Ramzan Mubarak, and welcome back. This post will mark the one year anniversary of my blog and boy has it been a busy year. Thinking and looking back over my old posts it's amazing the stuff I have done since last September. I've went across the US twice and half way around the world three and a half times. I've been everywhere from Dothan, Al to Frankfurt, Germany; from Tucson, Az to Bahrain and of course the garden spot that is Islamabad. I've gone on treasure hunts looking for peanuts, apples and a couple mice. I've experienced my first demolition derby and doner kebab. All in all I think it's been an eventful year. By the way the appropriate gift for the one year anniversary is paper so feel free to give money. The other good thing if you choose to look at it, which I shouldn't, is I only have a few more months over here before I roll back to the States again. For those following at home, my relief is on his way. He got his orders about three weeks ago and is actually currently going through C-12 training. He is projected to get out here in late December so I am tentatively expecting to depart around the second week of January. This is of course assuming he gets a visa. We have been having some major problems of late with our incoming people not getting their visa requests approved and you just aren't allowed to come out here unless you have a visa. This has been causing some guys to have to extend. The good news is I am still supposed to be going to the Navy War College next so at a minimum I will have to leave in time to make my class date. Unfortunately I think that actually starts in February. But I am putting the horse before the cart and I still have a lot of work here to do before I split.
In addition to being the one year anniversary it is also Ramadan (or Ramzan as it is said here in Central Asia). Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar and is a holy month in which the Qur'an was believed to have been revealed to Muhammad. Ramzan Mubarak is the traditional greeting during Ramadan. During Ramadan Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for the entire month. This time of year sunrise is about 6:45 AM and sunset is about 7:30 PM. Let's just say that I would not enjoy that. It's not all about fasting. They are basically supposed to renew their dedication to the faith. This is done by extra praying and generally just trying to be a better person.
Personally I'm not so much in the trying to be a better person mode as I am the don't go completely crazy mode. To that end I have finally managed to become a member of the Canadian Club here in Pakistan. They call it Canadabad. I have mentioned before about attending some parties over there. A wonderful lady, Eleanor, was kind enough to kind of pull me into what little social scene there is there and sponsored me for membership. Unfortunately (well for me, maybe not so much for her) she and her husband departed back in June to return to Canada. We really miss her as she had a great personality and was definitely the social instigator; but I am sure we will find someway to muddle through on our own. Things are actually kind of dead in the so called social scene, mostly because the summer is the traditional transfer time so there is a lot of turnover at the other embassies. Also, Ramadan kind of puts a damper on things since it is kind of rude to have a drunken party when the host nation is trying to be more spiritual. The Brit Club actually had a party last night and while it was fun to pull myself away from the computer and all the paperwork on my desk for a few hours, it was a lot smaller than the last one they had back in July. I have heard that after Ramadan things will pick up more. Now I just have to hope that work will slow down enough to partake of some of it.Well that is about all for the moment. There really hasn't been too much to report. Just a lot of going to work and coming home again. We have been rather busy the last few months with VIP visits and all the Congressional notification stuff we have to do in order to spend the fiscal year 2009 money which we got this summer (because Congress refused to put out a budget until the new President was in office). I am hoping that with Congress back in session and the end of the fiscal year coming that things will calm down some in October. Well a man can dream can't he? So until next time remember in Ramadan in particular to be good; and if you can't be good try to be particularly good at it.
