The Big Push

Well it has been almost two full weeks back in beautiful Gardez Afghanistan. The first week went by painfully slow, but the routine has started to come back to me. Just before I left for leave we got around $20 million in projects funded. With that, there has been a big push to get them all under contract, which started a few weeks before I left and is just finishing up now. That has helped to keep our engineering shop busy and being busy always helps the time go by. Some parts of this job are more rewarding than others, however, getting projects funded that you spent countless hours on, has to be one the more rewarding feelings so far. Not to mention that the two I worked the hardest on, a sustainable hybrid power system and a micro water treatment plant, will do great things for people who have never had power or reliable drinking water. All in all, with the big project push, meetings and missions, the focus still remains on the time left and getting everyone back to their family and friends.

Thank you and God Bless

Refreshed?

Well I have been back in Afghanistan for a few days now and figure it’s time to restart the blog, if anyone still reads it.

Coming back after fifteen days of leave has been quite an adjustment to say the least. I had left here sure that the break would do me well and help to reenergize me for the final stretch. Leave was great; I had a blast and loved seeing everyone. However, I have not exactly hit the ground running over here. I’m not sure if it is lack of motivation or a slow readjustment the eight and a half hour time difference. I thought being home would be weird for the first few days or hours at least, but it never was. That was when I realized that home was normal, and here, well it’s just not… at all. With that said I’m hoping that it just takes a week or so slide back into a routine.

We are “short” now with the bulk of the deployment over, and seems like everyday someone (a lot of the time me) is stating just how many days are left. It really doesn’t help make the time go by any faster, but it is what most people are focused on now. We are all trying to finish up strong and get everyone home safe, and not lose focus in the last few months.

Thank you and God Bless.

My Leave

It is less than a week until I head out on leave. It will be interesting to see what the view of Afghanistan from the US is. As far as plans for leave, I don’t really have many, but I hope to see as many friends and family as possible. I won’t be keeping up with the blog while I’m in the US, but I will fire it back up when I return. I hope I will be refreshed and write more regularly.

See you in a few weeks!

Summer Time

The new pool right outside my door.

Happy 4th

The day started out like most other days here. Got up, checked my email in my room, when to work and checked my email there. It was really a pretty normal day, no mission, just the day to day meetings and general office work. I didn’t really notice anything different, until we got to lunch. For lunch we had all sorts of BBQ food and red, white and blue decorations everywhere. Dinner was the same. Throughout the day some people would remember what day it was and give each other the obligatory “Happy Forth of July.” I took the chance to call Mom and Dad and wish them a happy Fourth; sorry I didn’t get the chance to make more calls. Just as I was figuring that this would be the first Fourth of July without any fireworks, I overheard the Sergeant Major tell out First Sergeant to get all his 203 gunners and meet outside at 8:00pm. The 203 is usually for firing grenades, but they can also fire flares. So, just as it got dark, we all gathered outside with the 203 gunners, flares in toe, for a short “firework display.” It wasn’t quite the same (a flare from a 203 puts off a lot of light but no booms and bangs) but it was the best way to celebrate the birth of the USA from Afghanistan.

I hope that everyone back home had a great Fourth of July, complete with better BBQ and “real” fireworks.

Thank you and God Bless.

Time

Tomorrow will be the four month mark, that is, four months that we have been in Afghanistan. When I sit down and think about it time has been going by pretty fast. It doesn’t seem like it was four months ago that I sat down to write the first blog entry from Bagram. Time may be moving, party because we are staying busy during the peak of the construction season. However, I think that it is going by so fast because we all have got in to some sort of a rhythm. When we first got here, the learning curve was very steep, which helped the time go by. Now everyone knows their roles and responsibilities, and everything seems to fit in to place and just roll along.

Milestones like this allow an opportunity to look back at where I was and what I was thinking at the beginning, and index that against my current state of mind. Back in February I was pretty excited to get over here and start the work that I had volunteered to do. But with various road blocks along the way, not the least of which was losing two teammates to an IED, it is hard to regain that same excitement and motivation. More and more my attitude is turning from excitement about helping people who really need help, to watching the clock and counting the days. Either way, it is proof that time can fly, even if you’re not having all that much fun.

Thank you and God Bless.

Back In the Swing

We have all started to get back to the mission we were sent here to do. With harder times behind us, the missions have started rolling again with a renewed sense of purpose.

In the past week I went on three missions to visit a total of six schools and one hospital. One of the schools helped to remind all of us just why we are here. It was a boys and girls school near Gardez. The Taliban had bombed the girls’ wing at night and destroyed it. Their cowardly attempt to disrupt the young girls’ education failed, as instead of sending them home, the teachers have decided to make all classes coed.

In Afghanistan it is not rare to see boys and girls separated in school and it is becoming more common to see a building built by the Americans become a target of a bombing, even if that building is an elementary school. However, what they choose to do in the face of such hate is both uncommon and encouraging.

Thank you and God Bless.