I was talking to some guys at work today and they were telling me a story about an Indian guy in our shop who was lifting the cab of a truck up. He didn’t want to wait for it to be all the way tilted and climbed up to work on the engine. Well the cab fell on his hip crushing it. There is no 911 here so they called safety because the guy who got hurt is Indian, if he had been an expat they would have called the MP’s. Safety gets there and calls up the food chain until they get the project manager, he tells safety to go buy four plane tickets to India so they can lay him out on the plane and send him home. But while all that is happening and the guy is laying there in pain with what turned out to be a broken hip and a chunk of his hip bone broken off and floating around in his ass. Somebody called the MP’s and they sent the Canadian paramedics to get him and take him to the hospital. That’s where they found out what was wrong and medivacked him to Germany. Once the Military gets involved in something over here that is just the way it is, there is no arguing from the bosses, it wouldn’t help and the last thing the Sergeant Major wants is to be argued with. The guys in the shop took up a collection for him and raised $2000. Which is about 2 months pay for them; I have seen the pay stub. These guys are second class citizens over here. They make 1228 dollars per month; the lead mechanic makes an additional $60 making his total $1288. And they have to do all the shit work that expats won’t do, and the Indians do it because the last thing they want to do is make trouble and get shipped home. That is always hanging over their heads; if I get fired I could probably be back in country within a month. But these guys had to pay the recruiters that got them these jobs $2000 just to get them the job. So they work the first two months for free.
We heard about this early on in the night and then around lunch time Josh and I and Leo (who is Indian) were talking about dinner. (Note: There are several DEFAK’s or mess halls but only two serve a midnight meal. The Luxemburg which serves a European style cafeteria food and Falcon which serves American style cafeteria food. Think about you school lunches. The army doesn’t care about taste or nutrition so much their main concern is calorie intake. The want the food high in calories, nothing else.) I am tired of the Luxemburg, there is never anything I want to eat and the line to have the guy make you an omelet is always really long. So I said we should go to Falcon and Leo said they won’t let him and Denesh in. I asked what he was talking about and he told me they were going there for a while and one night an American guy was working the door (when you come into the DEFAK you have to wash your hands then slide your meal card) and told him that Indians can’t eat at this DFAK. Leo said that he and Denesh would drop us off and then come back and get us. I told him that was bullshit and if the Army was going to let him fix their trucks with me and cram them in a tent way past capacity because they won’t house them with Americans, then he was at least going to eat dinner with me and Josh if he wanted to. So went to Falcon, Josh and I went first and then Leo went to slide his card and the Philippine guy made Leo show his ID, which they can do. Then the guy says Leo doesn’t have the right color stripe on his CAC card (military ID), I hung back to make sure Leo got in. When I heard him say that, I told the guy “No, he has a CAC card he has a meal card. He’s eating.” Then I told Leo to go on and I waved Denesh through. Leo got in line and I watched to make sure nobody else was going to give them a hard time, and I saw this other Philippine guy laughing. I looked at him and he gave me two thumbs up and kept laughing. He was really tickled with what happened. It’s like an apart idée here, there is a spoken rule that everything is separate, and that the Indians get the shitty one of whatever there is to choose from. Like showers, the Indians got showers after a year of having to use water bottles, no showers for a year! Because the army guys wouldn’t let them use threes.
After work I went to the gym.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
1-3-10
My boss came around this morning and we were talking about our families. I love my family and I love talking about them, but it’s kind of a delicate topic over here because we all miss them so much. We all know we are here for them; it’s just hard to spend too much time thinking about them all at once. It is really easy to start missing them so much you just want to cry.
Still no fucking bag.
Still no fucking bag.
1-2-10
I went to work on the little shuttle that the shop runs. There is a whole big complex of huge shops, it’s called South Park. That is where the Tire Shop and HR are and also where they keep all the trucks that need to be worked on. Well South Park has shuttles that run to and from all the time but really on no set schedule. Well our shop is by itself over by MWR and the Boardwalk so we have our own van that someone from the shop drives over and picks everybody up from in front of the tent.
