Guns, Ammo, and cleaning

Just when I thought that I was done with all the cleaning, They make you "strip" your weapon apart and clean it. In the first picture its me holding my two Babies. My C7 rifle and my 9mm pistol. We have to clean them often with all the dust that flies around this place. Its funny but when i go home I will always think that I am fogetting something when i leave the house. WE have to carry our weapon EVERYWHERE. So Pete bare with me when i get home. In the second picture that is all the ammunition that I carry for my C7, my ammo for my other weapon is not shown. I the last picture that is my weapon all broken down into pieces to clean it. It is worse than doing dishes, you have to get into every nook and cranny and clean. It took me about an hour just to clean one of them.

On the other end, things have been busy for me. With the new Danish team that has come in we have to train them a bit and it gets tiring but hey it keeps me on my toes.

There isn't much to do around here except drink the favorite drink of Tim's and watch some TV. Everyone around here is watching their favorite shows on their laptops. We just finished watching season 2 of Grey's and can't wait until I get season 3.

BY THE WAY.....Today i wish I had my camera handy. GINGER CAME BACK.

We were outside after lunch drinking a coffee and I heard a MEOW!!!! I called her over and she jumped up in my lap and curled up. I sat with her for about 15 minutes and she PURRED., That made my day. I hope that I see her tommorrow

Surgery, Beer, and Rocket Attacks

Another Saturday come and gone. Today we had a scheduled power outage for 24 hours. Our power was turned off at 0700 Saturday morning, and it was suppose to e off until 0700 sunday morning but we did get it back last night

. Anyway I went into work yesterday because the hospital was powered by generators so you could acutally do something. It was BBQ and Beer day, It was the Dutch's last day. Anyway at 300 just when the "BAR" was opening a facial case cme through the door. So I scrubbed in and we put some plates in his face. It was almost 600 when we finished, I missed the BBQ and the presentations but when duty calls there isn't much that you could do. The RSM came to find me and told me that he saved my 2 beer for me. PERFECT!!! It was about 800 by the time I had a chance to drink them. There were still some people at the BBQ so it was good. We cat around and drank our beers, Man did they ever taste good. Very smooth, to bad there were only 2 LOL.

So anyway we are sitting around shooting the shit and then we hear this whistle..............we all looked at one another and shortly after was a BIG BANG. We were all lifted slightly off the couch. Good thing i just took my last sip of my beer................off we ran to the bunkers. That is the 3rd rocket since I have been here and it was the scariest one. It was about 200 meters from where we were. That rocket hit home. At thins point if you felt any little bit of the beer, that rocket attack staightened you up pretty fast. So lets just say the rocket ended the night. After the all clear alarm we all grabbed our weapons and headed "home" for another exciting Saturday night in Kandahar.

Its been 1 week since the Chinook incident................Thank god the pagers didin't go off this morning.........knock on wood..

Until tomorrow.

CSR

These pictures are mostly for those part of the ROTO 2 team becuase you all know that the Chief was going to change things. We moved the shelves that were on the back wall and made them the DIVIDERS between the "clean" and "dirty" side. We also received our new washer and man its awesome. My jog is much easier now. I just shove the instruments in and press a button. Now that is what i am talking about. I am used to the set up and I kind of really like it. I am acustomed to it now. in the 3rd picture that is Birgit the Dutch CSR tech. She is funny. How are you today Birgit..............GGGGGGGGOOOOOOOODDDDDD YYYYYYYOOOOUUUUUU. Anyway there is much else to say, we have been having alot of follow up cases but that is expected after the traumas that we have had, But its so good becuase the time has gone by soooooooo fast. I don't remember this week at all.

In this last picture is Paul. He is a BMET tech, air force and we are alway bugging him that he never really works so here a picture for proof. He even wanted one with his own camera to show everyone at home. Pretty good guy.

anyway I hope that tommorrow i have something more exciting to talk about but.................you all know that I am not shopping at aisle 5 at WAlmart checkin out the prices...I am in Kandahar and well there isn't thatmuch excitment going on here.

