Tales from Afghanistan, Chapter 8: The more things change...

Nate's blog: Nov 17

Well we’ve officially been here for over 2 months! I’m not looking forward to the rest right now; it’s the last couple weeks have gone by so slooooow. Maybe everyone else is feeling the same, or maybe it’s just the winter blues, but it seems like everyone is a little more stressed out lately. I've already been in one fight, and we aren't even halfway done yet! Being away from my family and loved ones has been really tough lately, it’s not been fun, so I can only imagine how it is for some of the other guys. The “Dear John letters” have started coming through, cheating wives, Marines getting divorces, and guys stressing out because their child was born right before they left and they are missing out on their life. It sounds bad, but this is the norm for deployments. This is my 5^th deployment I think now; I would have thought I’d be used to this already! I guess not. 5 deployments in different places; the names and faces change, but the stories stay the same.

In lighter news, I got to hang out with some Afghani kids! Whenever we are around, they run to us hoping for candy or presents. One moment I’m walking along a dusty dirt road, and then all of a sudden I’m surrounded by children! I didn’t have any candy for them, but I had some chex mix my mother-in-law sent me, which they snatched up immediately (thanks Jennifer!). I got a couple pictures with them, I’ll see if I can attach them to this blog. By the way, for you parents out there, be glad your kids don’t say the things that come out of these kids mouths! Obviously they don’t know English, so their only source of learning it is from us Marines. Role models we obviously are not! One of them tried to buy my ballistic sunglasses off of me, and had some choice words for me when I refused haha.

It’s taking longer to get these updates out than I wanted, sorry! It seems like we are in “River City” just about every other day, so everything takes longer to do. At least the gym is always open. Aside from mail and phone time with loved ones, the gym is the next favorite thing for Marines here. Haha just like every deployment. I know I’ve gotten heavy into my deployment workout routine; with the pills and the powders and the protein. That’s been a positive change for me, because it doesn’t take long out here to see results! Pretty much 24-7 there are Marines in there pumping iron and getting big. Hmm maybe that’s part of why we are all stressed too.. Roid rage? No, no one takes steroids, but the warning labels on some of these testosterone boosters and creatine mixes are pretty crazy!

That’s all for now, I have to get out of here to do some laundry. The machines have been broken for the last week, and they are opening up soon. Some of you ladies might like the idea of a sweaty Marine smelling like dirt, steel and gunpowder, but we don’t want to smell that stuff on each other haha. Gotta get up there before the line starts!