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.
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.
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.
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| view from the apartment |
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| 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. 
