It’s late on a Thursday night and I just finished a chain of events that left me thing “I am really proud of the SCA and that I am part of that group of people” The reason you may ask, the answer is I got to experience the flip side today.

The company here has a barbeque at the end each month. To get people to help they have the managers from each department volunteer 3 people. This is usually a voluntold process as almost no one volunteers and most of the managers are ex-military and are use to ordering people to volunteer for thing. When they said they needed three cooks I jumped in, anyone who knows me can easily understand my eagerness to cook for 300 again. What surprised me was at the end of the night I found myself sitting alone on a bench in the dark eating some of the few leftovers being told I need to stay and clean all three grills as the other two cooks had left.

At that moment I thought wow this would never happen in the SCA. At the end of SCA events I’m surrounded fighting off people who want to help me clean the kitchen. During the dinner they had a announcements where they give out small cash bonus to manager’s pets and ask you to donate to this charity or another but at no point did anyone say thank you to volunteers. Now I don’t expected a herald to call us in and a Kingly or Baronly figure to proclaim their thanks but there was no mention at all of the people it took to make this little piece of home possible. Most just got up dumped their paper plate and walked away like they were at the mess. Now don’t get me wrong but a few people did come on and thank me in person but they were the exceptions. It’s the fact that almost no one stayed to help clean up, and of the people who did stay most did so because some manager told them to.

At that point I was proud to be part of the SCA on the fact how much we go out of our way to say thank you from pelicans to the simple gift of a token, to just being called up to court. I been called up dozens of times related to being a cook and in the past I often took it as a bit of a nuisance talking me away from the important work in the kitchen. Tonight I was enlightened on how important those ceremonies we have are and that I do cherish the little coins I've gotten from Kes or the tiny clay pot from Xristina.

I will still volunteer for the barbeque come next month as it gives me a chance to do something I enjoy. Either way next time I think I will be bold, raise my voice and ask that a hand be given to the volunteers that make the event possible.

Good night from a some what home sick John.

It’s been a busy week for reason I can’t talk about here. Ran into Vlod as he does what he does. It’s nice to meet SCA people once in a while here. Speaking of SCA I am trying to get a SCA name for the camp among other things. I’ll tell more once I have confirmed it, I may need a web designer in the near future. Due to security changes I haven’t been carrying my camera so no new pick. This has had other effects, I started carrying my pocket knife that I‘ve had for a very long time around in my pocket and not in the camera case. Now sadly the said knife as gone missing for a few days and I fear it has been pocketed by someone else. That’s a big issue in the camp, tools are the prime target. I will just have to be more careful.

The Dutch brought in a show ban Wednesday night. It quite fun to head over to the Dutch corner, it’s the only club, and I mean it’s the only club in the camp. It’s a Dutch only club and is only open to everyone else on special occasions such as when they bring in a ban. The place was quite packed. They done it up well you never know it was in a circus style tent, it’s got a stage and a bar. Before anyone asks they don’t sell alcoholic beverages when other nations are allowed in. The camp has strict rules around that sort of thing and this is how the Dutch deal with it. On the other side the Americans had some country singer in on Friday, I say who but I don’t know, apparently this person said some unkind things about Canada when US invaded Irag about the fact we did not join them. So no one in this camp went to that concert.

Saw one of the hedge hogs that live in the camp for the first time. They only come out at night and they appear as this spiking ball that darts around in the shadows. People around here seem to collect pets. The linesmen have their new found gecko, the help desk have two frogs. One of the women in my office feeds the birds. The mechanics have their cat. But the hedge hog seems to have been over looked. There has been a boom of wild life as there are more and more moths. The Moths are a big annoyance at night. They get into things and so you pick up a shirt and a moth flies out. If you are the last one in the tent to turn off your light your sleeping area gets flooded with a half dozen. But there is no shortage of things here that eat them. You can sit back and watch the bats hunt them in the big spot lights.

The last few days I have been working on one job but it’s been hindered by the fact that this base is a mish mash of infrastructure standards. As there are so many countries in the camp and all their equipment are built to different standards. It’s a perpetual night mare of adaptors and transformers. To compound this there is an urban legend in camp how some guys got electrocuted while taking a shower in a camp in Iraq. The joke now is to use the showers the electricians use.

Well it’s been dull for the last few days… The rain is gone for now and it’s more or less dried up. The last few days the suns been out and we had 40+ degree heat in the day. It will reach 60 by the summer. I had plans to go down to the wood shop here and work on a shield spine as a way to parallel the A&S back in Ottawa, Sadly the wood shop was closed but I was able to get some sewing done. Thinking of Home, John.

