When last we left our hero he was just escaping from the clutches of the C-17 cargo plane and unloading himself with his trusty side-kick lappy (laptop case) and his ward rolley (a rolling carry-on bag) storming the KAF NATO base in true Kramer fashion!
But seriously - after (at this point) nearly 40 hours of consecutive travel I was in bad shape. We deplaned and got into the reception area for newcomers. Got a map of KAF (once again, Kandahar Airfield) which has since come very much in handy. I was directed to a phone with which I was supposed to call the contractors I knew here on the base to sign me in and everything. I did that and met Christian - an employee of the Kandahar Education Center.
Christian drove the Education Center's car down to the terminal and drove me to his and two others who work at the ed center's room where I plopped my stuff down next to the one empty bed area - the room is divided into quadrants with curtains strung up between the high dressers for walls.
Kandahar is hot and dusty. There are lots of new smells and the dust is everywhere already and I've been here 24 hours at this point. It gets colder at night and especially colder in the rooms where the air conditioning works 24 hours a day and between 3 and 7 am gets the temperature down into the sixties in the rooms - I woke up freezing this morning. More on the base itself another time.
We made a quick visit over to the ed center and saw where I would be working briefly then came back to the room. I showered and went to bed.
I slept for 10 hours.
Then I woke up and got ready to go into work. The Ed. Center is open from 0700 to 2200 (that's 7am to 10pm for you non military folk out there). Throughout all that time the computer center has to be covered. Most people work 8-8, but I'm going to be working (or so it seems) 10-10 because I'm one of the two people that have to cover the center early or late shift. So all day I sat and worked with soldiers helping them out with the various questions they had having to do with education and how the Army helps them achieve that education.
We get breaks/cover for each other for meals and breaks and there has been some downtime but I'll have some more duties soon that will keep me more occupied than I've been today. And now it's 9:30 pm and I'm getting ready to close up the Ed. Center. That's it!
We were going to get a lot of paperwork for me done today but didn't get around to it. Tomorrow we'll do it so in the meantime I don't have a key to my/our room, don't have any id badges and we need like 20 of them... good news is this morning my trunk got here and now I have a majority of my stuff.
Reminder: Feel free to send me anything you wish. Use this as instructions: A Guide to Sending Josh Kramer Things Through the US Postal Service
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