Vacation, Nov 07

I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve been moved to another base temporarily. I love this place. I would be very happy if I stayed at this base until it was time to go home. It is a very small base, but that is part of the charm for me.

I live in small building with four rooms and an enclosed patio. I have my own room with a bed and mattress. I spend much of my time in the patio on the computer. We have a fridge, power, and even hot showers. Our friends run the dining facility, so we can get extra sodas and cereal and milk to keep at the house.

Outside, there is an open patio where our two puppies live, and there are two fire pits. We have a very small maintenance shop where fleabag, our adult dog lives, and the kitten lives underneath it. The puppies are very cute and playful. They are still young and about the size of a large cat. Fleabag is a young but fully grown mutt. He looks like he’s at least part German Shepherd. The kitten is a small and should not have been left alone. I don’t know what happened to his mother and littermates. He reminds me a lot of my cat Simba when was a kitten. A few days ago, SGT L decided to give the kitten a bath. The poor thing turned into a pathetic looking ball of claws and wet fur. When we were done, it escaped and ran off into the dirt, so we had to chase it down and rinse the dirt and dry it this time. It was not very happy about getting a bath and we weren’t sure that it would come back. It took some time, but later that night he came around again. It’s nice to sit back in a chair and hold a soft, clean purring kitten. Yesterday someone told us that one of his buddies had tried to steal our kitten, but it jumped out the window of the truck and came back to us.

Now about the nightlife here. Every base in the area has several shops that are run by local civilians. This one is no exception. One of the shops serves chai and has a TV and a few couches and chairs. It’s like the local equivalent of a Starbucks, but the tea is free and endless. They sell lots of other things like movies, cell phones and local drinks and chocolate. I’ve always liked tea, but I especially enjoy Iraqi chai. Iraqis drink chai like Americans drink coffee. At night I enjoy going to drink tea and talk to the Iraqis and Americans that hang our in the tea shop. I’ve had lots of chai, some enjoyable conversations and learned about Iraqi culture and some Arabic. I have noticed that most Iraqis I’ve come into contact with are very friendly and hospitable.

A few days ago I spent some time talking to a young Iraqi man in the tea shop and we have been trying to learn each others languages. He speaks much more English than I speak Arabic though. I met him tonight and found out he has his own shop and cooks Iraqi food. I was excited to learn that I because I love to try new things and have always enjoyed middle eastern food. So despite having eaten dinner and hour earlier, I had him cook me some Iraqi food. I made me some falafel fried in sunflower oil, with cucumbers, tomatoes and a special sauce served in a piece of flatbread. (samoon) It was delicious, and the best food I’ve had since the last time I saw my wife. He was even kind enough to give it me for free always with some extra samoon and hubs (two different kinds of flatbread) that I had requested two days earlier. I wanted to keep a good thing going, so I returned later with a gift of a few of the Reese’s that I had been sent in a care package. It was a cold night, so I stopped for some chai on the way home. It was a good night.

Thanksgiving 07

Every Dining Facility in the Army goes all-out for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even the small outposts get some kind of I’m at small base in Iraq. Instead of serving two meals today, they served a Thanksgiving dinner from 1200-1700. I had to wait about 15 minutes because they opened the DFAC a little late. When I walked in, I saw how much work they had put into the meal. They had all the trimmings of your standard American turkey dinner, a giant 3 foot square cake and banners and decorations on all the walls. Every table had “Happy Thanksgiving” place mats, and a bottle of sparkling cider. It was a strange scene, because ¾ of the diners were Iraqi Army, and all of the cooks were Turkish or Fillipino. I doubt either of them recognize the American holiday.

Here, the days really have no meaning. November 22 simply means that I’m about 6 weeks away from taking leave. I had forgotten that it even was Thanksgiving until I was in line at the DFAC and they didn’t open at the usual time. When I got inside and sat down to eat, I wished that it had been another day. Everything there reminded me of home and my family. I didn’t want to be reminded of how much I miss them.