The Fallen Americans

As you probably all heard. An American Shanook went down the other day, killing 8 men. It all started off Sunday morning. I was going to sleep in because it was my day off, i was going to call home and Anita for Ceilidh's birthday......................But at 550 in the morning there were knocks on the door, It was the RSM saying that 13 casualties were coming in. The whole hospital was full of staff within 20 minutes. Some were in the PJ's and everything, there were no time for showers. We all then heard the situation. On top of that there were the Canadians injured in the LAV accident. We all knew that we were in for a long day. Soon casualties came in and then they kept coming. it was such a crazy day and the edreniline was pumping, there was blood everywhere and we had to get help from the Role 1 hospital and coalition forces. The main goal was to prioritize the cases. We had one that needed a craniotomy, he needed to have pressure relieved off his brain, we didn't think that he would make it but I was happy today when they told us that he was completly stable and things are looking good for him. We all worked around the clock and in total we saw 16 people in the main hospital6 which were serious surgeical patients and the rest all went to MIR. It was a sad day for the AMericans and what made it worse is that when we would come out of the OR all their buddies shed there concern and pain. In the end they all showed their gratitude and couldn't stop thanking us. I don't have any pictures that i could really post on this blog today becuase they are all way to bloody and gross for you all, and also out of respect for the AMericans. again it was a sad day but good too becuase we saved lives yesterday. The flags are at half mast................and every minute I think of the man who had the craniotomy and i hope that he pulls through..............that woudl make it very rewarding for me.

The New Team

Here we are. This is the new team. First off to the far left is the the Chief, Richard Either. What a great guy. He deals with standards back home and man he know his stuff. He has a great way about him and i will enjoy working with him for sure.Behind him is Tiny Tim. Tim Lund as you can see he is short.............6'7' to be exact, I stand on a chair and he is still taller that me Beside him is Gilles Levesque from Halifax, once I found out that he was going to be on my tour I was super happy, he is form Halifax too and well he is funny and he gets my sense of humor, his cousin works with Pete. On the far right is Serge Plante. He is a very cool guy too. Most of them are french as you can tell, Either, Levesque and Plante. its wierd to have all male nurses but I like it. Next to me is Sherry Ford from Edmonton. I love her to pieces, she is also my roomate. I think that i will have a good tour with her around, All of these people are great and I am looking forward to a good time. Today we had an amputation and it was cool. It was the left arm. but I have to tell you I will never ever forget the smell of burnt flesh.

Oh yeah Mom they loved the Valentine's caps. Some of the boys on the ward teased the guys for wearing girlie hats......It was a good laugh. I hope that we can get some for Saint Paddy's Day and Easter HINT HINT

My First Haircut Experience.

This one is for you Kerri!!!

So I finally decided to get my haircut. I booked the appt last week thinking that after a week I would be totally OK with getting it cut. I woke up this morning knowing it was dooms day. I was nervous because well no one has cut my hair in a long time. So Me and a friend Fitz went on our way. She was going to get a brow wax. We stepping in the salon and i wanted to turn around still not convinced that I was actually going to do my hair. I was waiting to see who called on me and well I then hear my name.......no wait she pointed to the writing because she didn't speak good english..... It was all over. I was at the point of no return. I sat in the chair and explained TRIM ONLY TRIM ONLY. She nodded as if she understood. So the cut began. She didn't use scissors only razors. She showed me the amount that she was going to cut and that was fine.CONTINUE.........after a few minutes a see a HUGE piece of hair fall in front of me. My eyes bugged out of my head and Fitz was laughing. I was sweating from nervousness. finally the cut was over. I asked her to flip my hair..............well never ask a Russian to flip you hair beucase well you will end up looking like a girl out of the 80's mags.

She started the flip.....................Kerri you would understand becuaseI do my own hair with you. First she put my part the WRONG WAY and I fixed it She put it back the other way. She started the flip and it was aweful. I just wanted to take the blowdryer from her hands. At this point i am dehydrated from the amount of sweating. It took everything in me to hold back from taking the dryer out of her hands.......At this point Fitz is really laughing.

The second picture is after i spent 15 minutes taming it down...............its all over time to shower and do my hair myself maybe even a nap becuase i spent so much energy....what a workout. I will have to really think about doing it again..................actually all in all its not bad

I need you advice Kerri!!!!!! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH TODAY

Karaoke

HI everyone, its been a couple of days. The internet has been bad. Today it seems good so i am getting down to business. Saturday night was Karaoke. I promised myself that I wouldn't sing but the girls made me. Jesse, Jordana, and Misty. Jordana and

Misty are Dental Techs and Jesse is a Med tech. We got up and sang Sold by John Micheal Montgomery and well this Saturday night we are going to have to sing The Gambler. Sunday was somwhat uneventful until late the evening when the Rocket hit. It was litteratly the first night we didn't take our routine of supper and Tim's on the boardwalk. We decided to eat in and watch some Grey's Anatomy. We are sitting there and then we heard a LOUD BANG and our barrcks shook. Sure enough the alarm went off. I guess the rocket hit just after the intersection by Tim Hortons.............PLEASE DON"T HIT MY COFFEE!!!!! TIm's was safe and there were no injuries so that was good. We were all sitting around waiting to see if our pagers were going to go off.

