lost lather (1 of 4)

Evidently there is a shortage of soap/shower gel in theater. Because every time I turn my back in the shower trailer, my damn shower gel disappears! Now, it may be karma. When I first arrived here at Camp Victory, I didn't have anything that resembled shower gel, but I didn't let that stop me from going to the shower trailer in the evening and scrubbing down (I did have my trusty Japanese industrial-strength recycled water bottle plastic scrubbing cloth!). Imagine my good luck the first morning when I walk into the shower trailer and it is completely empty, devoid of any living thing, no dirty towels, nothing amiss or astray... except for one little bottle of shower gel.(Dove--moisturizes while you shower!) So I figure, since this is the transient section of camp, someone has been kind enough to leave some shower gel for transients to use--very kind. I used it. I even left it after I was done for the next hapless transient. Turns out, the next hapless transient was me, that very next morning after my run. At this point it is clear to me that whoever left that shower gel doesn't want it back, so I bring it back to the tent with me for safekeeping.
The gel and I shower together happily for several more days, until I forget the gel one day in my haste to leave the shower trailer. Not really haste--I have very few places I need to be at with very specific time constraints; turns out this, along with non-standard PT gear, is one of the benefits of being a NARMY of one amongst the Army. The problem is that immediately upon leaving the shower I am in the habit of pulling the shower curtain closed so that it dries out nicely, and once closed the contents of the shower, including the gel, are completely dead to me. I think this strange obsession I have with closing the shower curtain was imposed by my Mother early in my impressionable youth--Thanks, Mom! When I forgot the shower gel that first time, I went back to the trailer about 30 minutes later.... there wasn't a soul about, but the gel was gone! Hopefully some hapless transient got it.
Note that I mentioned "the first time" I left the shower gel. since then I have managed to forget a couple of other bottles of shower gel--it seems there isn't actually a shortage of shower gel on base-you can buy it at the exchange quite readily--there is just a shortage of conveniently placed shower gel in the shower trailers! In each of the subsequent cases I have literally only been one from the trailer for ten minutes or less and the (evidently) highly valued and highly pilfered bottle is gone...
By the way, I am currently pushing the record for maintaining control of my shower gel with a streak going on three weeks! They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, so I may have figured it out now...

ablution stories

Anyone who has read my blog (especially the bits from 2005) knows that there isn't much to write about except the food and the bathroom facilities--this is war! At least, this is war for me, I imagine the blogs of people that are regularly being shot at are quite different. I had been trying to go "clean" and had resisted posting several ablutions related stories, but they keep piling up and I don't have anything better to write about right now... so get ready....

freaky weather night

The last couple of days have been quite dusty--again, good for the heat, but not so much for the lungs. Tonight, in addition to the dust, there was lightning!! Around 1815, I am sitting at my desk working a little e-mail magic, when the announcement is made that there is a lightening warning--or perhaps an advisory, I am not sure the difference--starting at 1830 until "further notice". A couple hours later it is time to walk home--in the dark... and the dust... and the lightning...

The dust is eerie enough--vision is decreased dramatically, most things you cannot see, those that you can see look "fuzzy". At night, it is even a bit more eery... But now the lightning is going off. I cannot quite tell how close it is because of the dust; I cannot even see a building 100 meters to the south, so when the entire south lights up with a flash of light I cannot see the jagged rods of light, but a nice dust-diffused lighting effect--very cool. There was no thunder either.... perhaps the dust diffused not only the light but the sound too. I suppose someone smart out there knows the answer, but they probably aren't reading this blog!

Not only was it dusty and lightning-y, there was rain... on the way back to the CHU every 10-20 steps a single rain drop would strike somewhere on my body--talk abut humidity! No wonder the base is starting to advertise about a water shortage--we are in a freaking desert and when it rains you can measure the rainfall in drops per acre.

A Coalition of the Volleyball Willing...

There was a volleyball tournament yesterday--quite an international event around here. In fact, the first tournament that my unit had a team in, several weeks ago--we came in third overall, which wasn't too bad for our first time playing together, and there were some very good teams there.
The Tongan marines guard the Al Faw Palace, the main headquarters for the US military in Iraq (Note that the photo below has been slightly modified for security reasons, but the basic look of the place is spot on. Of course, it usually doesn't look THIS good, you have to get it at the right time of day when the sun AND dust are low.)


They--the Tongans--supposedly have an excellent team, but they don't play on Sundays, so I haven't had the chance to play with them yet. The Samoan contingent is quite impressive, these are US Army (and one Navy) who all happen to be from Samoa and have put together a team--these dudes are big, the nets are low... they don't even jump, but they block just fine... The Samoans did a bit of chanting too--with every point they made a chant leader would call out the chant and the rest of the team would fall in--kind of a call and response thing with a bit of symbolic dancing thrown in to boot! The Samoans (not the girl scout cookie, S'moas) came in second.

The winning team in that first tourney was a group of civilian contractors from Nepal--this team was small, quick and had clearly played together quite a bit--they picked up every ball and returned it flawlessly...

There was a fine group of Puerto Ricans too, they weren't playing volleyball though, they were singing. Evidently they gather at the MWR center every Sunday afternoon and set up food and giant loudspeakers with microphones and a computer with MP3s... playing and singing salsa music all afternoon. These guys know how to have a good time!

And, I should mention that the Ugandan team didn't show up for the first tourney either, but we benefitted greatly from one of their players subbing in on our team--this guy had mad hops and great volleyball skills--I hope their entire team doesn't play like that or we are in trouble if we ever meet up with them!!


Yesterday was another story--we dominated! Navy team--bam! Marine team--bam! Joint team--bam!! Estonian team--bam!! We had to play the Estonians again in the finals, and we had been sitting for a while when that match came up, so we dropped the first game, but then we kicked it up a notch and BAM!! We took the entire enchilada. The victorious, steadfast Task Force 62 Medical Brigade volleyball team:

Warming Up! Dusting Down...

Back in March there were a few days where it broke 100°F here, then it cooled back down to reasonable 85-90°F days for a week or so. Last week it got hot, just over the 100°F mark, but there was a qualitative difference in the air that let you know this heat was significantly more serious than the slight brushes with triple digit temps last month--those were nothing! So, I had meant a couple days ago to post about this abrupt, but not unexpected, mercury motion. When, out of nowhere comes a major dust storm--a finer dust than we had at Al Asad, it is actually easier to breath... which must be a bad thing. Last Weds was hot and relatively clear. Thursday morning was my run with the Army guys--I got up, got dressed and went outside--the dust was thick! But, as I said, deceptively easy to breathe--it didn't seem that bad. So, I went and met the guys. One of the guys shows up--remember, it is 0530--and says, "I just came to tell you that I am not running--it is too dusty." The rest of us chastised him and went on our way. During the run all seemed fine, but afterwards, it was clear that discretion really is the better part of valor and our compatriot that refused to run was much more discreet and valorous than we... the wet (sweaty) bits of my shorts and shirt were covered with a pleasant mud, as were the corners of my mouth--as I found out. I can only imagine the coating of mud in my trachea, bronchioles, and alveoli--this is pretty fine dust!
But, the point I was trying to make wasn't what kind of idiot will go running in crazy air conditions--ask my buddy Dave who ran through the smoke of the 2003 San Diego fires--the point was that the dust does a great job of blocking the sun and keeping the heat down to a reasonable level. So, for the last 4 days there has been enough intermittent dust that the temps have stayed below the triple digits. Although, I have a feeling that this week will be either hot and dusty or just hot....