Happy 50th Birthday Debra!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife....as you can see in this recent picture taken last year when we were in Italy, I am the luckiest guy in the world!

I wish I was there to help celebrate such a significant birthday, but I will make up for it when we go to Jamaica in February. We are going to one of those fancy resorts with dining on the beach, private cottage (the honeymoon cottage of course) and pool. I know we will have a great time.

I also shipped Debra a present from Afghanistan which arrived in a big metal box and has been sitting in our den for the last couple of days. I guess one of the good things about being in Afghanistan is that after being together for so many years, and buying so many birthday presents, I had the opportunity to get something unique for such a special birthday.

Enjoy your gift and have a wonderful birthday Debra!

Love you with all my heart....

The Halloween Spirit

Halloween is quickly approaching and I thought these pictures might help get everyone into the Halloween "spirit". This is our little dog Abbey and I can only imagine what she is thinking as she stands there with her costumes on.

Sarah loves Halloween and throughout the years, she has made Abbey all of the costumes except the reindeer. It was quite funny when the little kids would come to the door trick or treating and they would see Abbey. They would be more interested in the dog than the candy.

I couldn't resist posting them as I think they are so darn funny!

The other point I should mention, is that there is only one person in our family that Abbey growls at....

Happy Halloween!

Life in Kabul

Good morning all!

I held a farewell party for my "little buddies" the other night...I enjoyed it very much but not so sure they did! I started my meds and felt like making a little sign to wear around my neck..."No Free Room and Board!".

I am feeling way better and have my appetite back again. Spoke to the Chef as I can only eat food that has been boiled or cooked, nothing raw for two weeks. I had eggs cooked to order this morning...a great omelette, kinda nice. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to everything getting back to normal.

You may recall several weeks ago I attended Barbur Gardens for a art exhibit. The exhibit included photographs taken by local students. Here are some of the pictures they took throughout the streets of Kabul. I really like them because they show what daily life in the city is like, not all doom and gloom. For the most part, folks just trying to live their lives. Of course these students can wander the streets and find some great shots...

What a week!

I thought this was a great picture to show how I have been feeling this week....(thanks Mike).

I have been feeling lousy for the past couple of weeks and it was really bad over the last few days. I will spare you all the bathroom stories, but the other usual symptoms such as stomach ache, nausea, loss of appetite and of course my personal favourite, weight loss.

So two nights ago after another night of waking up at 2:00 am and soaked in sweat, I decided I had to go to the Doctor. In the morning I headed off to the clinic and explained my symptoms to the Doctor. She took some blood samples, returned several minutes later and stated "you have malaria". I asked "are you sure?", she said "yes", I said "really?" she said "yes". I paused for effect and asked her again "are you sure?". She also paused for effect and said "I have been treating patients in Afghanistan for 16 years and I am sure". She prescribed some meds and off I went...in disbelief.

You can imagine how quickly I shipped off the result back to Ottawa for our Health Services to take a look at. I also mentioned that I was going to go to another clinic for a second opinion, which they supported as well as asking for additional testing.

So this morning I went to the German Clinic and gave blood and was asked to return with a stool sample (I'm not talking about a small chair) which I did later in the day. After all my various body samples were tested, the Doctor informed me in a rather shrill loud German voice "I can't confirm the malaria, but you are full of parasites"

My bathroom vanity looks like a Pharmasave Drug Store and I am trying to keep my meds straight...not forgetting to take my daily vitamin pill of course. Heavens only knows what would happen if I stopped taking that.

I feel like the rooster....what a week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First off....I would like to thank everyone for the comments on the last post. It was really great to see all the kind words from literally across the world.

We had our Thanksgiving dinner last night at the Embassy and usually the dining hall is open for a couple of hours for dinner, but last night we had just one seating. This was the first time I had actually sat down with everyone for dinner and it was quite nice. We had turkey, ham and of course pumpkin pie....or at least some kind of pie made from an orange gourd.

