Tarin Kowt

I am back in "civilization" again after a few weeks out at the FOB.

I am feeling pretty fried after a few long days without much chance for sleep. I spent this whole morning moving sandbags while in full armor. While I am at the FOB, I only work on Medevac taskings. It is a welcome break from the daily routine at Kandahar. The pace is entirely dictated by the situation. You get missions when people are injured and you work your butt off until they are completed. Done means done and when there is no medevac work, there is just downtime and waiting. Also, since we work two shifts, it gives me twelve consecutive hours off per day so I get alot more time to relax while I am out at the FOBs. I definately don't get that kind of time to myself here at Kandahar. I think I am scheduled for one final rotation out to a FOB and that will be the end of that.

Here are some photos of the place that I was at.

Here is a Dutch Puma taking off early in the morning. I live in the rear mudhut on left side of the photo and before you even need to ask, the answer is yes, I do have a needlepoint hanging on the wall that reads "mudhut sweet mudhut".

Some local workers unloading food and supplies. I hope the owner of that truck comes back before all his stuff disappears. This neighborhood has really gone downhill.

A Bedouin camp on the flight out to Tarin Kowt. These guys live thier whole lives in a patchwork tent without plumbing, electricity, sanitation, medicine or 'Late Night with Conan O'Brian'. Rough.

Kandahar at night. Cleverly, Halliburton has figured out how to hide the whole city from targeting by flood-lighting every square inch. Some how those pesky Taliban still know where to shoot thier mortars though.

Back at the hooch in Kandahar. One of my favorite past times is leaning against random walls in pseudo James Dean-esque poses. Luckily this habbit has made me the subject of many candid photo opportunities. Here is one of those.

I have been away from an internet connection for a few weeks. I had 75 non-junk emails waiting for me from friends and family today. I often times am unable to respond to emails until quite a while later and often neglect to respond to many of them after such time has passed. I want everyone to know that I enjoy the correspondance I get over email and it provides me with a great sense of support and a much needed boost to my morale. Thank you.

I also understand that there are many of you who keep up with 'the blog'. I know there are many friends who read our families posts and may feel reserved about posting for themselves. I want to encourage everyone who knows about this site to post (and respond to posts) as often as they have a word to share. It doesn't matter if it is family news, local happenings, global events, a personal interest, or just an inkling so say "hi". This website will serve to be a portal between friends otherwise separated by vast distances. The Blog is a corkboard for us to tack our drawings and essays to. All of you have busy lives and we all could use more time to acomplish the little things on the end of our to-do lists. Discard your inhibitions about posting and it will grow in the wealth and depth of content. Lets see some holliday and new years photos!!

P.S.

I hope that last paragraph didn't sound too much like a guilt-trip but I won't lose any sleep if it did. I haven't had much time to practice my guilt-trip skills. I need to brush up before my kid suddenly turns into a teenager.