Hello Everyone,
Well, today is my Birthday, and I got my first driving experience. It is like driving in Mexico City, except you have to constantly watch out for danger. Incidents are not as frequent here as they are in Iraq, but they do happen.
In any case, I am finally settled at Camp Julien. It is a Canadian base, so we get good food and we are not treated like babies. Also, it is situated about a mile from the ANA base where I work. I have finally begun to advise my Kandak, and it is really fun. So far, we just collected up all the soldiers, NCOs, and officers, got them situated into companies and platoons, and sent them on leave. While they are away, we'll collect weapons and equipment for them.
They are all quite young but motivated and pleasant to be around. They seem to really appreciate what we are doing for them. There is a lot of money going into this, several countries are involved in donating the uniforms, equipment, and the US is paying their salaries. Also, many countries are involved in building their barracks and setting up their base.
In any case, here are some pictures

This is a few guys from my airborne unit and I holding the Tulane Flag. No one told me that my Beret looked screwed up.

Here is the company that I am advising. They all squat while the First Sergeant addresses them. This is a common position to see Afghan men in. I guess since they don't have chairs they just squat. After Thought: The tall one with the black jacket on is named Salim, on a mission to recover a Marine's body he was shot in the arm. The bullet caused sever damage to his bone and tissue and they almost needed to amputate it, but he recovered and returned to duty.

Here are four Afghan soldiers from my company. Tough Dudes!

Here I am having Chai with my NCOs. From right to left, the Kandak Sergeant Major, my 1st platoon Sgt, me, 2nd Plt SGT, and company 1st sergeant. By the way, this gave me big brownie points, because I was the only American to drink with them.

This is Captain Oles, Me, and Jawad our interpreter. He is a very young boy who knows Dari, Pashto, Urdu, English, and Hindi. He heard me speaking Spanish to another Sergeant, and now he wants to learn that too.

Here is my Posse of NCOs! The tallest is Salim, he is my 3rd Plt Sgt, and he is probably the smartest and most educated soldier in the company. In any case, training them is going to be quite challenging, but I think rewarding. So far, it has been very difficult. This morning our interpreter came late, and I had to try to work without him---my DARI is weak at best, but I got by. Hopefully there will come a day when I do not need the interpreter. It is very difficult, because we only have one, and Captain Oles is always with the officers, while I am with the NCOs. The poor interpreter has to run around like crazy. He is very young, 17 I think. In any case, yesterday he asked if he will come with us when we go patrolling along the border. When I told him, of course he got very nervous and I had to assure him that we will protect him. After Thought: Jawad turned out to be quite brave, and picked up on military tactics quickly. He was never afraid to go on a mission and was calm when things got hairy.
Well, that is about all. I hope you enjoy the pictures, I will send more in about a week. Jome is Friday, their Holy day, so that is when I will have time to send stuff. Yakshanbe means day 1, which is Saturday, Sunday is dushanbe (day 2), and so on....
Khoda Hafez (Good bye)
Sonny

After thought: In the time I was in Afghanistan, there were three suicide bombers and 4-5 IEDs in Kabul, which is nothing compared to downrange where they were weekly occurances. We lost the most casualties in Kunar to IEDs. For comparison, in Iraq nearly every convoy gets some kind of attack--something like 20 a day
The ANA turned out to be quite a challenge to work with--they can be lazy, careless, and individuals disappear for weeks at a time. They pestered us constantly to buy them TVs, radios, and other items. They sold the equipment we gave them in the market, where our enemies could purchase them. I learned that displaying anger only makes them worse, as in their culture it is a sign of weakness. The best way to get the ANA to do something is to be patient, have tea with them, and explain the importance of the mission and their role in it. A calm discussion almost bounds them by honor to comply with your request.