News from Afghanistan

Hello everyone.

I was talking to Dawn a few days ago and she mentioned to me that it would be nice if I wrote a little something on the blog about being here in Afghanistan. She said that many people had been asking about it and may find it interesting to read about it. So where to start?

I arrived here on December 19^th, yes, just before Christmas. At work, we had been training for a long time in preparation for this deployment. We didn't really think that we were ever going to come here though. Rumors had been floating around for so many months that no one believed them anymore.

Coming back from my parental leave with J, I said right away that I was interested in coming over and had my name put on the list. You must think that I'm crazy to want to come here don’t you? Well, I've always thought that if you are going to have to go somewhere, it is better if you have the right attitude and go headfirst. Being in my profession, I knew that I could be ordered anyway to come, so why not volunteer? I would probably come sometime soon anyway. Coming on this tour rather than on Edmonton's next rotation also likely means a shorter tour (4 ½ months) versus a nine-month tour next year. So I would say that this was a very good decision, don’t you think?

Before coming here I was nervous about the whole experience. Just like everyone else, I had heard a lot on TV and we all know that this can be deceptive. I did not know what to expect. So when I arrived, I was actually pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere in the camp. It's a huge camp that's about the same area of the city of Spruce Grove. The people in camp are very relaxed and we have many services that help make our life better while here in Kandahar.

Before talking about the good things though, I should talk about what is difficult about being here first. Eh….let me think……ah, I know. Well I work seven days a week, no days off. The guys that work for me do get some time off though. They get one day off for every eight days and they can have a morning or an afternoon sometimes depending on the flying schedule. When flying, my routine is fairly consistent. I go in to work to do the preflight inspection of the aircraft, we then have crew briefs and go do a mission. These can last anywhere from 3 to 8 hours of flying. We come back and do the debriefs, etc. A normal flying day is often twelve hours of work. We do all types of missions, but I can’t really go into them in detail here due to security, but if you have been listening to the news, you likely have a fair idea of what we're doing.

So days are long, we are busy and no time off for me. Hard isn’t it?

If I’m not flying, I go in to the office and do administrative work. That means doing subordinates' evaluations, arranging for the maintenance of our equipment as well as all the other little tasks that are required to make an organization run smoothly in a theater of operation like here.

I sleep in a big type of tent with seven other guys, Our rooms are divided by tarps. Not much privacy and lots of good odors. We also live close to a 'poo pond'. That's where all of the grey and black water goes. Mmmmm smells like…..

We live in a very dusty environment too where grass is absent. When it is windy, we see dust storms. If you can imagine seeing a snowstorm in Edmonton, a dust storm is very similar but the only difference is that instead of snow, it is sand. We get those once in a while.

We live beside the airport, so it's also noisy all the time.

Not much to do other then work, eat and sleep.

Of course I miss my family a lot! Being away from them is very hard and I miss being with them. (Nice, we get one line. )

Now, lets talk about the few good things about being here.

No cooking! No cleaning dishes! No laundry to do! I actually load my dirty laundry into a bag and they give it back to me 24 hours later nicely folded. Not bad! When my day of work is done, I’m done! No appointments, no running around for groceries or Walmart, no baths to give, no nothing. I can sit on my bed and read, go on the net or watch a movie. When I go to bed, I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night for anyone. Of course I do get up sometimes for an early mission but I usually have uninterrupted sleep.

In camp, my living quarters are close to a boardwalk where we have a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, a Tim Hortons and a few local merchants where we can buy local crafts. We have a gym, a video store to borrow DVDs and a TV room where we can watch the news or sports.

So really, it is not that bad here. Of course we do work hard and long hours, but we also have time to relax. All those commodities, do help people to be able to focus and concentrate on what we're here to do. We do need to pay attention while flying and do need to be well rested all the time.

Flying here is very interesting. Looking around shows a very different landscape then what we are used to seeing. There is no modern construction here in Kandahar city. Everything is constructed of mud and basic materials. There is a lot of sand. The first time I saw a desert, I was very impressed. Man, that is a lot of sand. The sand dunes are impressive too. They're just like in the movies. There is some vegetation starting to grow now because summer is arriving. There are a fair number of poppy fields as well, grown mostly for heroine production. There are also lots of mountains in and around Kandahar. The elevation here is 3 300 feet above sea level and temperature can easily reach 50 degrees Celsius during the summer months and about -5 during the winter.

The average life expectancy for a person from here is 44 years old.

Since we're not allowed to leave the camp, every Saturday, local merchants come from the city and set-up kiosks to sell gifts and souvenirs to the military. It's like a flea market. It is expected that we will have to bargain a lot. A merchant will ask about 50 dollars for something and you should be able to leave paying only about 15 to 20 dollars. They sell local handicrafts and DVD's with all kinds of TV series on them.

Anyway, I could probably keep going like that about nothing and everything but it will be enough for today.

Our replacements have started arriving now and we are scheduled to leave soon. I can't wait.

As I said, we do work hard but I have to say that Dawn is working harder then me. She works and when she comes home, she is alone to do all of the other chores that need to be done. (umm, is that brown I see on your nose babe?) I can’t wait to be home to be able to be in my team again and do my share with the people I love and care about, home sweet home.

Talk to you later and see you soon.

J-P from Kandahar, Afghanistan.