Belinda's Home! :)

An exhausted and very tanned Belinda arrived home after what could best be described as a 'milk-run' flight and travel that spanned several days! She couldn`t be happier to be home and one of the first things she noted was how clean and fresh Canada smells...she could even detect the scent of freshly melted snow.

There is quite the time change between Afghanistan and here, with our days and nights being opposite of each other, so she is still trying to get onto Canadian time. Food is plentiful of course, so she is enjoying grazing on all of her favorite treats.

She is used to being burdened with the constant weight of her weapons, so she finds herself instinctively feeling for her pistol and the momentary surprise that it is not there. Little things like healthy pets and everyone wearing shoes, the wealth of our society, give her a moment to pause. It is like being on a different planet just to to be home and to walk about and not see missing teeth, matted hair, people who are heavily scarred, or cut and bleeding, with scabs and chronic infections, malnourished children and adults. The ever-present grit of sand and dust that colored everything in their environment.To see the casual good health of western society in her first days home is still a jolt of surprise.

The biggest absence that she has noticed but does not miss: the sounds of war... IED`s, mortar explosions and gunfire...

With her 24 hour day having been broken into 3 hour increments of work, sleep, work, leisure, work, work... she finds now at home she cannot sleep longer then 3 hours at a time. Belinda`s first moment sitting on her bed though was one of pure nirvana, to feel the softness of her mattress beneath her weight... something so small provided her the most immense pleasure.

I planned to step back from posting her blog while she is home so that she might share her own thoughts and experiences, but she has asked me to keep doing so alongside her own posts as she is battling a good case of fatigue that probably won`t get to entirely lift in the time that she is home.

There are many many pictures to share, but anything `revealing` of her location has had to be edited for obvious reasons, but we will share everything else that we can.

Belinda has mentioned repeatedly that she is appreciative to everyone that has come here to read about her travels and experiences. A heartfelt thanks to all!

Till next time,
Julie