December.

Well,

a few months have gone by now, comin up on halfway thru my tour out here. Kinda crazy that I'm almost halfway. Alas, I can't wait for it to be over. There is just too much about the USA and Virginia specifically that I love. To name a few, my family, church, friends, grass, pianos, chipotle, beer, regular weather, leaves, trees, freedom. Ha. I don't mean to ramble nostalgically into oblivion. But, sometimes I do that anyway.

Life here is pretty settled now. Flying on a regular schedule, which is fun. It makes the days go by really fast, but it adds more difficulties. Only eating one meal a day now, so that's no good.

If you would, pray for the base, and other bases in and around Afghanistan. War never takes a holiday...so when Christmas rolls around, we expect a good number of attacks. Just keep the bases in your thoughts and prayers.

If anyone still reads this, please somebody thank whoever sent the box of stuff for Christmas. I'm not sure who orchestrated that, and I'll have to thank everyone who sent cards/gifts personally when I get back, but thank you whoever sent that, hopefully somehow you hear that I'm really grateful haha.

I really miss my pianos. It's painful at this point. And I miss sports. Haven't been able to play any basketball since I started on night shift in Oct. When I get back, I hope to play sports every single day cuz I'm dying of pent up energy.

Hmm...can't really think of anything else to write. Oh, pray for the Pakistan Border situation. cool thanks.

Ben

Happy Thanksgiving

For whoever reads this, Happy Thanksgiving. Hope your day was filled with laughter and love, friends and food, and football. I miss everyone.

Life here is pretty much the same. We get an attack everyonce in a while. Work just keeps pluggin along.

Please pray I don't get Malaria, I wasn't taking my malaria medication and there are mosquitoes in the gym.

Hope everyone is well.

Ben

symphonic refrain: An Old Favorite: Scars

symphonic refrain: An Old Favorite: Scars: Over the years, as Ben has recorded tunes I've had the privilege of listening to some of his songs pre-release. Scars was one of those. Pe...

Prayer.

So I'm starting to look really pale and feel kinda sick/tired all the time.
Because I haven't seen the sun in a long time.

Please pray that the vitamins would help replenish the lack of sun. It's hard cuz I am an outdoors guy and I don't get to see daylight at all. But I'll survive. Just could use the prayers. Thanks :)

Ben

Nov 14. 2011

Just had an IDF attack (indirect fire)...and then the normal, every day prayer call sounded for the afghans. so it was kinda spooky haha.

was in the gym when it hit. fun times.

ben

OH.

I also am usually on skype for about an hour or so every day mostly, so if you'd like to chat me...my skype name is benhinders, and I'm usually on talkin to my family from about 9:45 pm to 11 pm Eastern US time.
It'd be good to hear from folks.

Oh, and I'll try and post pictures sometime, but we actually moved our working/living locations to a cleared area that doesn't allow pictures of any kind. But i'll give it my best.

benjamin

Whatever post this is.

So it's been a while.

Now I know what everyone was talking about when they said you have permanent damage to your lungs from being out here. After almost 2 months here, my lungs feel heavy all the time, and it's just like you have a cough but aren't coughing. Hard to describe, hard to live with haha. Working out is twice as hard honestly, especially running. So that's no fun. I definitely miss the clean air of the US.

Also missing lots of US food now, the chow halls are pretty diabolical after eating there so much ha.
we mix it up, and thank you to everyone who has sent me things :):) Means the world to me.

For those that don't know, (ha, I don't even know who reads this thing) I'm on the night shift, so another setback is that I'm probably not sleeping as good, cuz I work from 6 pm to 6 am, also, I don't get any sun, and your body needs some of that stuff ha, we get a lot of vitamins from the sun, somebody medical back me up please...

Other than that, we had another attack on base, at about 3 am, like a week ago. Nothing scary. Keeps the place exciting honestly. I don't want anyone to get hurt, but 12 on 12 off, no days off (not even Christmas!...) is starting to get to me.

Hope everyone is well. Trying to forget that I can't do anything for problems back home. Cya.
Ben

10th Post, Sorry It's Been a While

So yea, it's been a while.

We've been busy. We moved out of our living and working quarters, and are now firmly situated in a new location. It's nicer living quarters, but it's a dicey area sometimes, due to militants coming up to the wall to fire rockets. Yay. Saw that the other day, that was fun.

Work is good, but boring sometimes. Have worked on some pretty cool stuff that I wish I could tell you about.

Weather here is so lame sometimes. It rained a whole ton today, and it'll dry up, and then do it again. Usually it rains at night, and I'm on night shift, so, yeaaa....

Definitely missing VA and the USA in general...halloween came and went and I didn't really notice.

The Redskins suck, what else is new. But it's less painful out here cuz I can't really watch. Oh well.

Hoping everyone is well, will try to post more regularly, with more interesting stuff.

9th Post, It's been a week and I'm too tired to rhyme.

We're moving offices, so that's been a huge hassle.

The weather here is really strange. Pretty much always warm in the daytime, then nights are really cold. Then when it rains, it'll rain every night for a week, but not during the day. It's not like VA in that regard. It's also really dusty. Anyway, that's just a little weather update.

