop position...mayhem ensues...cleaners get mad and threaten to quit, hygiene goes out the window, stomachs turn. We had an interpreter with us as two of us tried to explain why this was not ok, it started out uncomfortable, but turned into roaring laughter by all of us as one Afghan tried to show us how he stands on the toilet and we were saying "no no no" and physically trying to force him to sit on the imaginary toilet. It's kinda like controlling kids sometimes. On their day off a few weeks ago they were getting restless at their camp, so we gave them a soccer ball and they settled down. One of them is 48 years old, 7 years past the life expediency of Afghan males. One of the guys drove him back into the camp the other day saying he thought the guy was having a heart attack. We ran out to the truck and I must say, first glance and I thought we had a gonner on our hands. He was pale, moving really slow, and his eyes were barely focusing on me as I opened the door and tried to ask him what was wrong. All he could do was put his hand on my chest and circle my heart. I thought for sure he wasn't going to make it. They rushed him to the hospital where they determined that it was a panic attack of some sort. The hospital report I received explained it all, it listed him as an extremely elderly and weak Afghan male. Again...he is 48..and elderly.

I still can't believe how we are building things here. Currently we have about 44 laborers on one site, and around 20 on another site. We have guys manually bending rebar for massive fuel tank foundations. They are literally bending piece by piece by hand. Back home the rebar would show up on site bent at the factory all labeled and tagged for it's locations. Here we just had a huge truckload of rebar delivered to the site and dumped into a pile. On the other site we have teams of men climbing into Hesco bags (large fabric bags that gets filled with dirt that deflect bomb blasts) and compacting the dirt that is used to fill them with their feet like they are making some sort of wine. You gotta think fast and think outside the box here for sure if you want to keep up. When I am estimating these project I still shake my head when I start assigning the labor costs, I am yet to do one without going back and double checking that I didn't miss anything, the costs just don't ever look right. How can it only cost me around $25 per day per man? Crazy.

Get this..it rained...yup, you know, precipitation from the sky type stuff. Not much rain, barely enough to make you put on a waterproof jacket, but that little bit of rain made a freakin' mess. All the dust turned to a brown gooey mud. It is coming into the rainy season here, and I can see why people say it is a nightmare. The water just sits on the surface and puddles. All the windows have dusty watery streaks on them now. But heck, it was something different and I'll take it. I heard it on my roof when I was waking up and I had to look out the window to see what the heck it was. I was almost giddy.

45 days until R&R, I'm not counting though. I can't wait. I'm even excited about the 16 hour flight, just knowing that for 16 hours I won't have to look at my computer, answer an email.....heaven. My original date was Feb 3rd, and my internal calendar knows it. I've been missing the boys something fierce lately. It's really hard not knowing what their day to day life is after being so involved with it for all those years. The 6 weeks a year off sounds like it will make up for it, not many people can say that they get 6 weeks of vacation time to spend with their family. I am wondering though if it will fill the void. The two weeks flew by last time, it seemed like I was still getting settled in when I had to start thinking about packing my bags again. I tell ya what though, the triathlon that Jolie signed me up for while I am home will probably make me wish that I was back here. Why I agreed to this is beyond me, lack of sleep I think. Other than the two 5k's that I did in Kandahar, I have exercised once. We have $50k worth of gym equipment sitting in Dubai waiting to ship here, but we haven't finished building the gym yet, so like me, the equipment is sitting dormant. How ironic will it be in my obituary when it reads that I survived working in a war zone in the middle of the Afghan desert only to drowned in a pool during a triathlon? I'm screwed. I might claim an injury the night before. Hopefully no one is going to come to cheer us on, I wouldn't want them to catch a cold when the sun goes down and I am still out on the coarse delirious, probably asking random people if they want to be in my blog!

When negotiating with a warlord, don't drink the tea

Happy New Year everyone!

