Saturday, February 24, 2007

One Month Down...

All is well on the Homefront. I am spending the weekend with my parents. I heard a rumor that my brother was also in town...but haven't seen any signs of him. We have begun the 30th week of pregnancy...only 10 (or so) more to go! Feels like cruch time. This weekend is my final birthing class, so in theory, I should know how to do it when the time comes....but the big test in fast approaching!


Here is the most recient update from Geo:


Dear Friends and Family,

The weeks have started to go by rather quickly now. Actually, next Wednesday we will have officially completed our first month in country. (The next month should come around even quicker.)

The weather has been varied, and we continue to go a couple days with snow and then a couple of really nice, sunny days. I love those days after it has been snowing because of the way the mountains look. See the view in the attached picture; it also shows the perimeter wall of our camp, which as you can see, is very secure. As I understand it, we are getting ready to go into the wet period here in March and April.

Everyone is still learning the advisor business and buidling relationships with their ANA counterparts. More and more, our folks are spending time up in the ANA camp, mentoring their counterparts. The work that they have been doing has been positively received because in many cases our predecessors were not able to advise the ANA in those functions or they were not doing it as effectively as we already are.

The major event this week was that the 1st Brigade had to provide support to the civil authorities because of a demonstration that was planned yesterday. Some of our units moved out to assembly areas in case they were needed. Fortunately, the ANA were not needed because it was a peaceful gathering. This was encouraging for many Afghans because it demonstrated free speech in action in Afghanistan -- the people acted responsibly and the security forces demonstrated restraint.

I'll work with Gayla to get our Family Network website up soon. I think that this will be a great way for us to share information.

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