A Much Better Place to Live

Today I moved into my third tent in the week that I’ve been on this new camp. There’s been a lot of confusion about where my company is going to live, but I pray that it is all settled now. The tent that I’ve moved into is that nicest place I’ve lived in the total 18 months I’ve spent in this country. It’s not much, but it’s a mansion to me. I would estimate my new place to be about 6x10’, that’s a few feet in each direction larger than my last place. It’s so long that that I do not know what to do with all the space. I would have been quite content with 6x6. I put some extra mattresses between my bunk bed and the next one for soundproofing, and bought a small rug for the floor. Then I put some cardboard over my two plastic 3 drawer chests to make a desk for my computer and lamp. I have a stool for now, but when my folding chair gets here I will be able to watch Stargate quite comfortably. I put up a few pictures, but because there is no wood in my “room” (space in the large tent) I was unable to put up my frame. I have my foot locker in a convenient place to keep my stuff secure, and an ice chest if I ever take the time to fill it. Also on my desk is the stuffed rat that wards off the real ones. I haven’t seen any mice around my space since July, so the rat must be territorial. My room is the size of a large closet, but I think it’s quite home like. Now, if only they would fix the hot water heater.

I’ve discovered some new brands of ice cream in the dining facility. I can’t even tell what country they are from, but I would be them at home if they were sold in the states. This new brand has 3 different flavors of ice cream bar, and all of them are very good. One variety is vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips, with a white chocolate shell with almond shavings. I think the brand is from Turkey or Eastern Europe. Yesterday I found a new color drumstick, and since I love drumsticks I had try it. I should have known that a green wrapper would mean the drumstick was made with pistachio ice cream. I do not like pistachios. If you do, come to the middle east and you can have pistachio ice cream in a drumstick.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to spend an evening with one of our Iraqi interpreters. I enjoyed talking to him and hearing about Iraq from an Iraqi. Our conversation gave me a better understanding of the suffering and hardship of the Iraqi people, something that I can’t describe here. His girlfriend was killed by a car bomb, and several family and friends killed in other violence. He can never go back home, because if he does, the militias will kill him. Anyone who cooperates with coalition forces here puts their life at risk. All of the interpreters accompany soldiers on missions and face the same dangers from IED’s and RPG’s that US soldiers face. Arabic is such a hard language to learn that coalition forces would have a hard time without interpreters. I hope that if this war ends in anything other than a peaceful Iraq that our interpreters would be granted residency or citizenship in the US. It would an appropriate thing that our country could do after they’ve risked their lives for our soldiers on a daily basis.

First Impressions of my new place to live

I am sure that bread must have been something that God taught the first humans long ago. How else could anyone 4,000 years ago have thought to grind up wheat, mix it with water and bake it? Except for the bag of delicious Iraqi bread that I bought on patrol in August, I have not had real bread since leaving home 7 months ago. At lunch today I went to eat lunch at the dining facility at my new home. I was standing in line for some baked ham when I happened to look to the end of the room and saw something I could not believe. Off to the side of the main line was a large bread counter, with over a dozen different types of fresh breads. Dessert, coffee cake, cheese, garlic, rolls, they were all there. I approached the counter slowly, in awe of what I was seeing and after being prompted by the server who must have thought I was nuts, I took two slices of garlic cheese loaf and walked away feeling like I’d just been given a thousand dollars. Then I found some butter, gave thanks and joyously ate my lunch.

The base I live in now is significantly smaller than the one that I left, but it does have several advantages. Because it is so small, I no longer have to take a bus for 20 minutes to do anything. The Chapel, store, gym, library, Bazaar, food court, work and the cleaners are all within a reasonable walking distance. As I described above, the dining facility is much better than the one I left. There are also several new flavors of ice cream for me a try. I think that living conditions will be better here than they have been for the last 6 months. Of course, if I have more than two feet on one side of my bunk, it’s an improvement. One of the most welcome improvements would be to have consistently hot showers. I have not had one of those in a while. This new base even has a small national forest. Rest assured that I will send pictures and post a trip report as soon as I get the chance.