I finally made it to Kandahar last night after 4 days of travelling. To say the least, I was exhausted! Kyrgyzstan was very cold, but luckily for us, they were experiencing a heat wave and the temps were only in the 20's when we got there and got down to single digits. Much better than the expected -44 degrees that they were experiencing the week before.
I wasn't there long, just a little over 24 hours. Unfortunately for me, my internal clock was all messed up, so I didn't get too much sleep while we were there even though there was a whole lot of waiting around. Once we arrived there, we sat through a couple of briefings and then it was time for us to get our bags. All the bags were loaded on to a truck which we had to unload. Most people had at least 2 bags and there were hundreds of us, so there were quite a few bags to unload. After they were all unloaded, then it was time to find your bag. Now this isn't like looking for your bag at the airport baggage claim. All of our bags look exactly the same, save for our names painted on the bottom of the duffel bag and small name tape sewn on the ruck sacks. When I found my bags, I felt like I had won the lottery....twice.
Then the fun part started. I had to drop the duffel bag off in the baggage yard, as I wouldn't be needing it again while I was there at Manas Air Base. After dropping that bag, I had to make my way to the tent that I would be staying in while at Manas. It was about a 10 minute walk, which felt like an eternity with a very heavy ruck sack on my back and heavy assault pack on the front of me and my M-16 slung over me in some fashion.
The DFACs (dining facilities) are open 24 hours a day in Manas, but only serve meals at certain hours. If they aren't serving a meal, you can still go in and get snacks, which usually consist of junk food. Luckily for my waist line, the DFACs here at Kandahar don't have this same option. The food wasn't too bad, but I only ate dinner there.
Once it was getting close to leaving, we went on lock down and just sat around in a tent for hours. Once you are in the Army for a while, you become a world class "waiter," because the Army is infamous for making you hurry up and wait. We finally were bused out to the flight line and then of course came more waiting on a bus that had horrible diesel fumes. I'm surprised I didn't get carbon monoxide poisoning from that thing. We finally got to load up the C130 aircraft. This was my first time on one of these. I must have had beginners luck because I didn't know that the first people on the aircraft get the better seats. The inside of the aircraft is huge and they have just regular airplane seats (read: really cramped and close together) in the middle. Then they also have seats that line the sides of the plane. The first people on get the seats on the side of the plane, and I was one of the first people on. Lots of leg room! I will remember this for future flights because the people in the middle looked miserable!
Once we got to Kandahar, it was a cluster you know what! There were some people who were staying at Kandahar, like me; and then there were others who were going to other FOBs. So, there were lots of people yelling out names of different people and telling them to do certain things and go certain places. The only problem was that you couldn't tell who was yelling what and what they were wanting you to do. My name ended up getting called and when I went outside to find my bags like I was told, another person outside told me to load them up onto a truck. Of course after I loaded my bags up and went back into the terminal, someone else told me that I was still supposed to have my bags and that truck was headed for FOB Wolverine. So, I had to run back outside and get up into the back of the truck and find my bags all over again and unload them. Then I had to carry them back into the terminal only to be told to carry them back outside to load onto another truck. Did I mention that these 2 bags together are extremely heavy? Needless to say, after all that I was exhausted.
I finally got my bags loaded up into the right truck and loaded on to a bus headed for housing. Luckily one of my Soldiers met me at housing and helped me find my bags quickly so I beat everyone to the housing office line and got signed for my room quickly.
My roommate has been here since right after Christmas as she was on the very first body that deployed. She is an awesome roommate and went around "acquiring" stuff for herself and me. The rooms pretty much just come with a bed and lamp and that's it. I'm not sure how she did it, but she was able to acquire a chest of drawers for each of us and many sets of plastic drawers. And to completely cement her rock star status, she was able to acquire and wall locker and gave it to me to use. I am really happy with my roommate situation and it will definitely go a long way with making this year more enjoyable.
Today, I woke up and had no idea what I was supposed to be doing or really where to go for that matter. So I got up with my roommate and she showed me around on her way to work. Once I got up to BDE (brigade or where I work) I was able to find my office and found Dave, the other attorney I work with. He had to give a ROE (rules of engagement) briefing so I sat in on that. I found out that I wouldn't be going to the range today, so I didn't really have anything else to do. After the briefing we went to the DFAC to eat some lunch and then went to the PX (post exchange, kinda like a walmart only the one in kandahar is much much smaller than a normal PX. I've been to the PX a couple times today and it is probably a little over a mile from where I live or about a 20 minute walk. I got lost going back as it was the first time I was trying to find it by myself, and I ended up at the poo pond (which I will explain about that later). Luckily, while I was there this time I ran into some people I knew and they had a vehicle so I caught a ride back to my room with them. I really don't mind the walk, but I had bought a large set of plastic drawers for my roommate as she had been looking for them, and the over a mile walk would not have been easy carrying that thing.
So, the poo pond.....It is exactly what it sounds like. It is this big pond that is filled with poop. I'm not sure the of the story of how it came about or why it is still here, but as soon as I find out, I will share with you guys. I had heard a lot about it and how awful the smell was here, but I don't know if it is just the cold weather, but I haven't really smelled anything....even when I accidentally ended up at it on my way to the PX. I'm sure it won't be pleasant when it is hot out and the wind is blowing.
No comments:
Post a Comment