A new home

Matt here this time, with my first post in several weeks. I think the last post I made was from Kyrgystan prior to flying down into Afghanistan. A lot has happened and changed since then -- so here's a quick update.

I spent the first 4 weeks of my deployment in one city in northern Afghanistan. I did quite a bit of flying there -- much more than I expected to that soon in the deployment. All of my flights were training flights (no real life medevac missions), but it was good to get back into flying after several months off.

The best way I can describe the first place is hot and dusty, but actually quite beautiful at times. Here are a few pictures:

The view as I stepped out of my tent one evening

A view of the tents we lived in

A look inside the tent at my bunk...I hate the top bunk.

Getting ready for a flight

I recently moved to a new place though, which puts the first place to shame in a lot of ways. It might be that I have lowered my standards of living, but many aspects of this place are comfortable. It's about 5-10 degrees cooler, the camp is much smaller, the people are friendlier, and the food is excellent. Yes, excellent.

I'm not going to say the name of the city I am in, but it is one of the safest cities in Afghanistan. The people here are friendly and like the ISAF because we brought them electricity. We've also brought them a great deal of money in the form of leased land, building projects, etc. I don't have many pictures yet but here are a few:

The new place I live

My space in the tent (two cots)

The outdoor "indoor" soccer field. The Norwegians are good at soccer!

A look outside the interior perimeter of the camp

That same gate from a different angle -- those are village buildings on the other side of the fence.

One of the things I've done since getting here is taken over for the Air Force Master Planner who got pulled from his job a few weeks early. He was coordinating all of the building projects on the camp that were being done by the local Afghan people. How it got dumped on my lap I still can't figure out, but now I'm finding myself as a construction project manager in addition to medevac pilot.

Have you ever tried to explain what needs to be done on a project without using words? That's what I do several times a day now. Explaining that each floor needs two coats of polyurethane is not easy without words. It's also tough to explain that the two water tanks, which were included as part of the system, are not needed for the project but they must be left with us. I really need to learn some of the Pashto language. I'll be sure to post a picture next time of me with Rustam, the foreman.

I almost forgot the best part about my new location. Free wifi internet! We are only allowed to use it during certain hours of the day, and it's usually pretty slow, but it's been wonderful to have internet access again on a regular basis. I got to talk to and see Johnni and Joella a few days ago via Skype for the first time since I left Kyrgystan -- it was wonderful! Joella is getting so old! Johnni has been great about sending me photos/videos of her when she sends me packages, but those are always at least 10 days old due to the transit times. It was wonderful to get to see them in real time. Joella kept trying to hand me things, point to me, blow me kisses, and walk toward me. Yes, walk! I couldn't believe it. Johnni said she counted 14 steps in a row last week. crazy. It's fun that even if I have to be gone for so long I can still keep up with things back home fairly well.

Pineapple Day

A little of what Joella's been up to.... Her top 2 teeth are here to stay and she's gotten rid of the snake crawl (does the hands and knees thing now). Unless of course her dress is too long...then she switches to a bear walk/crawl on her hands and feet. She's starting to take 3-5 baby steps at a time. I wouldn't call it walking just yet. Usually she plunges to the floor after a couple of really excited steps but sometimes she can catch her balance and keep going. When she does walk, can we still call her a baby?









And the most important reason for this blog...Happy Pineapple Day, DAD!!! For some reason I started getting Matt a fresh pineapple every year for his birthday starting back when we were dating. We did the same this year - Matt just had to eat his canned... We love you and miss you!

Send Off

Obviously since Matt already blogged, it's no surprise that he has taken off. He's been gone a week & a half or so. I meant to blog on our road trip home but we actually drove through the night instead. Again, Joella was a trooper. She couldn't have done any better on the long trip back to Iowa.

Fortunately we were able to really enjoy our last few days together instead of stressing out too much about the situation. Once we turned over the house there was time to hang out and get some relaxing in. Joella went swimming for the first time and loved it more than we ever expected.


Below are a few pictures from the day of the send off.


WARNING: this blog gets wordy, so if you like to stick to pictures, you've seen it all for now :)

It was interesting to see how different people dealt with their emotions. Some family members cried a lot throughout the afternoon. Others sat around without much to say. Some couples stood outside and hugged for a really long time. We watched them from the air conditioned car...too hot and sunny to be out for so long! There were a few moments that stuck out in my mind that day. The first was watching a deploying mom leave her baby (maybe one year old) and handing him to her parents for the year. Another was a cute little girl in cowboy boots who was old enough (5-6 years) to know what was going on. That's when the idea of a year of them being away started to bug me. She was sad but quiet about it and had a stuffed animal just kind of drooping from her hand. Matt and his parents I and I mostly joked around and it wasn't until the 10 minute goodbye warning that I thought to myself, "Oh wow, this is for real." It was tough to see Matt say goodbye to Joella. Another vivid picture from the day was Matt holding and looking down at her with a few tears rolling out from under his sunglasses [Sorry, Babe -- I thought I'd let them know you're human :)] I'm just glad that for this goodbye she didn't have to think about much besides waving/flapping her little hand and smiling (seen in the picture above).

I'm not asking for a pity party here -- just thought I would share a bit of what's been going on with us. It's been an eye opener for me to realize what other families have to deal with when their soldier deploys. They aren't necessarily set up with such an awesome support network like we are. Deploying is just "normal" in the active duty Army community and families have no choice but to take on the extra responsibilities. It feels like we have been gearing up for this deployment for so long that it's almost a relief now that we can start the countdown for Matt to come back :)

Matt and I were able to Skype a couple times while he was in Kyrgyzstan. He doesn't have the same internet access in Afghanistan. I have gotten one phone call from him though. He can get e-mails and sometimes send them. They are short because he has to text them and doesn't have reliable coverage. If you want to text him or send him letters, e-mail me and I'll get you the info.

An e-mail from Matt:

~~~~
Hey! How are you? Wanted to let you know that I am safe and sound in Afghanistan. Got here last night. Things are about what I expected here, but it is still crazy. Dust everywhere. Everywhere. We do have showers, though I get so dusty/sweaty coming back its almost not worth it. Was about 117 degrees yesterday...not quite that bad today. Got phone data working, seems to be pretty slow. Got all your emails and texts, having some trouble getting back to you now. I think the network is hit or miss.

Miss you. Miss joella. Don't mind it here otherwise. Haven't been sleeping much it seems. Loud because of tight quarters. Can't complain though - maybe in a couple months I'll be good and sick of everything. Food is good - had lobster and crab legs tonight.

Anyway, Love you lots - hope things are going well.

Matt

~~~~

Since this e-mail, Matt's also told me that they walk a LOT. A couple miles to and from his meetings each day. 1-1 1/2 miles to and from his meals. Crazy, huh?

Like Matt said in his last post, we were overwhelmed (pleasantly) with all the notes / e-mails / thoughts / calls / prayers we've been getting from everyone. The prayers are evident, because we have been surprisingly at peace about everything. Joella and I are fortunate and well taken care of here in Iowa. I've been under the radar a bit trying to get my feet on the ground with work and getting settled in. There has been a lot going on and it seems like everyone on both sides of our family is either moving or traveling right now. I am looking forward to catching up with a lot of you soon though!