Entry Control Point

So.. I haven't written in a long time... I should have looked at my last post to check. Oh well.. I will go back as far as Valentines Day... I ran the Stupid Cupid 5K and got first place for the females running a 22:25, second place came in at 22:28, so she was right behind me! On February 28th the Mayor Cell closed. So.. I have a new job!! I currently work at the ECP, Entry Control Point. This is where allll the local nationals who work on post come through. I tell you what... It's creepy. They stare.. and stare and stare. Hardly any of them speak english.. And I don't speak good Dari at all.. I can say, Hi, good morning, how are you, go away, come here, yes, no, go sit down... good night, good bye, and what did he say... Nothing much. Let me go backwards a bit... So.. what I do, is take what are called Taskeras. This is like they're identification  And I input the number into a tracking system. It tracks how many times they have been on post. Daily Labors are not allowed on post more then 4 times. Its supposed to be three, but if they have been on post 3 times, I can let them on. So if they show up with 4 times, I have to turn them away. This is incredibly annoying because I have to tell them no, and explain why. EVEN THOUGH they know why. Sometimes they act SO incredibly dumb, like oh i didn't know. Yes, yes you knew. And no, he can't come on just for today. No exceptions. I know they just want to earn money, but its not my fault there economy SUCKS. Some of them I feel so incredibly bad for. One is 20 years old. He lives with his mom, dad, brother, his brothers wife, their three daughters and his two sisters. He is the only one that has a job and is bringing in income to the family. And he sleeps on the floor. He doesn't even have a bed. THEN there are times when I dont know how to feel about them... This girl Bethany, is a 3rd grade teacher at a school and her students have been sending me cards for holidays. For St. Patricks Day they made cards and she sent them, girl scout cookies and granola bars. The Afghans we hired to do security, took all the granola bars, and 4 boxes of cookies. Two of them go fired because EVERYTHING, and I mean everything (well everything but the bathroom), has a camera. So we caught them going behind my desk and taking them. Just the other day we caught a guy stealing..... wait for it..... 90, yup thats right, 90 cases of water. I dont even want to tell you how much the government pays per bottle for water. Anyway... The only bad part are the locals stink. They come into my tent and when there are a lot... wow... I have to open the tent windows, it's awful. I really like the unit that I am attached too. They're guys from the 3rd Infantry Division. They're good guys, and they treat me like I matter and like they actually need me. Which is the exact opposite of how the 1034th have treated me since I have been here.
Anyway, St. Patricks Day... we had a race, I got 3rd. I was almost a minute slower then Valentines Day... I blame it on the wind, and the fact that there were a ton of people and it was HOT! Oh well.. I'm not sure what race will be next... but I haven't ran since Sunday. I've been lifting with the guys and I'm too tired to wake up and run. But after this week, I will get back at it. It's generally in the 70's here. So it's fairly nice. Today I have about 112 days left. I know I shouldn't be counting, but I can't wait to get out of this crap hole.  I honestly don't know why we are even in this country. We aren't gaining anything from being here.... except more debt. Oh well.. they will just take more benefits away from us instead of doing something smart like cutting congresses salary. I mean what do they do that's so important!? They can't even make decisions!!! They work less then teachers and make practically 10x's as much!!! DUMB.

Oh well.. That's all from the Stan!.