PS: This place is changing my threshold on what catches my attention as unusual, example: I almost forgot to post that I got trapped in a shower facility today. It’s my day off so I slept in and then went for a shower, when I got there realized I had forgotten something and tried to go back out. The problem is the door handle is in disrepair and so it seized up and would not open. Well I spent a few minutes trying to free the handle then trying to force the door open. Someone else who wished to use the shower facility discovered the situation, went over to a nearby truck, picked up a big screw driver and forced the lock mechanism while I kicked the door open. For those trying to play this out in their minds eye both of us are in bath robes with towels and shaving kits in hand. Any way once we had got the door open we went on our business as if this was common place. For this place the weird like that is common.

Rain Rain Go Away

It has rained three days in a row; it’s starting to get on my nerves. The place is all mud ware there is not gravel. Delilah, the smaller of the two bongos likes to slide on both gravel and mud so driving her is entertaining. I have gotten use to the fact that she right hand drive but its easy here as the top speed is 16 kmh. The low speeds is a bit annoying until you get here and your sharing roads with Heavy Transporters, Sea Can Movers, and tanks.

I have been told that this is the end of a 50 year drought in the region. There is more life around from birds to insects and even frogs. The locus here are biblical, the one in the picture is sitting on three inch mesh, easily twice the size of any grass hopper I have seen back home. The lack of green is getting to me coming from northern Ontario, there are only a few trees and even they have a dusty tan colour from dust on the leaves.

My tent picked up a leak, the last good wind storm shifted the tent slightly opening a gap on the bottom edge and some water got in, not so bad as the floor is raised, but has given the tent a funk smell. One of my tent mates has put down bleach to keep it from getting worst so the tent space has an Ode de Over Used Pool.




As much as you want to curse the rain the alternative is 35 to 45 degree heat. There is plenty of time for that to come; I should try to enjoy it as I can. The rain does clear the dust from the air and I can see the mountains ranges that rise from the desert dust. The region once was a bed of a great river some 10 thousand years ago that was fed from ice age glaciers that have long melted away. I find myself curious what the landscape looked like then. A great river with jutting mountain islands covered in trees. How this place is an Eden lost.

I'm Back

I’m back online and blogging, before any one comes to any conclusions I did not put any one in danger, or joined the Taliban. It had to do with public image of the company. With that said I did skirt what I am allowed to say. Three quarters of what I have seen is off limits when it comes to the blog. This place is a 24 hour a day air and military show, fighters, tanks, you name it. Alas I must be silent, but make note that Canada is not playing the little brother role to the Americans or the British here.

Ok when I left off I was having fun with the bongos, well the fun continued. I added a picture on the blog of some of the CE guys trying to rescue there after a night of rain. They’re very front heavy as the engine is under the cab between the front wheels, and you can’t park them on a downhill slope and expect to back up. Most if not all the roads here are gravel and can be like driving on ball bearings. I had to learn this the hard way yesterday when I got the office bongo stuck facing a ditch.

The cab was ever so slightly too close to the ditch and pitched the bongo the few degrees it takes. Well I tried all the tricks I knew like rocking it, no go as all this did was threw up more gravel and inch me closer to the ditch. Well a captain and a major were walking by and I asked them if I knew where I could get some help. For those asking there is no CAA chapter in Afghanistan. The captain said he could get one of the fork lift guys to help and started walking towards the garage. The Major without saying a word got in the cab started the bongo as I had left the keys in, and gun the gas. The bongo rocketed threw the ditch and half way up the other side till it had no more traction. Then he flipped it in reverse and rocketed back when I had to jump out of the way as the major came thru the parking spot, missing both SUV on either side. He then slid to a stop after performing a perfect reverse “J” turn leaving it in the perfect spot to leave the parking area. At which point he got out and walked on as if nothing had happened …

Another Part of Bongos is that there owned and fixed by locals. Spare parts are for most parts recovered from other vehicles. The supply people finally got a replacement tire for theirs and well I had to take a picture as it bald, cracking, and has chucks of rubber missing. The important part is that it holds air unlike the previous one.

AS time goes on this camp becomes more civilized. The British PX store called the Naafi has brand hard ice cream with flavors like rum and resin. I also picked up a small British bear to act as Strappy’s body guard if he comes.

