Number Two's Wild Ride

Rocket attack number two today. I'm getting the feeling that by the time I leave here I will have lost track of how many attacks there have been. Nobody really seems to care about the attacks, when the siren went off everyone just kind of looked around the office. I got down on the floor (as we’re supposed to) and then others did too. As soon as the siren stopped everyone was back up and sitting at their desks. It was another half hour before the all clear was sounded. I guess it’s just the way it goes around here, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The weekend was fun. There is a bazaar every Saturday where they let local merchants in to sell their wares. I went to take a look but didn’t buy anything. I figure I’ve still got the better part of three months left so there’s still lots of time to buy a bunch of crap that I don’t really need. They did have some interesting stuff though. There were a ton of vendors selling knockoff DVDs, software and watches. Also quite a few selling stoneware dishes, some of which were quite nice. Lots of pashminas and silk scarves and bellydancing outfits and things like that. Some antique vendors selling fake antiques. Lots of jewelry made from semi-prescious stones. It was fun to take a look around but most of what was there was just junk that I don’t need.

On Saturday night I was invited to a poker game with some of the boys. I got lost on the way there but luckily the game was being held at the office beside the poo pond so in the end I just followed my nose. It was a fun night but those guys smoke a lot! It's been a long time since I've come home reeking of smoke, it really makes you appreciate the no smoking in bars bylaw. 

Sunday was a beautiful day out. I had the day off so I got to sleep in a bit and then I took the quad out and drove all over the base. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. I think I’ve got the place figured out now, at least well enough that I can navigate to the places I need to go.

I'm having a hard time staying annoyed at Jelani, he keeps bringing me things: a desk lamp, a powerbar, a little tray to make it easier to use my laptop in bed. That said, his alarm went off again in the middle of the night last night. Not the same alarm as before, this one was his clock-radio that he normally uses to wake up in the morning. He's obviously just not good with technology; although a clock-radio hardly counts as technology, does it?

Tour du Kandahar

Today I had a lot of fun. This morning Jaime (our surveyor) and I did a little tour of the base. Now because we do base maintenance we have access to pretty much the entire base. There are still certain areas that are off limits, but those are the top secret type places where you might find black helicopters and alien bodies. Anyways, we basically toured the entire base starting with the flight line. I have to say that it's somewhat like being a kid in a toy store. There is every type of military aircraft you can imagine here: Blackhawks, Apaches, Mirages, Tornados, Spectres, Reapers! There was even a C-5 Galaxy on the ground yesterday, that plane is HUGE!

After the airfield we drove around the entire perimeter fence. It's a pretty good sized and well defended base here and I really can't imagine how the Taliban would think that they could successfully attack it, although it's my understanding that they do try every once in a while. 

Later on today I finally got a vehicle for myself so I can get around the base without being chauffeured. I've got my own quad! I was quite excited to try it out and it's a ton of fun! I'll have to post some pictures once I get around to it. 

Anyways, that was my day today. Oh, I might have the start of a plan for vacation after I'm done here, scuba lessons in Borneo! I've got to look into it some more but it sounds awesome!

Jelani do

Now this post I wrote today and published today, so when I say yesterday I actually mean yesterday. Today refers to today. Although tomorrow doesn't come up in this post, I will clarify that tomorrow actually refers to two days from now. Dig?

My roommate Jelani is a 50 something Afghani man who, while I’m sure he means well, is starting to get on my nerves a bit. It’s not his fault really. I know he’s just trying to be friendly and he honestly is a nice guy, I just don’t want to chit chat with him about ping pong or chess, it just doesn’t interest me. If I’m lying on my bed reading, it means I don’t really want to have a conversation. I’m reading.

Anyways, he was telling me that until last week he was bunking with someone in another room but when this room became empty he asked to move because his roommate snored. Well guess what I discovered last night between 3 and 4am, Jelani snores too. I kept yelling at him to wake him up and he would stop for a minute or so and then carry on.

On top of that, Jelani has an alarm clock that he obviously doesn’t know how to use. On my first night here it went off at exactly 5:12am. It would beep for a minute or so and then stop for 3 or 4 minutes and then repeat. I let it go for about 20 minutes thinking that it would eventually wake him up and he would fix it. After that didn't work I would yell at him a bit to see if I could wake him up so he could fix it. I’ll tell you one thing, that the guy is a deep sleeper. When he did eventually wake up I asked him if he could shut off his alarm, he fumbled around a bit and then got up to go to the washroom. I closed my eyes to go back to sleep for a bit and then I could hear the alarm again, but muffled. Turns out he doesn’t know how to work the thing so he just put it under his pillow to make it quiet. When he came back to the room I asked him again to turn it off and so he showed me the alarm clock. I poked around at it and shut off the alarm. That’s when the rocket attack came. No more sleep for Nick that night.

