Camp Cupcake

This week was like no other so far.  Monday the new boss to over and the old boss left, also we found out that we had slides due that evening.  Unfortunatly we didn’t have a ton of guidance but we managed to pull together a somewhat reasonable set well after the deadline to get them in for the first pre brief passed.  Most of the rest of the week has been playing catch up with these slides and modifying them to better suit the presentation they were created for.  Overall the op tempo in the office has been pretty dang high, which im not complaining about, so the week just flew by.  It has been somewhat frustrating at times but overall it has gone rather well.  Also I’ve been able to be more vocal about things that are going on, mostly due to better understanding of the problems of the day.  So I felt like I’ve contributed a lot more which is a nice feeling, even if im still stuck doing powerpoints….  On Monday morning before the crazyness broke loose I had a really good discussion with my new boss about my role and the kind of things I wanted to get out of my time here, he was rather supportive so I think once things calm down a little I’ll be able to push that some more.  I have a few other ideas that I want to run by him too so I’m thinking if he gets on board with those the next few months will be very interesting and I’ll be able to get a lot of good stuff done.

It’s strange, I’ve only been here about 40 days and yet most of the people I’ve met have already left, not to say I don’t know any body as im still meeting new people all the time.  Just doing some simple math in my head I’d guess roughly 10% of the people here leave every month.  Which makes for a strange work dynamic, I’m sure the military folks are more used to it but for me it is pretty strange.  Still for the most part everyone is very welcoming to new people and you get drawn into activities fairly quickly.  Also it’s amazing how much the atmosphere of the office has changed since I got here, not bad just different.  We used to have a huge crew that all went to lunch/dinner together, it was a nice social activity that helped break up the day, now that is mostly gone since people have left. But such is the ebb and flow of life at Camp Cupcake.

The finished some of the construction they were working on here.  That project had been going on since I got here.  Well they took down the fence and it really opened up the place a lot, plus we got a ton of new picnic tables so the court yard area is much larger and more of an L shape now.  While I like the openness the fence had that green windbreaker on it that you see at tennis courts and with it down the amount of green one sees while walking across the courtyard is significantly reduced.  I kind of miss it.

They also “fixed” the internet this week.  Not that it was broken, well it wasn’t before they fixed it anyway.  But it’s back now, I guess it was down for 4 or 5 days but I’ve been staying busy with work and going to the gym or reading at night so it was a minor inconvenience but nothing major.  Plus I’m in Kabul so you can only expect so much.  Going to the gym has other side benefits other than the obvious ones too.  It’s almost like a cult, if people see you in the gym you somehow gain creditability or cool points.  Silly yes but something interesting I noticed even just going there to ride the bike.

It’s really windy tonight but otherwise the weather here has been awesome summer weather.  Warm and dry with a breeze.  Rather nice climate.

Thursday night is salsa night in one of the tents on base, they do lessons before the actual start time, something to do. I haven’t been yet, but I can hear the music.

Not much else going on at the moment, but it’s the start of the “weekend” so that is nice.  I consider the weekend Thursday night through Sunday since I get to sleep in Friday and Sunday.  Also I’m looking forward to surf and turf night as I do every week, which is closely followed by ice cream night.  I had a scoop of cookies and cream and a scoop of mint chocolate chip last Sunday but really the mint chocolate chip isn’t on the same level as the cookies and cream. They just don’t go together well so I’ll probably double up on the cookies and cream this time around.  Yup in a war zone and I’m talking about ice cream flavors, it is called Camp Cupcake for a reason ladies and gentlemen.