As a tech in KAF the problem can be different as there is multiple NATO country that built this base there is multiple power connecters. This includes a mix of 110 and 220 volt. I already blew up a power supply here that had a manual selector. Most our tents here are North American standard but when I get to the sites it can be anything depending who built the building. The little travel adaptors here are standard issue as any time you buy electrical appliances at the PX’s they can be anything under the sun.

The ever present dust, the picture is my computer after 5 weeks of being in my tent. It would have been worst but I keep the lid down at night and when I am at work.

Any way I am fine and back, got some shopping done so I should be sending some silk and cashmere scarfs back soon. Soon if anyone is asking is 4 to 6 weeks.

Sorry have to stop

You may have noticed that some items on my blog had to be pulled. The company here is having security issues and so I been asked to stop posting on the blog for a while. Can’t go into details other then I don’t know if and when I be able to post again.

Rain in the desert

Last night and today it mostly rained, it even hailed for a bit. Lucky for me it was my day off so I could hide out in my tent. this land wants to rain it can, most rain here last a few seconds and you get a few drops of mud from the sky. But once in a while it lets it all out, the hail on the tent was loud enough to drown out any conversation or audio that was playing. When it did stop the landscape was all mud and puddles. With the ground unable to absorb the water it will probably take a week for it to dry. I don’t mind, I like it here when it rains, it pulls all the dust out of the air and I get a blue sky, a real blue sky for a few days. At night you can see details on the moon, it’s not just a glowing blob in the dark.





Like I said it was my day off so its lunch on the board walk and day to lay back and get my own projects done. I decided to complete my make shift futon. Its 4 fluffy blankets tied together with buttons made from cut up water bottles. It turned out really well. When the tent space is just right I do up some pictures and post them.

Surreal TV

Another surreal moment today to remind me where I am … two weeks ago we got a small 22” LCD TV to put in the office, today it was tuned into CTV 24 hours news. The big thing in Afghanistan is the new law here that allows rape in marriage. Well they had a live interview with an afghan women’s rights activist, during which we argued about why Canada is in Afghanistan etc. as if it was on the other side of the world just like 99% of the people watching the same. After a few minutes we noticed some of the details in the background were familiar. So I popped my head out my office door and there she was with camera crew and sound man.

This place is doing what I thought was impossible, making me religious. For those who know me know I am a hard core atheist. Hear in KAF I have found a desperate need for faith. I find myself saying a little pray twice a day. Oh god, gods, spirits, or demons, who looks over the D-fac of KAF(*) I ask you this meal that:
The lowest bidder who got the contract to feed us did not bid too low.
That the country they are buying the food from has health inspectors.
May that health Inspector does not take bribes, well not too often.
May the air- conditioned shipping container the food was sent here with, may it be plane or truck have a working air-conditioner.
May the box of fresh vegetables in that container not have been stacked under the box of frozen meat.
May the cook have used some form of soapy substance when cleaning the kitchen, and that cleaning was resent.
May the meat not be cooked till it loses all organic characteristics.
May the serving tray not been used as a trash compactor the meal before, and the previous person not just come from the medical rows.
May the guy standing at the salad bar who just sneezed have a stuffy nose from the dust.
May the Dust that falls on all surfaces including the uncovered food have a low concentration of dung, human camel, or any other animal.
May the half dozen people sitting around me who just returned from some south asian country not bring something with him that can be transmitted through the air.
(*)D-fac = Dinning facility, KAF = Kandahar Air Field

A few questions have come up .. First how to send stuff here. The following web site covers it . http://www.trentonmfrc.cfbtrenton.com/index.php?www_id=68 If you are sending it to me use my real name and my unit is : KAF, Can-Cap, CIS, Tech-Shop
The other question was what a bongo, well in terms of KAF it’s a small Japanese made truck. We have a bunch here and they are uncomfortable if not impossible to be driven by anyone over 5’10”. See the picture at the top of a old and new one side by side




One of the Cats from New Canada House area had decided to come around to my section.

free stuff day

Today the charter flight came in and out. It brought back both my boss and my supervisor from vacation and it took out one guy that was in training with me and was in the same tent. He quit on Monday after a disagreement with his boss. Another left my tent as it was end of contract, E.O.D. for short. For the rest it was vulture time, I hate to admit it but I got into it today. Every one collects what they can to make their little part of the tent better. Every one heads over to their tent spots and sees what they had collected and if they want any. My haul was two ammo style boxes, 2 more blanks towards my futon project, and the crown jewel a new office chair. I didn’t have room for the very nice desk that came with it, but I already have a mini desk I made from bits of a larger desk that fell out of a bongo.