3 days will make it, a month that I've been here. So that's crazy. It's definitely flown by, yet, crawled at times. Hopefully the next 5 will fly haha. Work is getting better. As long as I stay busy, time goes quickly. Played some basketball on Monday, that was fun. Played 6 games, won 6 games. It's pretty good fun, but the military guys are wimps actually when it comes to fouls and such. So that's kinda lame.

This place is tiring me out, I'm always tired, but I keep getting up at 6, working till 8, 9, 10 sometimes, then doing it all over again. It's a never ending cycle of fun. Hope everyone is well, email me/post back.

Benjamin

8th post, I could really use some pot roast. (MOM. kidding kidding)

So basically, it has been really rainy. It rained for like 5 days, but only at night. There was flooding everywhere ha, and just a really crappy week. But afterwards, the weather was gorgeous, so yesterday, the clouds and mountains and sun, wow. It was amazing. I will post a picture or two. There's snow on the mountains now, and it's getting pretty cold.

Had a couple of IED scares and such. Life goes on here, no one really notices anymore.

Pictures to come. Benjamin.

7th post, watching Coach Yoast.

I could really use some Remember the Titans...

It's been raining here a lot, and lots of lightning. Tons of big storm clouds and such.

It's amazing to see it come over the mountains...a big rolling storm of lightning....

i took some pictures. hopefully will post some soon.

Hoping everyone is well, here's a joke.

6th post, if it's the 7th, I was close.

It's been raining here. And storming. Lots of lightning.

Crazy amounts of wind sometimes.

And explosions haha.

But it's been good. Just trying to learn the work and get proficient at it.

Food is...not as good. haha, because it's the same thing every time. But we had pizza last night, and it was not normal pizza, but it was good.

Anyway. I'll try to say more at a later date, but life just keeps clicking over here. 12 on 12 off is getting tiring. I usually need just a day to do nothing/play sports hah. But I'll get used to it.

More pictures to come soon hopefully.

Ben

5th Post, I miss the East Coast.

It's hard to post stuff...enjoy these. The shot up plane gives a little scale as to where all the mountains are...basically...everywhere...on all sides. ha. more to come hopefully. trying to stay on the right side of the law.

benjamin

Fourth Post, enjoy the beef roast

Tonight was steak night. yay. Definitely not as good as the meat Grandpa used to bribe the butcher for. :)
Nah he didn't bribe, he just bartered.

I promise there will be pictures. It's really hard to post any because the whole base is classified...trying to get a good picture of the mountains, but this one will have to do for now. haha, sorry it's edited.

Work is getting better...I think. 

Hopefully will post more soon.

Third Post, while you eat your toast.

I'm gonna run out of words that rhyme with "post".

Well, I was gonna post the other day about going outside the camp. That was fun. But I'll probably have to censor all of that.

We did a whole tour of the base on Tuesday, drove through some parts where on either side there was signs for old mines. The Russians left everything mined so parts of the base are a little dicey, but that's pretty far from where everything is. There's also thousands of unmarked graves outside the fence, which is kinda crazy. Apparently the indigenous still come and maintain them, at least some of them.

Work has been getting better, it's busy, then nothing for stretches of time, but that's good because 12 straight hours of sitting at a computer would kill me faster than an Afghan bullet. It's freezing in the workspace, so that sucks. Some of the stuff we do is really cool...some of it is...boring.

Definitely love the mountains around here, but hate the sand and dust. It sucks. But the sky and mountains are gorgeous. Saw a few blades of grass on our trip out but that was about it.

Planes take off all the time, and the jets are deafening, but I think it's kinda cool.

Played basketball last night in a tournament, just asked as many guys as I could until someone let me play. I'm a bit rusty and I didn't have any shoes, because my trunk hasn't arrived yet.

Played Halo with Josh and Drew this morning at about 8 am local time, that was awesome. Connection was terrible, but felt like being back home. Will try and do that some more.

If you want to get a hold of me, email my gmail, benjamin.hinders@gmail.com. I'm pretty good about checking it.

Will post when I can.

Ben

Second Post, I miss everyone but the Provost.

Well,


The mountains are gorgeous here, and that's about it. It's windy, sandy, smelly, hot/cold, humid, dry, and LOADS of fun :) You won't here me complain about anything but possibly having to work through the 4th quarter of the skinz game tomorrow, which I will start watching at 3 am ;)...of course.

If you're praying for me, thank you so much. If you're not praying for me, pray for our troops in Kabul. The embassy got attacked recently.

As time goes on, I probably won't post every day, hopefully will have some pictures up.

Benjamin

First Post, the post that hurts the most.

Hey.

So I don't have a lot of internet, or time. But here goes with a first post.

I'm here in Bagram, have been since last night. Yes, right now it's 9:40 am on Monday. I'm way ahead of you guys. As Dan Mayernik said so succintly, "you're in the future", and that I am.

I traveled through Qatar, which was nice. I wish this base was as nice as that one. There was wifi everywhere.

Here, there's no wifi except for the AF, and the conditions aren't fantastic. But we'll survive.

The mountains are amazing, the air sucks. ha.

Will post more hopefully.

Benjamin