A special phone call today.

[mac78]

Today a lady called me that I became friends with approx 5 years ago when I started sending her packages when she was deployed to Iraq. She is from Alabama. I met her twice in Zanesville, OH, when she was there to see her brother. Zanesville is about 4 1/2 hours from me. The kids and I drove down to meet her.

We had been out of touch for about 2 years, and she called me today to tell me she had been deployed to Russia for 6 months. She called me from Russia. She is in her early 40's and has an 11 yr old daughter. (She is divorced and daughter is living with dad for now). She told me she had tried to call before, but no one answered, I won't answer my phone if I don't recognize the number or name, and she didn't leave a message. She didn't have my current email address.

So, I am now back in touch with her, and am waiting on her to email me a list of things she would like to have to send her a care package. It made my day to hear from her and get back in touch with one another.

[shabbychick]

That's wonderful, Marie. I'm sure it means the world to her to have a care package from home. That's a great thing that you're doing.

[Rory Bremner]

10/10 Mac, good stuff

[RoseMary]

Wonderful news, Mac! So glad she is back in touch. (Honestly, I wasn't aware that we are sending people to Russia:confused:.)

I have a neighbor that may be sent off to Afghanistan next spring. She is a new grandma and is crossing her fingers she doesn't have to go.

[mac78]

Rosemary, I was not aware we were sending people to Russia either. She is in the Reserves. We googled where she is. It is called Kyrgyzstan, it is not that far from Afganistan according to Google Earth. I have never heard of it. She said she never heard of it till told that was where she was going.

I just read an anrticle in the paper that we would be out of Afganistan by 2012. I know of 2 people that were recently sent there. So scary.

[shabbychick]

Here's an article from the NY Times about Kyrgyzstan. It mentions the military base.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/kyrgyzstan/index.html

[RoseMary]

Thanks for the info, mac and shabby:). It will be wonderful when all of them can come home.

[mac78]

Thanks for the link Shabby. I will go back and read some more on it later. I am wondering now if she meant "by" Russia, not part of Russia, as it appears to be below Russia. Sounds like the country is in dire shape.

[Gigi]

Very nice Marie.

[vintage girl]

How wonderful Marie:) When you speak with her again, please thank her from me for her service to our country.

[mac78]

I will Beverly. I may share her email with you all later. It just tells about where she is. Interesting.

[mac78]

Friends,
I thought I would share the email I got from my friend stationed near Russia. Thought some of you might enjoy reading it. I will leave it up for a short time then delete it out. :)
__________________________________________________ ________
Hi Marie! I am glad we spoke the other day too. I will definately get
on Skype soon and look you up on Facebook. I look forward to getting
recent pictures of your family.

I did think of a couple of thinks I do want. I miss sunflower kernels.
They sell the sunflower seeds here of all different flavors but they
don't have the just the kernels. I also would like those Easy
Crossword Puzzle books that you can get in the $ General. Do you know
the type I mean?

I will tell you a little about where I am deployed. I am in Kyrgyzstan
at Manas Transit Center. It’s not too bad here, just very cold at
night already. (It has snowed five times already, since Oct. 27.) My
first three nights I worked out in the passenger terminal
yard, which consists of building pallets of passenger baggage. I was
really cold and miserable, especially my first night. (While I was in
Montgomery, I decided to lighten my load for travelling and I mailed a
lot of my stuff and all of my cold weather clothes, except for my
gortex jacket which is like a heavier raincoat. The only reason I
didn’t mail it was because someone told me that I better at least keep
a jacket.) I did start learning the job in the baggage yard, though,
and actually started enjoying it some. If the weather was warmer, I
probably wouldn’t mind doing that job! But after three days, I did get
the job that I wanted. I work inside at the passenger terminal. And the
first two days inside, it was freezing in the building. And I thought
I would be warmer inside, right? I had to figure out how the heater
worked myself and from then on I made sure to keep it toasty warm
inside. After
a twelve hour shift, the pax yard is a physically exhausting job and
the pax terminal is a mentally exhausting job! But at
least it is warmer at the latter!!! And I was really learning my job in
the terminal and I loved it! Unfortunately, some bosses got reassigned
and now I have a completely mindnumbing job! I am the primary briefer
for troops leaving during lockdown...I am the gatekeeper or really, a
glorified babysitter...and I brief incoming troops in another location.
I make lots of coffee, but mostly I sit here all night and do nothing,
except look at my email. And I am not really learning anything to help
me in this career later. But, at least I did get the shift that I
wanted, though…nights…midnight to noon, so at least when I get off work
I have
daylight hours. Working twelve hours, though, doesn’t leave a whole
lot of time for anything else. Since I didn’t have my first day off
for two weeks, I was really exhausted! (We weren’t supposed to get a
day off for three weeks!) I’m not used to working this many hours and
no day off!!

