Salam Alekum from Afghanistan

Sorry I missed Kevin's original advertisement that we now have a Wilson Family Blog. Travis drew my attention to it in a recent phone call. Thanks Kevin for doing this. It's a great idea. It's something we should have done long ago.

Anyway, we are surviving in Kabul, Afghanistan. Looking forward to seeing the Kamas crew in a couple of weeks. As most of you might know by now, we have rented a townhouse for a week in Park City where the (now extended) Andy Wilson clan can spend the Holidays together. We are planning lots of activities to do together as a family; skiing, snowmobiling, board (bored) games, daily brunch team cooking competition, foosball, football, hot-tubbing, etc. Should be a blast. Hope to have some good times and create some good memories.

Afghanistan is cooling off. Haven't had any snow in Kabul yet, though the mountains around us are all snowbound. Kyoko and I stay plenty busy in our jobs. We both work nearly 70 hours per week; 6-day workweeks. We (especially Kyoko) spend 98% of our time on the walled, barb-wired, armed-guarded Emassy compound. I get out occasionally for meetings, but Kyoko only gets out for Church--when she doesn't have to work. Friday (Muslim sabbath) is our day off when we attend church at nearby Camp Eggers. We attend the LDS Servicemen's Group there. We have about 25-30 regular members. Kyoko is RS Prez, with only two women in the entire Group, one of whom is currently home on a three-month leave, so that leaves Kyoko as the entire RS.

We've had a number of security-related incidents. On our fourth day in Kabul, a rocket hit about 100 meters from the Embassy. No one was hurt, but the loud boom nearly rocked us out of bed. We often have IED attacks (car bombs) in our neighborhood, when any nonessential travel is forbidden, and we have to stay inside the Embassy compound. Boring.

Hope you are all well. Let's keep this Blog going. Continue to get the word out so others will start contributing.

Andy