Yesterday was my day off but I had to go in becuase the New OMFS surgeon is in Dr. Revington. he is really nice. We went through a few instruments and things that he likes. While I was there a couple of TRaumas came in and i got suck there until 630. a little boy came in and that was sad. Landmine strike,,,, but he is doing well and he is going back in the OR tomorrow. anyway today we were suppose to have a good facial case but we ended up not being able to do it becuase he was too infected and his blood supply to the upper jaw wasn't good. If we were to move his jaw back to where it was suppose to be he wouldn't be able to get the blood supply there. So we took out a couple of teeth hoping that he would be able to eat more with some of the infection gone. Other than that I should be caught up in a few short words. Tommorrow i am going to intriduce my new team and the Hockey rink is coming but with all the rain there hasn't been any games lately.

LOVE YA ALL. Shelli D and Lindsay..still no Salt N Pepa in the house and the cowbell has benn put in a drawer (sad day)

The Rain and Poop Ponds

It had been raining for 3 days now. It sucks....... The other morning I woke up and my feet were wet and I thought that my boots were floating. We had a leak in our room and well the rain would not let up. In the pictures you will notice the "new Pond" that had formed in betwee

n our barracks. its hard to find a place to walk. the water is probably up past my ankles. With all this rain I am scared that Brown Trout POnd has overflowed. Brown Trout Pond is where they put all of our waste. In the evenings if the wind is blowing a certain way it stinks really bad. God forbid you breath through you mouth because then you almost get a taste. This Morning the smell is really bad. Its not save to go outside with out your gas mask. The Market is suppose to be today but I don't think that they will be bringing their carpets today. I bought one of of the interpretor and iI will send the picture on the blog. It is all hand made BEAUTIFUL!! anyway I think that i am going to put on my bathing suit and swim to breakfast becuase that seems to be the only wasy to get somewhere.

My New Furry Friend

You all knew that I would find a furry friend and send you all a picture. So there I was............sitting in the sun waiting for the Chopper to land and I hear this sound in the distance..........At first I said MADDIE???? MAVERICK???? or even MURPHY I thought that I was dreaming until Ginger came around the corner. I ran for my camera still hoping that he would hang around for a photo shoot. And well he did. I followed him around for a bit as he kept talking to me. He ended up hanging outside the Vet Clinic, so me being curious went in the clinic and introduced myself. The Vet, an American Capt C gave me a little tour He does mostly laceration surgeries on K-9s. He said that they feed Ginger and she is mice control. He told me that if I wanted I could come over and assis next time they have something. I told him to come get me whenever. He was even nice enough to ask that if I was interested he would give me a course on assisting putting animals to sleep. I said that I would becuase the animals here..........well some of them are pretty sixk so if it helps them i am good with that.. I am here helping people better or worse, I might as well help the animals while I am here too. I will probably feed ginger too. LOL I am a sucker for those damn animals soon as I get in on a K-9

Busy Day

Its now 120am and I just got home from work, I started at 730am. We had several cases today, they all came in by medevec and they were coming in at all different times. ROTO 2 I just want you to know that it was funny becuase everyone was acting like there were HUGE traumas i guess they will learn the ropes soon. anyway in the first picture its me and Dr. Bryant

waiting on the tarmack for the first Hawk to land. the second one is of me holding up the last patients arm. He came in full of shrapnal in his face arms and legs. the other picture is 3 surgeons all working at different spots.You have the OMFS at the head. The general surgeon on the arm, the Dutch surgeon and the Ortho surgeon at the legs, and the last picture is just some of the shrapnal from his arm. I have to say I love the OR and I wasn't one bit tired all day........................that also could have been from the MOAC its the Green bean special it is the MOTHER OF ALL COFFEES and it has 4 yup count them 4 shots of expresso. IT WAS REALLY GOOD. All together today we had 6 surgeries. none of them were life threatening and they were all pretty fast cases, i guess we were there so long becuase they all came in at different times. There was a lot of sit around and wait for the chopper to show up. Anyway tommorrow i have a surprise you have all been waiting for CRITTERS, i found a fury friend that i will show you tomorrow, anyway i am off to bed so i can get up early to work on the back of my tan. Its pretty funny becuase you could swear that someone painted me brown on the front and on my back white. LOL its funny

