Monday, October 06, 2008

Retour au France...

OK, ok, so I've been back from Kosovo for about two weeks, just been slacking a bit on the update.  After getting back to France, and sort of getting back into the regular groove of base life, we were let out (more like let loose) for 3 weeks of vacation.  After that, it's back to Castelnaurday, where I did my basic training.  This time, it's for FSE12 AKA "stage santé", or for those not versed in the heathen language of the francaise, the medic course.  Should be around 13 weeks long, and then rapidly after that, it'll be another 10 weeks based in Castelnaudary for CME1 aka "stage caporal", or the corporal course.  So, I won't be back to St. Christol for about 5-6 months.  Unfortunately, Castelnaudary is somehow wetter AND colder than St. Christol...and we all know how much I just adore cold weather.  

As to what exactly I've been doing...well, it's kinda complicated.  Basically, we got to do a little of everything.  Nothing too exciting though.  The reality is, Kosovo is somewhat quiet, and although violence can (and occasionally does) break out, it did not happen while we were there.  Nevertheless, it was not a vacation, at least not for those of us at the bottom of the totem pole.  After spending the first month up north by the Serbian border, beefing up a checkpoint, as well as a small base (well, not exactly beefing up the base defenses...there was NONE before we started), we spent some time looking for unexploded munitions in the hills.  We demolished some guard bunkers at the main French base, and then spent weeks putting up new ones...I think at last count we used something like 4000 sandbags.  After that, we were kept busy rebuilding a school in a Serbian enclave, just in time for the start of school...not sure the local kids were totally down with that though.  And of course, they waited until we were 3 weeks out from coming back to give us our most dangerous mission, literally...we went poking around a minefield for, well...mines.  Thankfully, we didn't find anything dangerous.

Best part...interacting with soldiers from other countries.  Most were much better equipped than us, some were better trained, some were worse.  Some seemed extremely un-professional, others just made us shake our heads.  But in the end, we all had our jobs to do, and for the most part, got it done.  Some of us just laughed more.

Worst part...French military in general, but especially the officers.  I just cannot respect someone who does not lead by example or lead from the front.  If you're incapable of leading combat soldiers, puffing your chest out and yelling and screaming just don't help you look more competent.  You might be trying your hardest, but it just ain't good enough.

The Kosovar people in general are super friendly, but there seem to be an underlying sadness or resignation.  There are very little infrastructure and unemployment is very high.  The "country" has little to few natural resources, and although the countryside can be quite beautiful, there isn't much tourism.  KFOR (the NATO task force) and UNIMIK (the UN task force) pumps a lot of money in the local economy by employing Kosovars and buying local products, but if that cashcow ever gets cut off, then the economic situation would be much worse.  In addition, the market in Kosovo is quite dominated by blackmarket and/or pirated goods, and while that is ok for trying to catch the latest released movie on 3€ DVD's, I can't imagine the Kosovars making that much money off of us dudes in the camo duds.

And because pictures are worth more than some random sum of words...here's some photos from Kosovo. Some of y'all might not be able to access this link from a school or business network, as Facebook is frequently blocked...just FYI.

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