E-mail from Eric

Here's a recent e-mail I got from Eric. It gives you an impression of what life is like in Kandahar for him right now:

"...Some crazy stuff happened yesterday. One of our civilian contractors
told me that a Marine unit stole their $23,000 pressure washer. He
called the Military Police and in 4 hours they had found the pressure
washer at another base, 200 miles away! When they stole it, they loaded
it onto an airplane and flew it out the same night. We got it back this
morning and they had already painted "property of the US Marines" on it.
Some Marines are in big trouble. Then when we got back to the tent
area, we saw a huge fire in the distance. Apparently there was a big
fire at the bulk fuel facility, but there weren't any injuries, just
lots of smoke and some wasted gas, so no big deal.
The area I live is a huge group of tents, like 40 rows by 5 columns.
Each tent holds around 50 people. It's funny, when I get "home" in the
evening it's like a big campsite. People are hanging out playing cards,
jamming on guitars, playing with radio-controlled cars, and the folks
next to us have a "cornhole" set and a big group plays every
night. Sometimes you'll see "couples" sneaking around looking for
privacy. Inside our tent, most people watch movies on their laptops or
read, but one of the NCOs brought a big flatscreen tv and Xbox, so I
watch movies and play video games with them sometimes.
Pretty lazy day today, no big meetings or deadlines. I'm gonna clean
out my e-mail and then I have to start some designs on new buildings
that we'll be constructing after the new year. I've started listening
to my iPod while at my computer, helps the time go by...."