ANYWAY PEACE OUT

The Beauty of the Sun

Today was a really relaxing day. I went into work this morning on my day off. Mario if you are reading this....................yes indeed they made me the rep for the Bioharzadous Waste. So today I gathered a whole bunch of people to give them the low down on what to do. It was awesome making the Sargents get in those funny looking gowns and booties and watching them lift bags of bloody gauze. It was very satisfying o say no Sarg not like that you need to do this LOL. Anyway i finished up around 1030. I came home and the weather was beautiful. I went to the gym and did some running and weights. I have started Boxing twice a week so Pete if you ever get out of line i will have to show you my combo..... Its a wicked workout, i am still sore from Saturday. Anyway back to my day. I went for lunch with a buddy and then we grabbed a Java and sat outside with the laptop jamming some blues tunes. We bought some CD's from Green Bean coffee house, they are great CD's We were in our lounge chairs catching the rays and relaxing. I hope that you can all see my tan...................It's all in a days work you know. Tomorrow is another day at work and I have a Oral Case tomorrow, i am glad because its been a while and The British OMFS is leaving on Saturday and a new one is coming in. Anyway ladies eat your heart out with the tan becuase its only going to get better, So i will let you all go to bundle up and shovel that white stuff called snow................what does it look like again?????? Until tomorow!!!!!

The beauty of Children

Today was a good day. We totally cleaned the OR from top to bottom and the Chief had a move the CSR shelving around, to seperate the CLEAN side from the DIRTY side. ROTO 2 i will send you pictures and man it looks totally diferent.

I don't have any pictures of my own today but I know that you will like those ones. Today was awesome becuase we received letters from Grade 2 Students. We were giving the letters to read and then we wrote them back on a postcard. These kids are so cute. One of them told me how much he loves the Edmonton Oilers and we all know that I like the way he thinks. Here is a quote from one of them

" I think that Soldiers are important because they protect the people from dieing and they also protect the world from the bad guys"

another one

"At our Rememberance DAy parade Ceremony I read my wishes for the world. This is my wish. If all the children of the world would have a family and then the children will be alot happier and have alot more fun. If all the children of the world had clean water and food they would not stav to deth and they would not die of thirst"

They are very touching and being over here and getting those letters makes you feel special. These kids are thinking of us and that gives a good feeling. I saved the letters and I have them on my wall. They are memories of here.

Mom can you save all the articles from my time here for my scrapbook. I want this expeience to be a momorable one.

Finally My tip of the day is the future are the kids and they are very important. They are pure and we need to give them more credit, they speak from the heart.

The Sadest Day so Far

Today is a sad day.......Roto 2 is leaving. Today at work i was with my new team. The day was really good and they are looking at me for some pionters which is good. But there was no running man to Salt N Pepa. I even played the cowbell to Don't Fear the Reaper and no one knew what I was doing. They looked at me funny. in the group picture is Mario. I have only known him for like 2 weeks. He was alway when I got here. He is such a nice man. He welcomed me just like everyone else and he know how to rap and get down too. I will remember his smile and laugh. Joe Joe well what can I say AAHHH WWHHHAAATTT. i guess its from lil john and he does a good job. I am going to miss he cowbell for sure. Dany, one of the nicest friench men that i have ever met. BESIDES MY HUSBAND. He reminds me of Pete with the accent and the little sayings. "You flash them i will moon them" . Shelli D from Cole Harbour. Now that was a taste from home. I had soooo much fun with you. You definalty keep Cole Harbour alive and thanks for the list of Old school dances. Lindsay, you rock, thank you for being so open and kind. I loved that you have two little kiddies at home. It made me fel better when you talked about them and it made me realize that someone else feels the same as me.

I hope that I can keep in touch with all of them. Now its time to start with a new team and make the same sort of bonds but as Lindsay says, I don't think the Chief will be doing the Running man in CSR but I will damn well try for 6 months. Until later


ROTO 2 I will miss you all so much thanks for the good times and the cowbell!!!!!!!
COOL IN THE HOUSE