Site Visits

We have a lot of work starting this summer so we have had a lot of contractors on the FOB for site visits.  So far we in my work at this base we have only had American, Turkish and Afghan contractors.  The American contractors usually aren’t all that fun to deal with.  They usually want us to help arrange their transportation, find them a place to stay and help them get established.  It’s a shock to some when they realize they can’t just hop on a plane and fly into the local village, rent a hotel and car, and stroll onto the base.  The Turks I have dealt with are already established in the country and are usually fairly self sufficient.  The Afghan contractors are a mixed bag.  We get some that haven’t been a company very long and others that have done major projects with the corps.  Some companies are run by engineers, some by a Dr. Somebody in Kabul and others by Afghan nationals and their Afghan-American cousins that have come back over Afghanistan to help manage the company.  One of my favorites was from a site visit we held the other day.  This guy was attending Kabul University Engineering School when the Russians invaded Afghanistan.  He decided that at the time it was better to fight than go to school.  So he quit, moved north and “spent the next few years killing Russians”.  Now the company he’s with is building roads and buildings throughout Afghanistan.  Most people you deal with over here have either spent a good part of their life fighting, moving to wherever the safest part of Afghanistan is or moving between countries.

I have been starting to get boxes of school supplies to take to a local school.  Thanks to everyone that is helping out!!!

HOMEFRONT NEWS:  I guess Katy has taken a break from sending me stories so here is one she told be about a few weeks ago.

On the way back from Wal-Mart Lily had managed to get partly out of her seat belt.  In the past I had told Christian that the cops don’t like it when kids get out of their seat belts, and….maybe…..I said something about having to go to jail.  So Christian tells Lily to get back in her seat belt or she’ll have to go to jail.  She wasn’t able to squirm back in so Christian started getting frantic.  He looked at her, with tears in his eyes and said “Lily, you’re going to have to go to jail” and started crying.  Lily got all worked up, as kids do, and started crying as well.  She looked to her left at Sera and between tears said, “Sera, I’m going to miss you.”.