Outta here

Well, training is over and we did our final formation yesterday. I also go my orders yesterday. I’m going to Spin Boldak. It’s a border city between Afghanistan and Pakistan. 1 price for 2 3^rd world countries (see what I did there?)! I’m still pretty apathetic about the whole thing. Want to get there, get done, get paid, and get home. My goals for this trip are to get completely out of debt, get some technical certifications, get a lot of reading in, and maybe get in shape if there is a gym on base. Oh, and get a wicked awesome tan (go 120 degree summers!). We’ll see how well all that goes after I’ve been there for a few months though. This week as pretty boring for the most part. Mainly just had to be up really early for some formations that lasted about an hour or 2, then had most of the day off and then had another 1 or 2 hour evening formation. Pretty simple really. Wednesday though was different. Yesterday was from 0600 to 1800 and it was all training. Most of that was first aid training. We learned how to apply a chest catheter, close up huge wounds, apply these neat little tourniquet things and all sorts of stuff. After we’d sat through 8 hours of that, I was then informed that the civilians’ “first aid kit” consisted of 1 bandage…that’s it. So none of the stuff I learned will actually be applicable unless someone who has this crap gets hurt and I happen to be around and in perfect health.  I needed an aspirin after finding this out…but that wasn’t in the first aid kit so I was kind of out of luck. This week also held a smallpox vaccine and an anthrax vaccine in store for me…which was pretty awesome I gotta say. I think the only things I’m not immune to now are AIDS and the common cold. I’m immune enough that , when I come back, I could probably work in a daycare and have perfect attendance.  So, back on topic now, I leave today, will be in Kuwait next week for more training, and then it’s off to my new home! Yippee.