Schutzenschnur

Holy Crap it’s been almost a month since my last entry!

Well, we were supposed to be heading home next week but unfortunately we were delayed 2 weeks. I should be home before 1 March for sure.

Let’s see…so much has happened since 2 January:

I participated in a Humanitarian Aid a couple of weeks ago. We first ended up at an all girls school by accident (there was a miscommunication with the project leader and the convoy commander) so of course we couldn’t just leave without giving them something so we handed out some small things such as toothbrushes and stuffed animals. The interesting thing about the girls’ school is that there are very few in Afghanistan. Most villages still do not allow girls to go to school. So, it was very cool to see. Also, I was the only female on our convoy and they were just ecstatic to see a female soldier. Finally we ended up at the correct location where we met up with a group from another camp. We handed out clothes, blankets, shoes, toy, etc…to a village in Kabul. It was so sad to see so many kids running around in the snow in just sandals with no socks and babies in thin clothing in single digit weather. It was an awesome experience! It was an up close and personal reminder of why we are here. I was heartbroken when we ran out of stuff to give.

My new class started 2 weeks ago. We had to move to another building because the camp needed more room for trainees (ANA) as they are rapidly increasing in size (yeah!). For the first 2 days we had NO HEAT. As you’ll recall in my last paragraph, we were in single digits. I could see my breath during lessons!!! BURRRRR…The problem has been resolved with 3 small space heaters but it’s still chilly in there.

A couple of days ago I and my fellow AF-Mates were invited to shoot some of the German weapons. We only got to shoot the 9mm and the MG3 but it was cool as hell! I received the Gold German Army Marksmanship Award (Schutzenschnur) on the Machine Gun. Not only that but there were a total of 4 Air Force, 5 Marines, and 3 Army and not one Marine shot Gold. The 4 Gold medals were earned by 3 Air Force and 1 Army. GO AIR FORCE!!!!