Some of you may be wondering how I stay connected with my family while I am away. There are actually a couple ways we do it. There is of course the postal service, affectionately known as "snail mail," which we use primarily for care packages and things like that. We primarily use email though. When I was in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, Janelle and I would email each other 2-3 times per day. They also have phone centers where you can use a pre-paid phone card and talk with your loved ones; or we would use the military phone system and get patched through to the states for free. We would do this every couple days or so. It is much more frustrating for Janelle and the kids since they cannot call me. This means that they have to go about their normal lives and hope they don't miss a call from me. Occasionally we would set up a time over email so I could talk with the kids too.
Technology keeps improving though, and in Afghanistan the military has set up Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the living spaces. This means that I can email Janelle from the privacy of my living quarters, a definite improvement. Even more than that, with Skype I can video call the family and actually see them while we talk. This is a remarkable upgrade from just a couple years ago and so far has worked well. Although, I still haven't quite made it all the way to my final destination yet. They have everything set up here in Manas and my computer and iPhone both have Skype installed so everything works.
So get a Skype account if you want one, it's free, and then we can talk sometime!
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