On one of my breaks I sat down to write a letter to Audrey and I felt something on my leg. I shook my leg and instead of it falling down, it went up. It was a mouse! I started yelling and cursing and knocking over chairs and pushing the table around. I was hitting my pants and stomping my feet. After the noise died down my boss came out of his office around the corner and just looked at me. I told him a mouse ran up my leg and he started laughing. He said “I thought you were whipping somebody’s ass. So I figured they must have had it coming, since you’re going to go home I might as well let you two finish it before I come out.”
About an hour later I went across the street to the toilets that flush. I took down my pants and the mouse fell out, already dead. It was kind of traumatic.
1-1-10
Happy new year to me! I woke up about 2:00 and got ready to go. I walked down to the Danish place, this time they had me talk to the office guy. He told me it was the fire wall that was keeping me from getting online. It took forever to get it all set up but finally I got it. Somehow I froze my iTunes so I tried to re-download it, but before I could get it one of the waitresses came by and told me that it was five o’clock and it was going to be strictly a restaurant. This meant we all had to put our laptops away no more internet café that day. I left there and just walked around, and made my way down to my shop.
I feel a whole new kind of lonely here. I am trying to figure out how to describe it.
Work is interesting, what happens is you get to the shop and the day shift gives you a rundown of what is parked inside. Usually there is a folder for each truck; the folder has a list that the Quality guy made, or the Technical Inspection. The TI is all the things that need to be fixed. Maybe it’s that a fire extinguisher needs to be installed or maybe the engine is leaking. The thing about trying to fix stuff over here is that there are no parts, and if you try to order something it will take at least two months. So you have to make sure that the part you need is in your hand before you actually start working on it. Because if you start tearing a truck a part and then can’t put it back together it has to sit in the shop. These things are the sizes of dump trucks so the shop would fill up really quick if you had that happen very often.
I feel a whole new kind of lonely here. I am trying to figure out how to describe it.
Work is interesting, what happens is you get to the shop and the day shift gives you a rundown of what is parked inside. Usually there is a folder for each truck; the folder has a list that the Quality guy made, or the Technical Inspection. The TI is all the things that need to be fixed. Maybe it’s that a fire extinguisher needs to be installed or maybe the engine is leaking. The thing about trying to fix stuff over here is that there are no parts, and if you try to order something it will take at least two months. So you have to make sure that the part you need is in your hand before you actually start working on it. Because if you start tearing a truck a part and then can’t put it back together it has to sit in the shop. These things are the sizes of dump trucks so the shop would fill up really quick if you had that happen very often.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
12-31-09
I woke up to early today, I rolled out of bed about 9am. I poked around a little bit, went and took a cold shower. You tell yourself it will be ok but when you get under the water it literally takes your breath away. You wind up turning it on for a few seconds and getting wet, turning it off and soaping up, then rinsing off. I got cleaner, but I did not get really clean.
I walked down to the boardwalk and found a flushing toilet on the way! It’s all about the small miracles in a place like this. I check out the NATO gym which was super nice. I got myself a little speaker at the computer store so I can listen to my iPhone at work. Then I went to the Danish restaurant which is just off the boardwalk and bought a 25euro wifi card. I couldn’t get it to work on my computer. I tried a dozen times to fill in my info and then it kept telling me the page couldn’t be displayed. Si took it back up to the lady at the counter and told her it wasn’t working and she said “this is Afghanistan”. I told her that if I wanted my wifi to not work I would go across the street (to the boardwalk) and have it not work for free. She told me she couldn’t give me my money back without her manager there and she didn’t know when the manger would be back. I left there and walked back to my tent and had some dinner with Josh. We got ready and went to work.
We caught a ride tonight. We worked on this huge truck tonight. I am totally amazed at the way you can stretch out work, people start getting ready for lunch about half an hour before its time to take it. It seems to me that the key is to always be doing something. Weather its taking a flashlight and inspecting the Hmmwv or taking a tire off and reinstalling it. As long as you are not sleeping or being a problem for somebody you are doing well.
What a long night! The big bosses came in about 6:30, it seems like just to make sure nobody is sleeping. The shitty thing about it is, when you have been working for 11.5 hours already you are pretty much just trying to look busy and not attract their attention.
