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Thursday, September 8, 2011

Skype with Detto


Detto and I have been able to talk a few times on Skype.
It is so nice to see his face.

I know that it is hard being in the Sand Box! War is not fun and it is not good.
I am glad for those days when I do get to talk to him.

It is hard going days and weeks at a time without being able to talk to the Man I LOVE!

Even with all of the technology available, he is sometimes not able to use it.
He goes on missions and there is no wi-fi or time to sit and chat with your loved ones at home.

Also, a fact that many people may not know is, if a soldier wants to call home they either need to stand in long lines to use an outdoor payphone (can you say sandstorm?), or they have to pay to have internet in order to talk on Skype. The internet their costs aproximately double what our monthly bill at home costs and the service is TERRIBLE and not always available.
And US phone cards dont always work, or the minute used are 6-7x's as fast as they would be in the US. Example a 60 minute phone card gives a soldier aprox. 5 minutes of talk time!

Let us not forgot to pray for our military.
They are sacrificing ALOT for us here at home!
And for the record - Deployments SUCK!

1 comment:

AJ said...

Love Skype. Cute pix! I have similar shots from last deployment. Never get to use skype now because our unit has a skype hog who ruins the bandwith for everyone else. I see an intervention in the future.

Do you send family vids on disc? That's always a big hit.

Their internet at this one place in Afghanistan is $100-120 per person (depending how slow you want it). My soldier purchased a cell phone from an outgoing soldier. He needs it for the job, too, but he still had to buy it. No surprise there. :0)

We use the cell phone. When they shortened the MWR calls from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, it changed the nature of our calls. They became rushed. He ends up spending about $200 every five-six weeks on calls. My costs are similar. Because calling him from the states is incredibly expensive (I had a very brief $50 call), I rarely do it. My phone company charges me for calls from him but much less than me calling him.

In the end, I'm willing to spend the money because he calls me after a mission for the safe and sound you can stand down moment.

I still have disdain for phone cards after our last deployment. Another reason to spend tons of money now.

BTW the Iranian cell service is pretty good. And, we're always in OPSEC mode.

The one thing I would like to mention to civilians: Try walking around with your cell phone *in your hand* every waking second for a year. That about sums up deployment on the homefront for me.

Sorry for the novel but it's so nice to see a mil wife out and about in the quilting world.