Afghanistan Life

*****Click the linked WORDS or PHRASES for pictures that are associated with it*****

Afghanistan...... everything about being here is very different. The first thing you notice is that everything on this base is covered with dust/dirt due to the dirt here being so fine in almost a powder form. For example, my laptop has either been inside my sea bag or in my tent, never outside, yet withing a couple days it already has a layer of dust on it. 

There is always a plume of smoke coming from the huge burn pile on base too, its always burning regardless of which direction the wind is blowing it. Sometimes it's white smoke, blue-ish, or black and sometimes it just blows right into where you are training. They burn everything here, and I mean EVERYTHING! From rubber, to plastics, papers, batteries, unusable gear, anything. And you can definitely smell it all the time... we're always joking with each other on how in like 5 to 10 years or even less, we're gonna hear on TV: "have you or a loved one inhaled smoke and/or dust while serving overseas and now suffer from bla-bla-bla?? call this number now and we will get you millions of dollars." haha!

The time change is also really weird, for example we woke up at and went to the chow hall around 6 and we were watching the last hour of the count-down for new years live in New York. Or like this morning when we were at breakfast again and watching the Rose Bowl live that was happening a day ago. Its a very weird thing to see, its like we were looking back into time which was happening right now.

There's people from all over the world that we work next to or eat right next to us at the same table, use the same bathrooms, everything. One day I may be sitting at the chow hall next to some civilian "Blackwater" security contractors, another day sitting next to the Jordan Army guys, or the Afghan Army, regular civilians from America who are just there to build stuff... it's pretty cool most of the time.

Well soon I'll be on a different base with a whole different set of people and different environment.

Manas, Kyrgyzstan

*click the links for pictures... I did not take these*

Well I'm out of Manas, which is located in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan is connected to the North West side of China and is North East of Afghanistan by a couple countries. Most of the US forces fly into this Air Force base as a midway spot on the way to Afghanistan. Everyone just sits around all day in the coffee shops or in their heated "cans" (nickname for domed tents that have a solid metal or wood floor and a heavy canvas covering that hold anywhere from 10 to 40 people) waiting for a flight out of the country on a large Military Jet. 

Everybody likes being in Manas because we don't have to do anything except mess around on the internet and eat, all the while making full combat pay. The weather while I was there wasn't too bad, about 10 degrees at night and in the 30s in the daytime. It snowed a few times but nothing too much, just enough to cover the ground. The Air Force base is surrounded by hundreds of abandoned 3 to 5 story buildings, broken out windows, car and jet parts rusting all around it, it looks just like how a Russian-abandoned city should look after they pulled out. Its very funny in a clique kind of way.