Colby’s Christmas Crafts, Cookies, and Carols in the Cafeteria

Over the holidays I organized a craft night for Joint Engineering. My original plan was for a few of us to get together and do a few holiday crafts. Then Mom sent me several boxes with all kinds of craft kits. It was amazing. I knew then I needed to plan a larger event. Luckily, a Staff Sergeant got mailed 10 boxes filled with Christmas Cookies. He was worried about how he was going to get rid of them all. I saw it as a great way to add another “C” to my event (Crafts, Cookies). Then an Air Force Capitan came up to asking if he could play carols on his guitar. Of course I had to say yes and we were up to my third “C” (Crafts, Cookies, and Carols). On the day of my Christmas Crafts, Cookies, and Carols it was like pulling teeth to get people to come but once a few trickled in many more followed. Everyone had a blast (check out pictures below). We made ornaments, candy cane mice, snowflakes, and colored Christmas pictures. It turned out really nice and wouldn’t have been possible without Mom!

The Down Low on Laundry

Here is the low down on how I get my laundry cleaned at NKC. We are all given a relatively small mesh bag with a colored and numbered draw string attached. We can turn this in anytime between 0800 and 1700 and get our laundry back the next day. Very convenient.

I must admit though that sometimes my brown shirts come back smelling worse than they did when I dropped them off. They smell like those men are wearing my shirts at night to a dance party or the gym. Whatever it is my shirts are definitely getting more action in this country than me.

Now the real question is do they wash our cloths in the bag or not? It is at least a weekly discussion amongst my coworkers. I have concluded that they must wash our clothes in the bags because I always get all my articles of clothing back. Now this makes me think that maybe I shouldn’t be shoving as much as I can in this little bag.

If a piece of clothing happens to go missing in order to claim it you have to take inventory of your clothes before you put them in the bag and turn them in. You write what is in your laundry bag on the receipt that the Afghan workers give you. Then when you pick up your laundry you are suppose to go through it right there, that minute. No wonder, we Americans, have a bad rap. We are throwing our underwear and bras all over the place to make sure each sock has a match.  Needless to say NO ONE inventories their laundry. Luckily this company has their system down pack. All my socks have come back with matches.

It has been awhile

I know! I know! I haven't written in a while. I'm a loser. Mom has told me to just add some pictures if not anything else. So here are some shots from my first vacation to South Africa.

My trip was a blast and I definitely want to go back.

What more could I want: Dancing & Shopping!

Last week our compound received an email about a ‘special bazaar’ that would be on Saturday night. When I got the email I thought to myself that this whole thing sounded lame. Some local vendor must of worked himself a deal to sell his crap two days instead of one day a week. Luckily I decided to check it out anyways.

When I stepped outside there was Afghan music blaring and people clapping. I walked around the corner and saw a huge group of people standing around a live band playing. The band had the works piano, drums, guitar, singer, amps, and speakers. It was the real deal. I walked over to join the crowd and saw a bunch of the local Afghan workers (men) dancing in front of the band while the rest of us (military, civilians, & contractors) were standing in a circle clapping them on.

standing around clapping

The Band

Dancing Workers



It was so different to see the local workers open up and be outgoing. Usually I don’t even hear them speak. Now after standing around clapping for two songs, of which I had no idea what they were singing, I was itching to dance. I had forgotten how much I missed music, dancing, and celebrating. So I used my cruise ship skills and went out to dance with the Afghans. Needless to say 15 minutes later more and more people started to join in. Soon it was a multicultural dance party. I even got the General, SGM, and my boss to dance. It was beautiful to witness and be part of. I finally felt part of a community.

Dancing Circle

Getting My Groove On

Chatting It Up

I was on a high so of course I went shopping and I bought FOUR carpets. The crazy thing about this is that at the time it was 8:30PM!! So I basically bought FOUR carpets in the dark! After that purchase I was the new best friend of the seven brothers selling these carpets such good friends that the dude who sold me the carpets wanted to dance. My reply you ask? I would dance with him but it would cost him $100.00 off my rugs. The man loved it. They love this bargaining thing. I’m still getting use to it. I even took my carpet dude to the JENG General so he could tell my carpet dude to give me a price break if I danced with him. Of course the General said that in America we would call that something else. My reply was thank goodness we aren’t in America. Sometimes I don’t know how I get away with this. It was a great night and I can’t wait for the next one I just don’t know if my wallet can handle it.