I was at a loss on how to spend New Year's Eve here. I did have the day off and all, so there must have been something to do right? Apparently I was the only one with that thought, no parades, no concerts, no football games, no fireworks at midnight! Afghanistan sure could use some lessons on how to party. So I of course found myself in the office trying to play my everyday game of catch up. Just before lunch we got a call from a  supplier about some materials that he no longer could sell to us. So we hopped in the truck to go find out what was going on.

There is a supplier right outside the base that most contractors get a large amount of materials from. He sells sand, stone, basically anything that you would dump and spread around here. There are middle men, but sometimes you need to go direct to the source to do a deal. I actually like that around here, lots of deals are made in person with a handshake, not a "send" button. We need a specific rock for a project here, it's similar to a river rock. We know that the main supplier has some of it but he didn't want to sell it to us because he can get more money for it after he crushes it into smaller rock than if he sells it whole. If we don't get that rock, we're screwed. There was one other guy who said he had it but based on what he was going to charge me, I think he was trying to retire. So yesterday two of us went out to see the main supplier and try to talk him into a deal.

We parked at the gate and walked out, it's about a mile walk, but since the gate is always crowded with delivery trucks, getting our vehicle back in would be a nightmare. This was my first time outside the wire here, and it's totally different from Kandahar. Here when you walk out what strikes you first is how open it is, not much to see in the immediate area other than the trucks, etc. In Kandahar you walk out and you feel as if you are immediately in the middle of a village. As soon as we got outside, we heard someone calling my coworker's name. It was a local Afghan who he knows pretty well, the guy actually wants to work for us on base as an escort. He falls into the category of the 80's retro dressed Afghan. The majority of the locals you will find wearing the traditional Afghan clothes, very baggy pants with the long baggy shirt, usually a head dress of some sort, leather sandles, sometimes that have a large wrap around them. And then there are the more business savvy ones who separate themselves from that and will have on more of a western style look. But almost always it looks like they just got their clothes from an 80's retro store. Odd looking jeans, velcro shoes, member's only style jackets, and then they will pull an iphone out of their pocket of course. So this young guy in his 80's gear comes running over to us shaking our hands for an uncomfortably long time as is often the case here. He asks us where we are going and says with a laugh "the Taliban are out here" and makes a gesture with his hand like he is cutting his throat. The guy I am with laughs and tells him where we are going, the kids says he will call them and tell them to spare us and then runs off as fast as he came. It wasn't until we had walked another 20 steps before I said "he was joking right?". The kid needs more time at the Afghan Laugh Factory I think to work up some more appropriate material.

We walked out the long sandy road about 200 yards and past the final check point where 2 marines were attempting to get the local truck drivers to understand that they cannot all park there trucks where ever the heck they want as they wait...it was a log jam, not sure how any of them ever made it through. One marine turned towards us and in between his arm waiving and yelling said with a defeated tone "f**k me".  I couldn't have agreed with him more. Imagine trying to sort out grid lock on a major road with dozens of 18 wheelers driven by men who don't even have the equivalent of a driver's license. All this while wearing a uniform that puts a target on your back. At this point the trucks have already gone through the bomb search and have sat in the "soak area" which means that they have been in a parking area away from the gate for at least 48 hours to make sure they get searched and that nothing funky is going on. This whole time the drivers are eating, sleeping, etc in, under, on, around their trucks. As we walked past them there were some who still were in the camping mood even though they were at the gate and had blankets and bags spread out as they huddled in a group to stay warm. Fuel is so expensive for them that sitting in a running truck to stay warm is not an option. The whole time we were walking I couldn't help but shake my head at the trash. It's EVERYWHERE. Empty water bottles, paper, wrappers, cans, blankets, construction debris, you name it and it is out there. Truck parts, oil, tires, it's unreal at what you can find out there just by walking around, never mind actually picking through any of it.

