Weekly Schedule and Base Pictures

It’s Sunday morning, which means an 1100 start for work, so I have a few hours to update the blog. Friday, being the Afghan holy day, is another late-start day. So every Friday and Sunday, I get about a half-day off. Of course, it would help if I could keep track of the days. This past Friday, I came into work a little early so I could check the Internet in peace before work got busy. By 0830, I was wondering where everyone was, then realized it was another half-day. Oh, well. I got a lot of personal Internet work done. For the rest of the week, I’m up at 0630, breakfast by 0730, and work by 0800. Throughout the day I run around attending various briefings, operational planning teams (OPT), and working groups, and coordinate information for various projects. I usually work to after 2100 (9 p.m.) and then head back to the tent to read “The Short History of Afghanistan” or watch movies on my laptop. Then it’s light-out around 2300 (11 p.m.) so I can get up the next day and do it all again.

Here's a view of my morning walk to the chow hall. You can see the snow has already started to form on the mountain tops. I think I'll be able to watch it gradually make it's way down. My work area is to the right behind the fence. The buildings to the left are the hard-site dorms. There are only international partners in the few that were finished before I got here. Hopefully, I'll be moving into the new ones, further down on the left, within a month.

The Post Office (or Mail Room) is a CONEX box between the dorms, and it's only the last box, (AND it's also the ammo distro spot). Everyday a few soldiers bring the mail over in a Humvee, sort it by name, and stack all of boxes in alphabetical order. Mail call is only 1100-1200 and 1800-1900. During the 1100 mail time, most of the boxes are still spread out on the ground, waiting to be sorted. It looked like a yard sale the first time I saw it.

Other than your work desk or your bunk, here’s the only other place on base that you can kind of hang out. There’s a little coffee shop in the CONEX to the right and all of the seating is outside, which is fine during the day, but once night falls, it too cold outside to hang out. The two big tents behind the coffee shop are going to be the cardio and free-weight gyms. They’re supposed to be open in the first week of December. That will be nice not to have to run around in the dust so much. The third big tent, which is just a frame right now, is going to be the MWR tent, which will have TVs and WiFi connections. That will finally be a proper place to hang out after work. It’s supposed to be ready by mid-December.