YELLOWKNIFE - RCMP Staff Sgt. Al McCambridge has "only eight steak nights" until he wraps up his mission in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

He said the Canadian cooks at the Provincial Reconstruction Team base are excellent.

Al McCambridge mentors an Afghan district police commander and meets the Afghani police on a regular basis. - photo courtesy of Al McCambridge

"I look forward to every Thursday (steak night), it helps me count down the weeks," he said.

McCambridge was G Division's district commander North until last March when he left for Afghanistan. He is part of the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). The team includes members of the Canadian Forces and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Operating out of the PRT base in Kandahar City, McCambridge's main duties are with Afghani police officers.

He and four other Canadian police officers are training local police forces, as well as providing basic equipment and uniforms whenever they can.

"The focus is on keeping them alive and to provide safety to the communities they serve," he said.

Suicide bombers and counter-insurgent activities are a reality of life in Afghanistan, added McCambridge. He said when his team operates outside the base, they go with military protection. Body armour and weapons are part of their gear as well, he said. He declined to specify exactly what sort of weapons he carries each day.

Some days they can't travel at all, he said, but must stay within the base's fortifications.

"It depends on the security situation," he said. This is not McCambridge's first international RCMP mission. For security reasons, he will not say where he served his first.

Afghanistan is "very different from our normal peacekeeping mission because we're dealing with a theatre of operations that is very much at war," he said.

He said there have been good moments, funny moments, and moments he described simply as "bad." However, he said change is happening there "even if it is one step forward, two steps backward sometimes."

He said he has learned that Western time frames and Afghani time frames do not necessarily match.

"Accepting that has allowed me to adjust a little easier than some," he said. The successes may be slow and small at times, but that doesn't mean they aren't significant, said McCambridge.

"Some of these officers have never received a day of formal education," he said of the Afghani police.

"It's enjoyable to see the pride in their faces," he said.

The worst, for McCambridge, is leaving his family behind. Between him and his partner Dawn Anderson, they have seven children, from Angel, 21, to Sage, the littlest, at 19 months. "It's really hard," he said.

He has been home twice since March - once for Sage's first birthday, and more recently for Christmas.

It's not easy returning to the heat of Kandahar, he said. "But once you leave and you get going, your head gets back into the game," he said.

Having worked in the North 23 of his 25 years with the RCMP, McCambridge said though he is looking forward to his return, he knows his efforts overseas are valuable to the struggling country.

"It's been a long year, but I know the legacy of the five of us here now is going to continue," he said.

With about two months left before his return, McCambridge's final thoughts turned to his family.

"Tell Sage her dad will be home soon," he said.