There was a guy and his son out there with a cart selling food and drinks, kinda reminded me of Causeway street at a Red Sox game...well minus the nice smells, good food, and cheery atmosphere. But you could tell that this was his regular spot, because the pile of trash behind him that was directly related to his cart was enough to fill dozens of trash bags. I watched as he pulled more items out of a box and just tossed it behind him and onto the pile. The young boy was busy stomping on the empty cans all around him when he saw us and as the well trained salesman that are all the children here, he locked in on his target and marched straight towards us...."you want drink" "you want eat". Note the lack of question marks there, these were not questions to his potential clients, these were statements. When speaking with the locals, they rarely take the tone of a question. Most are statements, which can be tricky when trying to negotiate something. Sometimes I leave those conversations and wonder what the heck I just agreed to. We denied his mind reading and told him that we wanted nothing. Literally having to get to the point of near rudeness to get past him.

Finally clear of the mayhem, we headed towards the entrance to the rock supplier. We were met at the entrance and waved through. Once inside we saw a guy who I recognized, I had met him previously at our office. He is the talking head so to speak, he goes on base and meets the contractors, etc. He was the one who originally told us he would sell the rock to us, and now was saying the opposite. He began by saying again how he couldn't sell to us as they needed that specific rock for themselves. After a few minutes of banter back and forth, he motioned to us to follow him. He was about 10 feet in front of us as we went past another massive pile of aggregate. We could see a group of about 6 men ahead, the guy I was with said "oh good, Hodgie is here", i asked who that was and the response was "he's the local warlord who owns this place", my blank stare led to him saying "no...he's cool". Oh good, he's cool. That eases my mind. Out amongst the piles of what must be millions of dollars worth of rock material and equipment in the middle of Afghanistan and he tells me that the warlord is cool. As we got close, the men around him all stood, one smiled and walked towards us and greeted us, my colleague of course knows this guy too, he seems to know everyone. After a quick hello we began telling him what we wanted and he turned to Hodgie and relayed the message. Hodgie is an old man, looks about 90, but most likely that means he is around 60. Long gray beard, dark wrinkled skin, arms were all wrapped up tight against his body under his wrap. We spoke to him through the other guy, though I think he understood English, protocol I guess. As we were talking price, someone's cell phone began to ring, it was one of those ring tones that are a song, no idea what it was though. Hodgie reaches deeper under his wrap and whips out a phone that put my little pay as you go model to shame. He steps to the side and begins to talk. Poor cell phone etiquette if you ask me. But I guess a warlord's business is never done, with all that planning of the next extortion maneuver and all. Once he was done presumably ruining someone's day, he stepped back towards us, reached out his hand, and we shook on the deal. Most of the locals shake your hand and then touch their heart, it's a nice touch. Basically we gave him the asking price, but that was just fine with me. I like nothing more than a good negotiation, but this wasn't exactly the place for that. Once the formalities were done, we were invited into the house for some tea. I like my tea with milk and sugar...on the lite side. They like their tea with opium in it....not really on my list of things to do around here, so it took about 5 declines before we were allowed to go without.

The ironic part is that we were probably safer there than if a local had been in the same situation. The base is the gravy train for this guy. I would estimate that he supplies multi-millions of dollars worth of materials for the construction around here, and if something were to happen to a "client", he would be expelled and out of business. Thus cutting of his "legit" bank roll. This all begs the question....by all the contractors and military purchasing these materials, and the money that is literally pouring into their bank accounts, are we actually bank rolling some of the corruption that has gotten this country into the situation that it is in? I can't see how it doesn't. Though he is not a direct enemy, and he most likely is providing information and some sort of service to the military, it adds to the already cloudy politics here.


We spent only about an hour there, but it seemed like longer. Outside the wire is a time warp for sure. On our way back in, and after the denial of hunger pains to the food kid again, the marines were still arguing with the truck drivers. We entered into the walk through portion of the gate, stood at a distance on top of the sand bag that marks the spot, opened our jackets, lifted up our shirts, turned and did the same to show our backs, lifted up our pant legs, and got the signal to come forward. Had our badges checked, and were led in front of the body scanner. Once through that we were able to skip the eye scanner and we were back to the comforts of the base.


Just another uneventful day off I guess...I better go approve that Purchase Order for the warlord.