Day Thirty Five

Today was kind of a slow day. I did alot of research on this script I'm putting together for this "Day in the Life of an ANA soldier" video. There's only so much I can do when I don't know a whole lot about what their normal days are actually like.

We got to see Ryan off today. Ryan was the Army photographer that was here supporting the brigade stuff. He was a reserve recall guy, and is on his way out of Afghanistan and out of the military altogether here soon. We didn't have the same mission as Ryan, but he still felt like part of the family as we were all in the same office and he's about as good of a young guy as there gets. I'm happy that he is finally out of here, and happy for him that he gets the opportunity to begin a new chapter of his life. Grow out that beard and send photos, buddy.

About the time we saw Ryan off, Rohullah Amin and Bari showed up. I talked to Rohullah Amin about his experiences in boot camp and about the Muslim religion - so I could wrap my mind around how things work - in order to try to put this script together. It really is interesting to hear how much these guys pray every day, and the rituals involved in it. I'm not one to judge anyone by what they believe in, but it's just interesting to hear how different things are. Life is centered around religion and culture here. Certainly unlike the U.S. for the most part.

After an hour or so, Rohullah Amin and Bari left and not much else happened today. I went to the gym and ran three miles, which turned out to be quite the chore. I really struggled with it today. I'm not sure what it is from day to day, but some days it's easy to run seven or eight miles...other days (like today), it's hard to run three. At least I did it. I got in an ok chest workout and killed my abs again like yesterday. I'm not working out heavy like I normally do just yet, but I'm losing weight and getting pretty cut up. I can't complain so far.

Dinner was pretty good and I watched a movie in the office. That's pretty much it for today. Hopefully the internet will allow me to post this tonight. The connection has been real bad here lately, and will continue to get worse as our small camp prepares to double in population. God help us. Another halfway decent day overall...hopefully this keeps up for a while.