Rain (and Mud) in Afghanistan

So the last two days it has been raining, not hard, but raining pretty much nonstop. I'm sure most of you have heard about the dust around here. You simply can't avoid it. It is everywhere and gets into everything. Well that dust has now turned into mud. Now everything is quite muddy. It makes walking to the DFAC quite an obstacle course. I wouldn't mind so much getting my boots muddy, but most of the time I'm in my gym shoes and PT uniform and I like to avoid wet socks. The back of my PT pants looks like I've been jumping in a mud puddle which, I guess, is not too far from the truth.

Today, however, is quite a beautiful day as beautiful days in Afghanistan go and I have the afternoon off. The best thing about the rain is that it covered the mountains in snow again. We are surrounded, I would guess, three-quarters by mountains. Snow-capped they really are quite beautiful. The is only tainted by the foreground of connexes and MRAP's and tents and wires. I do promise to post pictures soon, now that I've taken some.

As far as the work, not much new. I was involved in the resuscitation of a few new traumas the other day - a bunch of soldiers in an MRAP (mine resistant, ambush protected vehicles) blown up by an IED. The MRAP's do a pretty good job of keeping the guys from getting blown up, but they get rattled around inside the darn things like rag dolls and often come out with some serious spine fractures. I heard someone or some group in Washington is re-evaluating the design. I don't know. These recent traumas came out of it pretty well from what I understand.

That's about it for now. I'm going to sit back and read my Nook at the coffee shop. Not much of a coffee shop really, but I got a free latte today because the guy working the register was a patient I "treated" for the common cold. There are some perks to this job (pun intended).