At the Compound

I have been getting your mail and LOVE it! It's nice to get mail and it breaks up the 12 hour days. Sometimes they go by really fast and other times (like today) they don't. I've been a little homesick lately. I think because I'm having a hard time finding friends. I have really nice co-workers but they are all at least 10 years or more older than me. I'm still meeting people though and I just found out that they do spade tournaments so I'm going to try and get in on that. Hopefully they don't have any manipulators like Amy playing :)

When I finally got to New Kabul Compound (NKC) I was first taken to the JPIO (Joint Programs Integration Office) office where I would be working. I got to meet some of my coworker and met up with Christine Altendorf. She is the one who helped me get the job. I dropped my luggage off and headed to the DFAC (dining facility) for in processing. There I got a sheet of paper with a list of offices I needed to visit. For example the laundry service, mailroom, HR, legal, IT services, and things along those lines. The first thing I did was go by billeting and get a room. I was lucky enough to be able to be housed in one of the dorms. Sometimes when it is overcrowded you have to stay in a tent. Once I got my key I went to my dorm. I would definitely describe my housing building as a dorm. It is three stories with a basement, all females (use to be intergraded but people were not following the rules if you know what I mean), and a public bathroom on each floor. The bathrooms have three showers, three toilets, and four sinks. The bedrooms have two sets of bunk beds and three wardrobes. I was placed in the basement and only have one roommate. When I first walked into the room I was a little shocked. It was a disaster. Now don’t get me wrong I am messy. BUT I am not dirty! There is a difference. My roommate had taken over the room. Her stuff was everywhere on ALL the beds. Plus there were dirty dishes, old food & drinks, and a BIKE in the room. I mean a BIKE! We do have a road that goes around the inside perimeter of the compound. If you go around it three times it is 5K. Can you imagine someone riding their bike around and around the road? CRAZY! I was in shock and by this time it was dinner time and I was exhausted and hungry. I went to dinner and decided that my roommate and I were going to have coming to Jesus talk once I met her. Luckily everything turned out cool and we get along great. Her name is Amanda. She is from Nebraska, divorced, with three boys (who are staying with her ex) and in the Air Force. She is a pharmacy tech and works at the Afghan Hospital up the hill from our compound. She has all kinds of crazy stories about how they treat the sick. Basically if you don't pay people off you won't get fed! They don't sterilize their operating rooms. They don't rotate out expired medicine. It sounds really bad.

Now many of you have been asking what my schedule is like so here is an average day:

0800  roll out of bed put on my DCU (desert combat uniform)*

0815 get to work

1215 drop off my laundry or pick it up from the day before

1220 eat lunch

1300 back to work

1800 eat dinner or go to the gym

1900 eat dinner or go to a bible study

2130 finish work and go to bed

Pretty boring. Sometimes my days differ if I have to travel to a different compound or something but it is basically like this.

Some of my next posts will be about the DFAC, laundry service, gym, my office, mail room, and definitely the Bazaar we get to go to. You can buy all kinds of things for good prices. You all will have to place an order! I still don’t have internet on my iPad but maybe one day I will! J 

*in Virginia during in processing i got issued four sets of DCU. However when I got here to New Kabul Compound (NKC) the uniform is actually ACU (army combat uniform). I'm the only one wearing the DCU. I don't actually care but my bosses do. I really didn't want to spend $300.00 on ugly uniforms so I went asking around to see if anyone had extras. People were very nice and I got some to try on. Of course with my luck. They were either to small (I'm working on that problem) or to short. BUMMER. So I had to go online and order some. Oh well I guess I will be wearing it for the next year.

This is the DCU (above).
This is the ACU (below).