Questions from Home

Greetings again from Afghanistan! We returned from R&R on March 16th and have settled back into life here in Afghanistan. While on our R&R we had the chance to tour much of the greater Northwest including visiting friends and family from Walla Walla to Reno to Portland and points in between. In the future we’ll post some updates from the trip. For now though, we’ll try to answer some of the questions we received while on R&R.

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
We live and work at Qalaa House, the headquarters for the US Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District - North in Kabul, Afghanistan. Imagine living on a 4 acre minimum security compound surrounded by 10ft tall walls and guard towers. Yep, that about sums it up . . . . But it is often referred to as Camp Cupcake due to some of the luxuries we have. From our compound, depending on how overcast the day is, we can see snow covered mountains in the background.

A couple hundred USACE employees are at Qalaa House so conditions are tight. We luckily got to pick our roommate (each other!) and thus share a room in one of the residence halls.


Our residence hall on the left. We are on the third floor…Notice the “elevator” we get to walk up and down every day!

Our room is approximately 8ft wide by 15ft long with a chigo for heating and air conditioning. We have a desk with a phone, computer with internet access, two single beds, two wardrobes, two nightstands and a mini fridge….Did we mention that space is tight?


View of our room from the doorway. Dani’s bed and wardrobe in the foreground, Billy’s bed is in the back of the room.

WHERE DO YOU WORK?
Dani works on the second floor of Qalaa House, the primary headquarters building for the compound.


View of Qalaa House from third floor balcony where we live. Dani has a 60 second walk from her room to work.


Dani at her desk on the phone, which if she isn’t out traveling the country is where you will usually find her.

Billy works in on the third floor of the engineering building at Qalaa, called Loma Linda. While the engineering building is on the other side of the compound from the residence, Billy only has a three minute or less walk to work.

This is Loma Linda. Billy works on the third floor...more stairs!

Billy at his desk, where you will always find him since he never makes it out into the field.

WE WANT A PICTURE OF YOU BOTH IN UNIFORM
Several people requested a picture of us in uniform.

Dani is in the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) with digital camo pattern. When she travels outside the compound she wears this uniform because it is fire retardant. Billy is in the typical Desert Camoflauge Uniform (DCU) which all the USACE employees are issued and wear while at work.