I walked down to the boardwalk and found a flushing toilet on the way! It’s all about the small miracles in a place like this. I check out the NATO gym which was super nice. I got myself a little speaker at the computer store so I can listen to my iPhone at work. Then I went to the Danish restaurant which is just off the boardwalk and bought a 25euro wifi card. I couldn’t get it to work on my computer. I tried a dozen times to fill in my info and then it kept telling me the page couldn’t be displayed. Si took it back up to the lady at the counter and told her it wasn’t working and she said “this is Afghanistan”. I told her that if I wanted my wifi to not work I would go across the street (to the boardwalk) and have it not work for free. She told me she couldn’t give me my money back without her manager there and she didn’t know when the manger would be back. I left there and walked back to my tent and had some dinner with Josh. We got ready and went to work.
We caught a ride tonight. We worked on this huge truck tonight. I am totally amazed at the way you can stretch out work, people start getting ready for lunch about half an hour before its time to take it. It seems to me that the key is to always be doing something. Weather its taking a flashlight and inspecting the Hmmwv or taking a tire off and reinstalling it. As long as you are not sleeping or being a problem for somebody you are doing well.
What a long night! The big bosses came in about 6:30, it seems like just to make sure nobody is sleeping. The shitty thing about it is, when you have been working for 11.5 hours already you are pretty much just trying to look busy and not attract their attention.
12-30-09
I woke up about 11:30 and had lunch with Gary. Then Josh and I went to the boardwalk to use the internet and get a treat. The internet is so slow, it took about 5 min to pull up my email.
We walked around and just checked out the stuff in the shops. Josh bought an external hard drive, so that he can download movies from other people. We are all trying to find little pieces of home to cling to.
We had to walk to work tonight because there are all kinds of shuttles driving around but you can’t tell which company they are driving for or where they are going so sometimes it’s just easier to walk.
Tonight is Josh and my half day so we only have to work tell 12:30. This is good because I am super tired. We got off at 12:30 and went and got some dinner, and then a couple of guys gave us a lift back to the tent. I think Josh is going to go take a shower. Forget that! I don’t care if I stink, everyone else here does and I am very tired.
We walked around and just checked out the stuff in the shops. Josh bought an external hard drive, so that he can download movies from other people. We are all trying to find little pieces of home to cling to.
We had to walk to work tonight because there are all kinds of shuttles driving around but you can’t tell which company they are driving for or where they are going so sometimes it’s just easier to walk.
Tonight is Josh and my half day so we only have to work tell 12:30. This is good because I am super tired. We got off at 12:30 and went and got some dinner, and then a couple of guys gave us a lift back to the tent. I think Josh is going to go take a shower. Forget that! I don’t care if I stink, everyone else here does and I am very tired.
12-29-09
Everything looks better in the light of day. We got up at 5:30 so we could eat breakfast and catch our bus to HR at 6:45. It was pretty gloomy at the breakfast table, we all feel sad and a little angry that we are being treated this way. The HR lady was nice but everyone is feeling so bad about the situation it is hard to appreciate small kindnesses. They separated us up between Heavy wheel, Light wheel and TPE. Heavy wheel means you go work on big trucks, light wheel means you’re going to work on smaller vehicles like Hmmwvs and TPE means you will be working on anything that needs a quick fix. The way it works is the military buys these trucks and ships them over here, when they get here this company gets them and inspects them and if anything needs to be fixed they send it to one of our shops to fix it.
Here at KAF you have to have a special badge in order to move about un-escorted. If an MP catches you without it they can arrest you and hold you for five days then put you on a flight out and expel you forever. From what I have seen here that doesn’t seem bad to me!
The company I work for hasn’t invested in anything here. I t started to rain and there was water running through the HR container/trailer like a fountain. The tents we live in are hundred man tents that the army provided. They are way over capacity and not being maintained. There are no flushing toilets within a 20 min walk. You have your choice between hot communal showers with the solders or cold semi private showers in modified trailers.
I feel so sorry for myself here, what have I done? I am tired of people saying it can only get better. That isn’t true at all! It gets worse all the time.
