From Kevin Miller - October 20, 2008

Greetings Again Everyone,

Here is Afghanistan Update #2 for your enjoyment.

First I’ll tell you that I’m taking advantage of our AFN Sports availability to watch the Packers play the Colts live (it’s currently half-time and the Packers are ahead 17-7). The downside is that it’s 2:20 a.m. I did go to bed for a few hours and will hopefully get a little more sleep when the game is over.

I’ll continue with some more general information about where I’m living and see if I get to what I’ve been doing since getting to Afghanistan. I’ll start with a little more information about the “base” in which I’m staying. I can’t go into too much detail because of Operational Security (or OPSEC as it’s normally called), but I can tell you a little. We are at a small camp located very close to the Provincial Police Headquarters (PHQ). It is actually operated by DynCorp International. They are a company contracted by the U.S. Government/Coalition Forces to help train the Afghan National Police. Most of the DynCorps guys here are retired police officers or police taking a leave of absence. Several are also former military. We work closely with them to mentor and train the police staff.

Our camp is called DynCorp Police Academy Site 2 – Site 1 is the Regional Training Center where the ANP receive their “basic” and other police training – and most of the residents here are DynCorp employees. There are also a few military living here along with the security force, which is made up of Gurkhas from Nepal. They are a very interesting group, and I encourage you to learn more about them (just do an Internet search for “Gurkhas”).

Site 2 is small but comfortable. The “extras” here are very few right now, but that should change in a few weeks. I already mentioned the room I’m in as being well-equipped and much better than I would have ever expected. There are new quarters being built for the DynCorps employees. They will each have their own room with their own bathroom. They are also building a new dining facility and an “MWR” (Morale-Welfare-Recreation) Center. I believe this will include a new workout room, a movie room (with a large screen TV), a sort of rec center (with things like a pool table), and a laundry area. Speaking of laundry, there are two Afghan gentlemen (maybe a father and son) who do laundry for us. We drop it off in the morning (around 7:00 a.m.) and they have it ready by 11:00 a.m. They don’t actually charge anything, but we usually give a $2.00 tip. They wash, dry, and fold everything and seem to do a good job.

I had some questions from people about American type items here. There are a few, though there tend to be more that are European or Asian. The dining facility has things like Heinz Ketchup, A-1 Steak Sauce, and American sodas including Pepsi, Coke, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi & Coke, and A & W Root Beer (though these are mostly bottled here in Afghanistan or someplace relatively close like Dubai). Speaking of beverages, we only drink bottled water here. There are many issues with water quality in Afghanistan, so it is best to avoid any water that’s not bottled. I even use bottled water to brush my teeth just to be on the safe side. However, we drink Chai (tea) regularly and we really don’t know what water is used for that – so it is always best to make sure it is steaming hot when it is served.

There are also many American movies and TV shows available on DVD’s. Interestingly, most are probably pirated so they only cost like $2 for a movie or a few dollars for an entire season of a series or an entire series collection. I haven’t bought any myself, but there are many around here other people have given us or left for the taking. Some are very good quality (comparable to what we would get in the U.S.); some are okay quality (we have a few discs with five movies crammed onto them and one with 13, but the picture quality is still not bad); and some are really questionable because they were new releases filmed in a theater with a video camera. We watched Super Bad one night and could hear the audience laughing, a baby crying, etc. and the picture quality was pretty poor. Fortunately, it’s not a movie with lots of great scenery or special effects so it didn’t make much difference. The movie packaging looks at least somewhat like a regular DVD, but when you open them up the discs are sometimes just recordable DVD’s with no markings at all.

As for the food we are served, it is prepared by a contracting company but I’m not sure of the nationality of the workers. It is generally pretty good and they do prepare a lot of “American” dishes, though they typically look and taste a bit different than expected. We regularly have Sheppard’s Pie, lasagna, meat pies, roast pork, roast beef, roast lamb, and various forms of chicken including lemon, sweet & sour, “Southern” fried, “KFC” fried, and just fried. Also, because of the Gurkhas’ diets, every lunch and dinner has at least one dish with curry. Most of them are very good. Breakfasts have a few cereals to choose from, bacon and sausages, usually pancakes or French toast, eggs to order (though they taste a little strange – I don’t know if that’s the eggs or how they prepare them), and biscuits with creamed beef (a version of SOS for those who know about that).

Well, it appears the Packers just beat the Colts, so it was definitely worth getting up. They didn’t show the very end of the game, but instead switched to Jets-Raiders because that game was so close. The Jets ended up losing in overtime. I have been rooting for Brett Favre and hoping he does well, though I completely agree with the Packers decisions – and Rogers has certainly been proving them right in my opinion.

Since the game is over, I will now head back to bed and send this e-mail tomorrow. I’ll try to start another one soon.

Kevin
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