Training Week 2

Today was the end of week 2 of our training the Afghan National Army. Monday we taught them how to change oil on their vehicles and Tuesday I had them explain to me step by step how to do it. By then end of the day Tuesday they wanted to move on and learn how to do something else. Unfortunately for them we are tasked to train on oil changes for two weeks so we will still be doing that. Today we let them go and change the oil by themselves, with our supervision, and they did it with no problems. Tomorrow we have 3 more vehicles for them to do. Today we also got to eat in the ANA dining facility. Two of our guys hadn't been there yet and they were skeptical about eating there. I have pics of my tray that I'll put on facebook, but the meal consists of rice, flatbread, corn and potatoes and some type of green veggie, today it was okra, and then a type of meat. The ANA guys we ate with thought it was sheep that we had today but they weren't even sure, and then there is always some type of fresh fruit. All in all this week has been good, no problems here yet. We had a General come through yesterday so surf and turf night was even better than normal. I had a steak almost as big as my plate and then a huge lobster tail. I had to set my baked potato aside and eat some of the food on my plate so I could get it out of the aluminum foil. That's one thing I love here, every Friday I eat steak and seafood.

Today is my first full day where I will be stationed for the duration of my deployment. Today it reached 105 by 10:00 am. We haven't begun working yet, right now we are just getting accustomed to the area and the climate. Today however we did get the opportunity to eat the the Afghanistan Army dinning facility. The food wasn't bad, we had lots of rice, flat bread, corn and potatoes, green beans, watermelon and goat. The hardest part of the meal was eating with my hands. They have untensils but they do not get cleaned well so unless you bring your own you eat with your hands. I was actually surprised with the food. Yesterday we actually had a great lunch for the 4th. Made me feel like I was back home, other than there was no fireworks and I wasn't with Cassie it was a good day. We should get started working very soon and hopefully time will go quick then. The bad thing about this place is that there isn't a lot to do for fun, there is no PX or chapel. Once in a while there is a chaplain that comes in but not very often. When we need something from the px we will have to convoy to the nearest base. But on the bright side I won't have those temptations to buy things and I should be able to save some money.