A BIG POSTING . . .

I am not even sure where to begin or what an appropriate title would be for this whole posting. It has been a crazy 30 hours or so. Josh was able to sign-on to IM on Sunday morning, so we were able to catch up. To sum it up, he was "having a day," which is to be expected. Somehow though, even in his venting, he appears quite entertaining.

And to add to another milestone, Josh left the States one month ago today!! Woohoo - a great reason to celebrate Cinco de Mayo!

The following is an e-mail that Josh sent to the teachers at Barry on Tuesday morning (Afghanistan time) . . .


Greetings from the wild world of Afghanistan! Is it June yet? I can't believe it is already May. I am sure you all feel a little different. I look forward to June too, because it is one more month down.


I continue to drive all over Afghanistan.


I chose to think of the FOB as a college campus. You haveyour P/X similar to a bookstore complete with over priced paraphenalia. There is a gym. A lot of people go to the gym, but just like a lot of gyms, people go to be seen and not really be seen doing anything. I am following several interesting relationships in the gym. I get a little bored and a little nosy. It is a bit like Days of Our Lives in the gym. There is the dining hall just like a college's dining hall. They are both alike in that they serve up some wicked interesting dishes. Although this dining hall is a step up from my college's dining hall. My school in Virginia had a contract with a food service agency whoseonly other client was the Virginia State Correctional Facility System. So, the dining hall at Camp Phoenix is a huge step up for me. Then there is the housing, just like dorms. I once again am sharing a bathroom with lots of people who don't clean up after themselves. hahaha. Darci would probably say the same thing about sharing a bathroom with me. haha


Speaking of housing, this was a big week for me. We finally moved into our perm. party housing. I have an 8x8 cubicle space that is all mine to live in. It honestly is a piece of heaven. After months of living in tents with cots and open bays with bunk beds, it was amazing to walk into a semi-private partitioned space of plywood and know that it was all yours. It even has a make shift towel rack and someone built cubbies that I can store things in. Honestly, everytime I walk into it, the heavens open and light shines down and angels sing AHHHHH! You may think it is silly, but seriously it is the best corner of the world right now.


Of course, it needed a little cleaning before move in. The previous owner thought it was cool to add texture to the wall by blowing and wiping his boogers on the wall. Who am I to judge. I know, gross, but I never said Afghanistan was going to be pretty. However, being the Kindergarten teacher I am, this did not really phase me. I just pretended a five year old did it then I busted out a bottle of windshield washer fluid from the humvee (didn't have anything else) and went to town. A half hour later and some hand sanitizer, I was set. When you take daily malaria pills, you don'treally worry what you might catch from boogers. haha.


Time is going bypretty quickly. Getting out... I wish we got to talk and get to know more of the people here. So many times as we are moving about, we get thumbs up and big toothy grins from the kids. The other day, I did get the finger from a little guy. Well, what are you going to do. You can not make everybody happy, and if the worse I get from him is the finger, well big deal.


I am getting to be a bit of a mechanic... okay that is a lie, but I am getting to know the mechanics really well. A humvee is going for about a 130,000 dollars a pop, and it is the most delicatething I have ever encountered. So far, I have replaced both front and back brakes, a mirror, a ventvalve line (which I though was a brake line and got a real good bellylaugh from the head mechanic when I told him I tore a brake line), three tires, two head lights, one tail light, a turret, a parking brake handle, a leaky A/C, and the thing only has 15,000 miles on it.

I told Darci (I experienced) one of the proudest moments I have ever had in the Army. It was something small, but it just was a great example of joes helping joes.

In the US, I would consider my humvee a big lemon, but it kind of becomes like a pet or a piece of you. I kind of talk to it like Herbie. In a sea of parked humvees, I can find mine immediately, mainly because it needs a new suspension kit and it sags in the back. ha. We go up a lot of steep hills, and narrow streets withmassive drop offs, and just plain craziness. Often times, I tell the truck "Come on, you can do it, stay true." Most of the time I say it my head, but sometimes it comes out. We all wear Britney Spears headsets in the truck, so we can hear each other. I caught myself talking out loud, and everyone else was saying what are you saying.


Another bad habit I have while driving in stressful conditions is humming, but I have pretty much been able to curb that habit with some corrective action. That is the Army's way of saying what we would call re-directing. Only, sometimes corrective action involves a bit of yelling. haha. It is all in good fun though. Our team gets along great, I think. haha.


Well, it is past my bedtime. I hope I haven't bored you all. I am looking forward to seeing you all soon. Take care of each other. -- Josh