My first day here, I did not have to be at work until midnight, so of
course, I explored the base. I found everything…chow hall, base
exchange, kebab shop (which I tried the food a few times before I found
anything I liked (this is normally my favorite type of
food)…but they use some weird spice I don’t like.), the little town of
all the shops called Aafes Town (on the base), including Pizza Hut (not
bad), Burger King (haven’t tried), and the Green Bean coffee shop,
which of course I’ve been too multiple
times. The big “hang out” is Pete’s Place. It is more or less a sports
bar on base. They have pool tables and darts, sports or movies playing
constantly on the big screen and I guess at night, they have music and
karaoke and things. They also sell beer, wine and mixed drinks (in a
can) and we are actually allowed to drink two a day, and they sell my
favorite beer, Corona! But…they also sell a Russian Light beer and the
bottle is about twice the size of a Corona!!! I finally went to Pete’s
Place after about a week while my laundry was in the washer. I took
some Doritos and salsa and my book, sat in a big chair with my feet up
on an ottoman, and drank a beer and read my book. Now I enjoy hanging
there every now and then after work with the people I work with, which
incidentally are all between the ages of 22 and 25. You know what that
means? I could be all their mothers!!! LOL! But we have a good time.
Saturday's there is a Bazaar at Pete’s Place and one of my co-workers
bought a hookah, so one day we had a hookah party. It was a lot of fun!!

I will tell you a little about what we have. Not a bad place to be
deployed as far as deployments go…things could be much worse! And I
have been in much worse! While we do have out houses, I have not had to
use one. We have more than sufficient number of hardened restroom
facilities. My room, which I share with a roommate, is about 100 square
feet. To pass each other in the room, one of us has to climb on the
bed, but we usually don’t have to see each other or be in the room at
the same time. She works the exact opposite shift as me, so it works
out really well. Except for our days off, it is really like having our
own room. Unfortunately, she never even tried to like me and has made
it really uncomfortable for me in my own room! The restroom is right
next to my room, which consists of toilets and sinks. The toilets only
flush if you really give it a HARD flush! It was a pain at first, but
now that I am used to it, I can usually get it to flush the first time.
The showers are directly across the hall. There are six showers but two
we never use because water drips down from the showers on the second
floor. The showers are very small…if you drop something, you can not
bend over and pick it up without hitting your head and your hiney on
the walls! LOL! With
everyone’s work schedule, it is very rare that I am in the shower room
at the same time as anyone else, which is really nice. Right next door
to the showers is a laundry room with two washers and two dryers. So
far I have only had to wait one time. Then we have a dayroom with a
refrigerator, TV, computer, books, DSN phone, and various items people
have left behind. Since I work in the pax terminal and we have so many
passengers coming through, we have six restrooms there, one which is
reserved for DVs and pax terminal personnel (which would be me). Also,
my barricks is right across thestreet from work…it takes less than two
minutes to walk there. The two base gyms are right out the back door to
my barricks, which means I have no excuse not to work out, right? (Even
when the weather gets colder.) We also have an area called the trails
to walk or run, which is about five or so miles long.

Well, I spent alot of time when I first got here researching shopping
and eating and various places I could go in Kyrgyzstan, so I could plan
some off base trips. But there are restrictions. I can only go with a
minimum of four people and one has to be an E-6 (Technical Sgt…5
strips) or higher. Also, a lot of places are off limits. We can also
schedule trips through ITT or let’s just call it the tour center. My
first trip was scheduled for the first Thursday I was off and I was
going to go horseback riding followed by lunch at a local’s house, but
when I checked my email the day before, all trips were cancelled from
Oct. 27-Nov. 1. Pooh! I guess due to elections that were coming up
here. So I called and there was a hiking trip rated “difficult” on
Wednesday
(the day before and the 26th), so I scheduled myself for it. EEEK!!! I
was determined that I would go somewhere that week!!! Well, that trip
was cancelled for lack of participation! Darn! Next I sceduled my own
trip for shopping at the mall and eating at a sit down restaurant at a
second, more expensive mall. This was going to be the following week,
which was last Wednesday. I even had my own E-6 (before I had to change
my day off due to issues with my roommate)!! The night before I
received a call that all trips downtown were cancelled due to the
possibilities of an uprising after the elections. Can I win here? They
did allow us to go to a local restaurant which is right outside the
base called Uncle Tom's. So for the fourth time in a month, I tried
again and finally mad it off base. We planned a trip for shopping and
eating, but now I have been off base numerous times.