Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas in Afghanistan

Well, we had a Christmas party Monday night out at Sperwhen Gar with all of the misfits. Mahaney made an excellent (if profane) Santa Claus, and we all sang "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus." We decorated the Mess Tent with candy canes, miniature Christmas presents, and glitter-coated pine cones. There was Hickory Farms cheese and sausage, and hot chocolate and crackers and all kinds of good stuff. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we drove back in to KAF from Sperwhen Gar, without incident. Not that drives through downtown Kandahar are ever actually calm or peaceful, but it wasn't bad. Now is probably the best time to relate that on the drive OUT to Sperwhen Gar I almost ran over a bicycle that had a 3 year old, a 7 year old, and their dad on it. I had to really STOMP on the brakes to avoid plowing them under, which would NOT have been pleasant for any of us, I feel sure.

AVS DVD player is not working on the House disks any better than Windows Media Player did, so I suspect that my DVD drive is faulty or failing. Which isn't really a huge surprise, the conditions here are dusty and hot, practically the worst possible for maintaining electronics. I watched Batman Begins again and enjoyed that, but I haven't watched Airplane II yet.

Today, I got up relatively early (before 10am, which is early considering that several of the younger soldiers were out partying last night until 7am) and got on the computer at the MWR facility where I chatted with my wife and wished her a Merry Christmas. Eventually we decided to make our way over to FOB Lindsey and eat Christmas lunch here (I'm writing this from my old living quarters). Lunch was FANTASTIC. KBR has it ALL over Supreme in terms of mess hall food, decorations, and general festiveness.

For lunch I had glazed ham (yum!), Prime Rib (yum!), yams, greens, stuffing, and Sparkling Red Grape Juice! It was great. Then we went up on the Gazebee and used most of the golf balls I got in packages. Many thanks are due to Tom Winn, and Fred and Rosemarie Zediak, for their contributions to the cause.

Anyway, now I'm getting ready to go eat Christmas Dinner in the mess hall, and I expect it to be just as good. I hope I can figure out how to put up a picture of the Mess hall decorations, it is amazing.

Hope to update more soon. We should be in the area for a while.

1 comment:

Michael Arflin said...

Hey Booraem. I just wanted to let you know, and you let the guys know that I pray for you all every day. I miss you guys a lot, and really regret getting sick. Hopefully everyone's spirit's are still high, and I know you guys are excited that it is almost over. Keep up the good work, we're all proud of you.

Mike Arflin