Salam!

Phil finally started his first "real" training last week after all of the in-processing and moving into the barracks.

His first class was to begin learning about Afghanistan culture and language. Phil and his team will be learning Dari, which is also known as a Persian dialect and one of the main languages spoken in Afghanistan. Phil really liked the primary teacher, an Afghanistan native.

Almost 40 letters make up the Dari alphabet. Because of the slightly larger alphabet, it's a bit tricky to translate into English, Phil said. There are multiple equivalents to our "s" and "z" which create a bit of a challenge!