Today is the day that the Army guys were leaving. Cansdale, Nilsen and White were heading back to KAF for their movement forward to go home. They have all been in country for a year. It is going to be weird not to have them around and hear their stories and b.s. about tv shows and movies. They will have some folks replacing them eventually. Cansdale of course wanted to say goodbye to Satar. I knew it was going to be hard on Satar and for Cansdale. Satar teared up and hugged Cansdale for a good amount of time. He said that he hopes Cansdale comes back again and that he will miss him dearly. He was like a twin brother to Satar and when there would be a day that he didn't see Cansdale, he was sad. He said he would be sad for a lot of days now. Cansdale said after the good byes and we were on our way back to the office that he has never felt this way before, that he didn't want to leave, that he didn't want the deployment to end. He wishes he could take this job and Satar and the whole operation to the States so he could have his family and this job at the same time. That is the effect this place can have. We are here to win the hearts and minds of Afghanistan, but, are they winning ours?
While we were out doing the goodbyes and whatnot I could hear some cheering and yelling going on. Looked as though the camp's soldiers were in some sort of volleyball tournament. I got a picture of them playing, from a distance. Something to note about volleyball, they love playing so much that in the interpreter village (Camp Lyons), they emptied the sand bags around their tents to make a volleyball pit to play in. Of course when the rains came-it washed out their tents-but, by golly they had a place to play volleyball.
For lunch today we all decided to eat together-with the exception of the Major and the civilians. No idea where the Major was-he didn't even say goodbye to the guys. Fail. The last time we all ate as a group was Christmas. It was nice to laugh and joke with each other and have a good time. Lunch today was lasagna and pizza-two of the best things they make-so it was good to have a nice meal to send them off. We got back to the embassy and got their gear all loaded up and snapped a couple of photos. Niazy and Hydari were both pretty moved about them leaving. They have spent the whole year with them. It was sad to see everyone to go and how sad Niazy was for losing his brother too. But, we all move on eventually.
On another note of moving on. A civilian by the name of Mark came down from Kabul with a validation team about a month ago. We found out today that only 4 days away from going back home to his family in Oklahoma, he had a massive heart attack and passed away. He was close friends with some of the civilians we have working with us and it hit them pretty hard today. I had a chance to get to know him while he was here and he was a really nice guy, he was 63. My prayers are with his family and friends.
Losing people you know, whether very well or not very much makes you appreciate what you have more every day. I will never stop saying how grateful I am for all the friends and family I have. More then ever Kevin and the kids. I got some mail today from them and I was all sad about everyone leaving and hearing about Mark and I get the letters from them, that always make me smile. I could tell that Cecilia has been on restriction from tv because I get some really good drawings from her.
Matthew's creativity in putting his valentines in the envelopes was classic.
I started a game with Cecilia-recommended by my best friend from grade school, Angie Lineberry-Simmons, through the mail. The connect the dots game. I draw ten lines in one color and write the date, then she draws ten lines in a color and writes the date-it is great. As you can see, she has one point.
I got several letters from Kevin too. One which is in the red envelope is something I started us doing. Not sure if you have heard about it or not, but, it is 1000 questions to ask your partner. We know each other pretty well, but, it is just something to get to know each other better. They vary from personality things, to material things. I just sent out our next 10 questions-we are up to 30 questions now. The deal is that he has to answer the questions and seal the envelope for the mail before he can read my answers to not be swayed by my answers or anything like that. I just got his first 10 questions answers. I love to get to know him this way and it keeps us connected. I love him so very much and I love to learn about him. This deployment, any deployment can easily derail a relationship-we are determined to not let that happen to us. It takes work, time and commitment to keep a loving relationship together and if you feel the other person is worth it, like I do with Kevin-then you do what you need to do. But, it doesn't feel like work to me, I enjoy this.
Hanks, Martindale and Romero (Sounds like a law firm) all work together in a vehicle maintenance area and are attached to the FSD also. A couple weeks ago there was a puppy running around the FOB and the Sgt Major wanted to kill it-spread of germs etc. So, given he is here 4 months and Hanks and Martindale are here for a year-they kidnapped the dog and have her in their vehicle yard. Her name is Angel. I have yet to see her, will do soon. Hanks decided to order some dog food for her, against our advice. We don't want Angel to get used to dog food since the people who replace us will only feed her food from the DFAC, but, it is just one bag of dog food. I went with her to the mail room to pick it up. It was a 85lb bag of dog food. Amazon shipped it in a diapers.com box for whatever reason. Here's Hanks with it.
So, we thought it would be funny to put Chief's (Romero) mail in there and give it to him and ask if he got some adult diapers or something. The look on his face is awesome. Today was his first day back after coming back from his R & R leave. I said, "Welcome Back Chief-did you miss us?". He brought back that card game Phase 10. We are going to build a table and play cards in our hall way area soon. That should be fun. I am going to teach them how to play Nut!!
Wasn't a bad day once it got going. It was full of some ups and downs. But, it is one more day down to coming home to my life again. As Kevin would put it, as he does on all my letters-today is Day 87 of the Kristin Hostage Crisis. Getting closer, one day at a time. Tomorrow is Friday-my day off....can sleep in.
I LOVE the stories and pictures. Thank you for everything you are doing for our country.
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