When I got back to Afghanistan from leave, I headed down south right away. I spent several days visiting our folks and meeting with the various military commanders. I made it to KAF, CNS, FOB Walton, PHQ headquarters and Police Sub Station 1#.

The group picture above is of me, our Advisory NCO Wendall Ackerson and C/Supt Bob Goodall who we have placed into EUPOL. Also in the photo is the police deputy commander from PSS 1#. I went out with the guys to complete an assessment of the station and meet with the commander. When we arrived first thing in the morning, he was still asleep. Now at first glance you might think this odd...but in Afghanistan, most of the police live right at the police station. They not only get paid to be a police officer, but they also get food and lodging. Not to mention that from a security point of view, they don't tend to go home. After we got him up and were interviewing him in his office, I noticed that he only had one sock on. I thought to myself "at least he could have got dressed properly..." Then during our subsequent conversation I mentioned how brave he and his men are, given all the attacks. At that point his lifted his leg (the one with a sock on it) and put it on his desk and banged his fist against it! He explained how he had lost his leg during an attack on his police station.....shame on me.

One night while I was at CNS I was busy at a meeting when one of our crew came rushing in and asked for my room key. Apparently something was inside my room and crashing around making an awful noise that could be heard outside. Turns out the culprit was a tiny kitten that must have snuck in when I went to close the door to my room. Needless to say, the kitten starting screaming for it's momma once it realized it was locked in....kids!

The last picture is some of our crew down at CNS with hockey legend Guy Lafleur. He was at CNS along with a couple of Ministers and our folks provided a briefing to the group on the training we do at the camp. These are truly outstanding people who are doing a great job...can't you just tell by the smiles on their faces!

Happy Anniversary!

To my beautiful wife:



For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.
It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul...

(Judy Garland)


Happy 28th anniversary Debra!

I know when I was in Vancouver on our anniversary last year I said it would be the last one I would be away for.....whoops!

Thanks for all the great years together and I look forward to many, many more.

All my love,
Dave

New York Trip

Good evening all!

Alas...I must report that my trip home has come and gone in a blink of an eye. I simply can't believe how fast the time went by and more importantly, how much our family crammed into a couple of weeks.

As you can no doubt tell from the pictures I have included, we took a trip down to New York City while I was home. Debra and I have been to NYC several times, however the girls have not and we decided to take advantage of my time home to do a "family trip". Given there is a wedding in the near future (not to mention grandchildren at some point) we thought it would be fun for the four of us to do a road trip. It has been quite some time since the four of us travelled together and we had a blast.

We drove down to Syracuse NY where we spent one night and then jumped onto a train the next morning to NYC where we spent three nights at the Roosevelt Hotel right in Manhattan. The hotel was within walking distance to all the major tourist attractions and we were able to take in as many as possible. We took the girls to see sights such as Central Park, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Centre, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Chinatown, and of course take in a Broadway Show (Chicago).

After New York we headed back to Ottawa and spent the next two days wedding dress shopping. I can't even begin to put into words what I felt when I saw Jennifer standing before me in a wedding dress...needless to say, it brought a tear to my eye. Unfortunately Jennifer's time was short and she had to fly back to Calgary to return to work, however a dress has been selected and an order been placed.

The remainder of my time in Ottawa was spent working on the house and enjoying Debra's superb home cooked meals....I should mention that during my time in Afghanistan I have lost some weight. I didn't realize how much until Debra hugged me at the airport and then had me weigh myself. Turns out that I had lost 16 pounds.....which as most of you know is not something I can afford to loose at the best of times. I did manage to put 9 pounds back on during the short time due completely to my wonderful wife.

Before I sign off for the evening, I must share that my return to Afghanistan was a much different arrival than my initial one. Being familiar with the country, environment, the job and of course the people, makes all the difference in the world. It felt "good" to return to Kabul and get back to work. That being said, I cannot overstate the immediate and complete sadness I felt when I said goodbye to Debra, Jennifer and Sarah.

I know this is very difficult for them and I have been truly blessed with such a loving and supportive family....