Hello my friends. It is currently a ridiculous hour of the morning to still be awake, especially after getting only around 4 hours of sleep last night, but I want to write one last time from Kandahar. Tomorrow, somewhere around noon, I leave for FOB Dwyer. I was told the other day that I’ll be going there and I’m very curious about what it’s like. There is only one bad thing I’ve heard about it and that was the fact that it is in the middle of the desert and it’s hot. Well I just don’t know what to do with that fact. I know that Afghanistan has a variety of terrain but from all I can tell, it’s actually a bit toasty here! Not sure if that is supposed to be worse… Actually, I’m really not too sure of anything about it so I’ll just give you a little bit of my past couple of days.
Yesterday was nice & pretty mellow. I was able to get to the internet with the help of a friend/ IT guy who was in our class in Texas. In fact, Derek & I met on the bus going from the airport to the hotel. He’s a Southern Cali resident as well. He’s going to be stationed here at Kandahar and his room is a few rows away from mine so he let me use his room during the day. I was able to get a few things done during the day—got my uniform plus a very lucky pair of boots (I’m so thankful I didn’t buy them the day before like I almost did!). My dear roomie was told that she would likely be leaving today and would need to plan on being there at 0400 so she was in borderline panic mode given all that she needed to do. We ran by the PX to get some last-minute things she needed, had dinner, ran by her temporary office, then came back and started getting her stuff organized. She was later told it wouldn’t be until at least 0800 so that was good news for both of us. We didn’t finish until close to midnight then we headed to the showers. I was out & had just gotten my shirt on when the sirens sounded again. Awesome! Headed out to the bunker and was very thankful I hadn’t been asleep like most of the guys & gal in there. The security guard in there was with us in Kuwait. Pretty funny guy. He got here the same day I did. The same day a lot of us did. After what felt like an eternity, we were cleared to go home.
Today was a lot of fun. Went to breakfast with Katrina then went for a great walk with one of the fire guys, Clint. He was talking about it yesterday and invited me to join. We took off around 0830. It was already very toasty but I’m okay with that. We walked around the perimeter, sat & watched the planes & helos for a bit, continued on, saw camels (!!!), goats, some dust (I’ll be trying to get it out of my shoes as long as I keep them) and quite a few nifty sights. We got back to his office around noon, at which point it was downright hot and when I finally got back to my room, I saw that Katrina had taken off. I was so bummed to have missed her. I really wanted to get a pic with her for all to see but at least I got her email address. She really did make a great roommate. I had a fun couple of days getting to know her.
After an amazing shower, our fire new-hire guy here picked me up and took me to do laundry. Mine, that is—not his. After I got it going, we went to lunch then I got to accompany him on errands for the rest of the day. Part way through that, he got the word that I would be flying out today. Oh how I look forward to getting out of bags, but I’m very sad that I’m going to miss my bud. I wanted so badly to see him again before I took off. All I can do now is hope that he gets stationed where I am. At this point, none of the firefighters that I know are going to Dwyer. But that may change—I don’t know.
I tried to have dinner with some more of our class but I missed them. Just hope I have a chance to say goodbye to them tomorrow! I have to wonder if every group that goes through Dyncorp is as lucky as we were to have so many amazing people in the group. This process has been very convoluted sometimes, but the friends have been so stable, supportive, and consistent. They are, to put it simply, awesome. I’ve been so blessed to have these entertaining, selfless people by my side the whole way and I’m going to miss each one of them very much.
So with that, I will bid you all a fair adieu and curl up in my sleeping bag one last night. If all goes well, tomorrow I’ll be on sheets! Yay :)
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