Mazar-i Sharif


Afghanistan  / Mazar-i Sharif
Protected: On the Firing Line
July 26, 2009

Storage! I'm OUT!!! Two new phrases I picked up while learning to handle an AK-47 in the standing and the kneeling positions.  My shoulder is a little bruised from the recoil …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
Major Welcome
July 25, 2009

Any reason to throw a BBQ and Meredith is on it! This time it was in honor of the new Major  at Camp Marmal. He brought the requisite contingent of …


Afghanistan  / Mazar-i Sharif  / Work
150 Projects & Counting!
July 25, 2009

My team started 150 projects by July 25th so we celebrated with an Afghan BBQ. We set up the back porches with carpets and pillows to sit on and a …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
A few shots of “home”
July 17, 2009

On my last R&R I picked up a few items to make the house feel a bit more like home. Add to that a few local purchases (couch, patio set)  …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif  / Work
An Education
July 15, 2009

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to get out of the office and visit our work sites. I finally tore myself away from the tedium of …


Afghanistan  / Mazar-i Sharif  / Work
…and the work goes on!
July 15, 2009

Here are photos from a few of our projects...


Afghanistan  / Mazar-i Sharif
Learning Curves
July 14, 2009

A few years back I taught high school English / Journalism for two years. It was an inexplicable career choice that left many of my colleagues baffled.I had been on …


Afghanistan  / Mazar-i Sharif  / Opinion
Protected: Faith & Doubt
July 12, 2009

Have you ever been so lost that it just made more sense to sit down, and surrender than to fight on? I am at the end of that lost road. …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif  / Work
Security?
July 11, 2009

Security is something that is always in the back of your mind, from something as universal to kids darting out in front of your car, to crazy drivers who are …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
Six meds later…
June 26, 2009

Afghanistan is extreme. I have not only come to appreciate this fact, but have become so accustomed to it as to have deftly moved past it. That is until I …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
Broken
June 25, 2009

Something in me is broken. I cannot name it, but I know it through others. I'd like to believe the world around me is broken, or that I just landed …


Afghanistan  / Around the World  / Mazar-i Sharif
Heat
June 18, 2009

If you've ever microwaved something in a bowl covered with saran wrap, you can appreciate the way heat here presses in on you and builds up between the modest layers …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
Not so “New”
June 2, 2009

By the time my R&R arrived, I was feeling anything but “new”. I was tired in a way you can only get when living immersed in a culture wildly different …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
Death & Taxes
June 1, 2009

Recently I've found myself thinking of death and taxes. Not so much the way I've always thought of them, as inescapable realities, but more as dueling forces. Each time I bound …


Afghanistan  / General Observation  / Mazar-i Sharif
Memorial Day
May 27, 2009

The day dragged on. Hot, dusty and filled with the usual problems that come with a paycheck. The problems were not surprising, nor were they out of the ordinary. They …

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