Countdown to R&R!

Okay, so I didn't post anything on Friday!  I could hear every complaining from here.  I guess I'll try to make up for it by posting now.  I only have about 40 hours before I am wheels-up and on my way home for a three-week break.  The trip home will be long, about 35 hours in all.  I have a 3-hour flight from here to Dubai, a 9-hour lay-over in Dubai, then a 14-hour flight to Washington DC.  I have a six-hour layover in Washington where I hope to link-up with Corey and go eat some breakfast.  Then finally, I have the 90 minute flight from Washington to Manchester.

Our Thankgiving celebration here at KAF was unspectacular.  About 20 of us piled into 3 diferent vehicles and drove to a DFAC on the other side of the airfield.  After waiting in a 30 minute line, in the rain, we made it into the DFAC to enjoy our turkey dinner with all of the fixings. Here is a poorly-cropped shot of me with a mouthful of food near an authentic-looking turkey decoration hanging from the ceiling.

I tried to Skpye with Corey on Thanksgiving Day.  He was celebrating Thanksgiving at Mom & Dad's house in GA.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the timing right.  I wanted to amaze them with our ability to communicate with video and sound over Corey's cell phone from thousands of miles away.  Well, Corey had a weak cellular signal from their house but we finally made it work for a few minutes on the day after Thanksgiving.  That was all worthwhile!  Chris actually tried using his cell phone to Skype with me first.  He called me from his police car one Sunday morning and it worked pretty well, both audio and video!  Modern technology is amazing.  In some respects we are living with technology that most folks back in the 60s and 70s thought of as science fiction.

I am talking with Terry almost every day through Skype.  We've discovered that the best time for both of us is 7:00 am here in Afghanistan while it is 9:30 pm the night before on the east coast of the U.S.  I just have to schedule the calls so that they aren't interupted by any alarms going off!  And, it would be nice if the fighter jets delayed their take-offs until after I am done.  The noise tends to interfere with our chat!

Finally, here is a picture of my colleague Kevin and the young fellow we call John, who is from Sri Lanka.  The company John works for has the cleaning and maintenance contract for the buildings on our compound.  John wanted me to take this picture so he could send it to his family back home and show them who he worked for.  He is a great guy and, contrary to the photo, is always smiling and humming a song.

Okay, get ready for a three-week lapse in posts to this blog.  When I return, I may be able to post some more pictures of my time with family!