Today is Friday, our day off (Muslim weekend). I went to Camp Phoenix, worked out, played racquetball with Al Viera, another MPRI contractor who is a mentor to the Afghan National Army Air Corps. Then went to the PX, bought some Icy Hot for Shirin's mom and a Mocha Frappe for me.

Called LT Bruce Reilly, USN, the Depot 1 OIC (Officer in Charge), who lives at Camp Phoenix. He previously told me about some new Cougar MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles he had been issued to replace the armored HMMWVs his crew uses to convoy to work.

LT Reilly gave me & Al a tour of the vehicles. They are awesome. Imagine a huge armored truck with a machine gun turrent, infrared cameras for night driving, joystick-operated searchlights, and room for seven including the gunner. I need one.

On a side note, I recently learned the Dari word for friend, rafik. Dari is very close to Farsi, and Dari/Farsi are very similar to the Arabic languages and share many words. Anyway, one day I was thinking about the Dari word for infidel, kafir, and it dawned on me: kafir sounds like rafik backwards. Hmm...