// n u t t m a n . i n f o //

Update from Afghanistan 1

Hi all,

Well its day 3 in country now, and i’m right out in the countryside!  This beginning feels like super fast waterslide into a completey different world.  We had a comparitively lush ride from Edmonton to Cyprus on an Air Italy plane, then onto one of canada’s new C117 globemasters for a dizzying 5hr ride into KAF.  24hrs in total and literally on the the other side of the world!

Kandahar Air Base (KAF) is so much more than I was expecting in all aspects!  There is almost 35,000 people there now (and will be way more by the end of my tour), from a lot of different countries (US, UK, Australia, France, Belguim, Netherlands, Germany, to name the ones i’ve seen).  The place is soo built up, tons of buildings, cement walls around everything, lots of vehicles ripping around (the place has morning and evening traffic jams!), a promenade with different stores (timmys, oakley, subway, pizza hut, carpet stores, different country military stores, and more).  On top of it the airfield is incredibly busy, i’d say easily as busy or busier than toronto or montreal international airport.  The very wierd thing is that being in KAF is definetly not like being in afghanistan, the entire time I felt like a tourist.  I didn’t spend very much time there at all, just enough to get the usual briefings, pack my kit, get a bit or rest, then I was on a chinook helicopter out to the countryside.

Things here are alright (i’ve ony fired my weapon at a pop can), we’ve got a lot of food and other goodies, some very slow internet, a cot to sleep on, and even a shower with wamish water.  The temperature is nothing to complain about, feels like a canadian summer, 30ish in the day, 5ish in the night, and not a cloud in the sky.  The locals are all very friendly too, to them we are like cable tv.  I’m in the middle of the relief-in-place here with the Vandoos (who have done an excellent job around here at least), while I wait for the rest of my platoon to arrive.  Things are busy, but definetly not overwhelming.  All in all, its nothing to complain about.

I hope everyone is doing very well, I’ll try to send some pictures when I get another chance.  Stay healthy and enjoy yourselves!  Much love to all!

Andrew