Well last night after Jelani finally stopped snoring around 4am I got back to sleep only to be woken up again at exactly 5:12am by the fucking alarm clock! At this point I was not interested in going through the same conversation as I had the night before so I just put in my iPod and managed to sleep a little longer before having to get up to go to work.

Now that I think about it, I’m not actually sure that I am jet lagged… I'm Jelani lagged.

Did you say rocket attack?

So I wrote this post yesterday but I couldn't post it until today so when I say today, it means yesterday and yesterday is actually two days ago. Jive?

Arrived at Kandahar yesterday afternoon and it’s true what they say, all the dust in the world is made here. I was met at the airstrip by some ATCO employees who got me organized and issued me a bunch of clothing that won’t fit, and a helmet and some body armour. After driving around the base for a bit I’m starting to get a sense of it.

One thing for sure, it is REALLY busy here. I’ve heard different estimates as to how many people are on base (anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000) but it is much busier than a small town of that same size. The thing is there is really nowhere to go on this base, but everyone seems to want to get there. There are soldiers going in every direction all the time, armoured vehicles driving around, aircraft taking off and landing, and generally just a lot of people everywhere.

I ran into Jim briefly, Judy too, it was good to see some familiar faces. Once I finished signing in, Scott came by to pick me up and give me the tour of the base. There is a Canex on the boardwalk where you can get a Northface Goretex jacket with a fleece for $135! I don’t really need another goretex jacket, but I don’t feel like I can leave here without one at that price.

This morning there was a rocket attack, my first one. The Taliban obviously must have caught wind of my arrival and realized how much trouble they’re in now. Well guess what? Rockets ain’t gonna stop me biaches! 

Evil babies

Did I accidentally check a box somewhere in life that put me on a list to always sit near the screaming baby? Don't get me wrong, the outside part of babies is all nice and cute and sweet, they're interesting little creatures. It's the inside part that I don't like. You know, the part where the screams come from, the part that I'm actually pretty sure is made from pure evil. That's the part that I wasn't enjoying on my 13 hour flight from Toronto to Dubai.

What day is this?

Afghanistan? Really?

So this whole story started about two weeks ago when I got back to the office after Xmas vacation. I was filtering through the pile of e-mails in my inbox and saw one from my boss that was titled "Opportunities in Afghanistan". Interested, I opened it up and saw that ATCO (our parent company) was shorthanded on engineering support to complete some contracts they have at Kandahar Airfield (KAF) and needed volunteers from Nasittuq to help out. Shortly after reading the e-mail, Jim came into my office to announce he was going and scheduled to leave the following week. While I was definitely interested in going, the time frame seemed too rushed, I didn't want to pick up and leave the country in less than a week. I'm too much of a planner for that.

When I started talking to people about it, the general consensus was that I had to go; that this was a great opportunity. While I absolutely agreed, I still didn't want to leave so quickly. I decided to give ATCO a call to discuss it and see if I could leave later, closer to the end of the month. They agreed and I scheduled my departure for January 24th. The deal we struck is that I will work for them in Afghanistan for 3 months and then I'll get a paid month of leave before returning to Nasittuq. It should give me a good opportunity to do some travelling before coming home.

The last couple of weeks have been understandably hectic. I've been trying to get my life in order so that I can basically walk away from it for 4 months without anything getting screwed up. The biggest thing was trying to find someone to take care of my house for me while I'm gone. I think I really lucked out that Lisa is going to be back in Ottawa for basically the same time period that I'll be gone. I'm pretty happy that worked out so well.

Anyways, I hope I've thought of everything. I'm sitting here in the airport waiting for my flight to Toronto. Once I'm there I'll catch an Air Emirates flight directly to Dubai. I'm pretty excited about that one, I get to fly on an A380! Unfortunately I'll be travelling in the belly of the plane with the rest of the cattle and not in one of the nice business class pods upstairs. The first class passengers actually get private cabins and have access to showers.

Looking forward to getting to Dubai, but I'll only be there for about 12 hours before I fly out to Kandahar and I would imagine after a 13 hour flight I'll be pretty bagged.

Can't wait to get started!