The HR lady took us to get our badges, then for a quick tour. She took us to the boardwalk and I got a coffee and a fancy pastry at the French PX. The boardwalk is the place where all the shops are, it has a huge open square in the middle with a basketball court and a hockey rink (no ice) and a small baseball field/area. The shops are all facing the boardwalk that runs around the outside of the courtyard. There are little 7-11 type stores from countries who have soldiers here. There is a French, Dutch and Canadian PX. There is a dairy queen and a burger king and a kabob place and a pizza hut. Three places to get coffee, a computer store and a couple of cell phone places.
After we left the board walk we went to our shops to start work. My friend Josh (big un) and I are in light wheel which is supposed to do mostly Hmmwv’s and stuff but there are all kinds of huge trucks in this place.
We got the rundown of the shop and Josh and I got paired up. We worked for a little while on an electrical problem on a Hmmwv, and then it was time for lunch. Josh and I talked about it and we decided to volunteer to work nights. When we got back from lunch we told them and they said that would be fine. We kept working on the Hmmwv and then this hail storm started, it was really coming down!
The HR lady came by a little bit later and got a couple of guys and told them the tent was leaking. A couple of hours later Josh and I went back to the tent to help. It turns out that the tent had a couple of skylights right over the bunks we had found the night before. Guess we know why they were empty! John (John Doe) and Scotty had gone outside and tightened up the lines by the time we got there. Also they rearranged the bunks so we have our own little space now.
A guy in the tent gave us some high tension string and we went to the shoppette and bought some blankets and started our own shanty in the “overpass”. It’s our nick name for the tent because it looks like we are living under an overpass.
I tried to stay up late so I can sleep late tomorrow but it isn’t working.
Here at KAF you have to have a special badge in order to move about un-escorted. If an MP catches you without it they can arrest you and hold you for five days then put you on a flight out and expel you forever. From what I have seen here that doesn’t seem bad to me!
The company I work for hasn’t invested in anything here. I t started to rain and there was water running through the HR container/trailer like a fountain. The tents we live in are hundred man tents that the army provided. They are way over capacity and not being maintained. There are no flushing toilets within a 20 min walk. You have your choice between hot communal showers with the solders or cold semi private showers in modified trailers.
I feel so sorry for myself here, what have I done? I am tired of people saying it can only get better. That isn’t true at all! It gets worse all the time.
The HR lady took us to get our badges, then for a quick tour. She took us to the boardwalk and I got a coffee and a fancy pastry at the French PX. The boardwalk is the place where all the shops are, it has a huge open square in the middle with a basketball court and a hockey rink (no ice) and a small baseball field/area. The shops are all facing the boardwalk that runs around the outside of the courtyard. There are little 7-11 type stores from countries who have soldiers here. There is a French, Dutch and Canadian PX. There is a dairy queen and a burger king and a kabob place and a pizza hut. Three places to get coffee, a computer store and a couple of cell phone places.
After we left the board walk we went to our shops to start work. My friend Josh (big un) and I are in light wheel which is supposed to do mostly Hmmwv’s and stuff but there are all kinds of huge trucks in this place.
We got the rundown of the shop and Josh and I got paired up. We worked for a little while on an electrical problem on a Hmmwv, and then it was time for lunch. Josh and I talked about it and we decided to volunteer to work nights. When we got back from lunch we told them and they said that would be fine. We kept working on the Hmmwv and then this hail storm started, it was really coming down!
The HR lady came by a little bit later and got a couple of guys and told them the tent was leaking. A couple of hours later Josh and I went back to the tent to help. It turns out that the tent had a couple of skylights right over the bunks we had found the night before. Guess we know why they were empty! John (John Doe) and Scotty had gone outside and tightened up the lines by the time we got there. Also they rearranged the bunks so we have our own little space now.
A guy in the tent gave us some high tension string and we went to the shoppette and bought some blankets and started our own shanty in the “overpass”. It’s our nick name for the tent because it looks like we are living under an overpass.
I tried to stay up late so I can sleep late tomorrow but it isn’t working.
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