Carpet Shop where I spent all my money!

My Carpet Family and the General

Girls School

I have had the awesome privilege of volunteering at an all girls Afghan school. The mission is to create fun and easy English lessons, teach the lessons to the teachers that instruct English, and then have the teachers use the lessons in their classes. I went for the first time this past week and it was very fulfilling. To be able to get away from behind the computer and help out others was a joy.

The school has about 8,000 girls. Each class has approximately 50 students in it. The teachers move from class to class. In the English department there are about 20 teachers. On a trip 4 to 5 volunteers from NKC will go. We have a simple lesson to teach them that we go over before we leave. This time we went over an exercise that teaches past tenses of regular and irregular verbs. We also had a reading exercise that was based on present news stories. Once we get to the school we have to go up to the principal’s office and say hello. They serve us tea and we have casual conversation through a translator. This time they showed us the library as a possible bigger room to work with the teachers. The library was pitiful. It was about nine tall bookshelves with a variety of books. A couple shelves with English books but I found most of them to be too advance reading materials for the teachers and the students. We told the principle it would hard for us to get Dari (the local language) books but we could get English books for the children that were more appropriate for their reading level (approx. kindergarten to third grade would be my guess). So before I go on if you have any books laying around for beginner readers definitely send them my way J ! After our visit to the library we went to meet with the teachers. There were 13 teachers and the four of us crammed into a small room with a wooden picnic table in it. At first it was overwhelming. Everyone crammed in this small space all talking at the same time. The teachers were very excited and receptive to everything we said. I thought they might be shy but they weren’t even close to being shy. They talked continuously and over each other. To be frank they knew more about the English language and its crazy grammar rules then I did but they liked to know what each word meant and how to use it in a sentence. Their eagerness to learn was extremely admirable. We got to spend about an hour with them and then it was time to go. It definitely didn’t seem like enough time. I’m excited to go back. I have tons of ideas and can’t wait to learn more from them.

First War Wound

I was wearing my new expensive Army Combat Uniform on a movement to renew four of our employees Visas. There were five of us total and me being the youngest and lowest ranking (I know depressing, the ranking part) I had to hop in the trunk of the SUV (all the SUV’s have a third row that looks out the back just like a station wagon). In the trunk they have two metal boxes about 1’x2’x1’ I assume they hold communication stuff in them. Who really knows or cares because it is not the point of the story. While I was getting my fat ass out the back I caught my leg on the very sharp edge of one of the metal boxes. So of course I yelped and fell harder into the box tearing a hole in the butt region of my NEW uniform. GGGRRR. So here I am my leg bleeding and bruised and a hole in the butt of my uniform. Not such a great moment. I must say the two drivers found the whole thing hilarious when all four female co-workers are staring at my ass trying to see how bad the tear was. I wonder if I’ll get some kind of award for my injury?

Shower Curtians

Sometimes the days here are long and lonely and you can lose perspective. But then I will get an email from our Garrison Sergeant Major. Who is this man you might ask? Well, he is in charge of ALL logistics when it comes to New Kabul Compound. I'm sure you can imagine some of the emails, calls and run ins he has. Luckily he shares. Below is one of his emails I got today:

All,

Seeing as how I get all sorts of issues vital to National Security placed upon me....and seeing as how I've already solved the vital issue of replacing the rubber gasket on the power washer that the local national workers are using. 

(Now at least most of the water comes out of the nozzle instead of pouring all over the ground...another score.)

It's time for the Shower Curtain issue. 

Contrary to obvious popular belief...I DO NOT have an extra 400-500 shower curtains in my locker...strange as that may sound.  I have already issued out as many replacements as were on hand.  So...here's what we can do.  I have spoken with EcoLog...they will wash your shower curtain and have it back the next day.  They ask that you put it in a separate laundry bag by itself.  Please remember to tell the guy to write "DO NOT DRY" on the slip.  I have already tried this and had no problem.  Your shower curtain will come out clean (probably) and life as you know it will continue to be wonderful and care free.

Your Garrison SGM...making the War Zone a better place...one shower at a time.(of course that's when we have water)

Garrison Sergeant Major

New Kabul Compound

The man cracks me up. Oh and by the way we can't use the toilets, showers, or sinks b/c the truck that empties the septic tank can't get to us b/c all the roads are down. Just another day in Afghanistan.