So these past few days have been a lot of fun. I had my first birthday truly away from home and everybody that I know and love, but I didn’t feel any less love at all.
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| The present with the most amazing use of duct tape I've ever seen. Cutest bow ever! |
My roomie bought me some awesome socks (that I really needed) and some fireballs that will likely get me through the rest of the year. I love these things so much and was really excited to see them in the PX here. She actually bought all but two packages of them and only left those because she figured someone might want them.
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| Socks & fireballs. I'm set! |
The entire station sang to me on my birthday morning. It was priceless. They all signed a card and though I’ve only been here for a week now, I really do feel like I’m a part of the family. There are caring people here, and I like that a lot. Drama, of course, but I guess that can happen anywhere. Especially when there are three crews in a station, all of whom live together day after day after day… It’s bad enough when crews have to see each other at shift change. This “constant companion” business is a totally different world! But now, and for the next 11 months, it is my world. I had better get used to it.
Within my first few days, I got involved in a very entertaining, very frustrating project that took my roomie and I all over the camp… a few times. That was how we got our ride the other day, and that also gave us a chance to see the water bottling facility here. I had no idea how cool it was! We were just going around looking at buildings when we started chatting with the people at the facility. He asked if we needed to see inside, and we told him that we didn’t need to on for any professional reasons, but it would be cool to see if he was offering it in a civilian way. Juli and I were totally impressed. The bottles start off as something that looks like a test tube then it gets blown up and shaped, then the water goes in, the blue light of death purifies it even more, then it gets capped, labeled, and sent out for packaging. Then we got to see the water purification area. It was all so neat! We totally had a new appreciation for the water we’d been guzzling for the past few days. Who knew they could do something so cool in the middle of the desert?!? The whole time we were seeing this, I kept thinking that Mr. Rogers should have had something like this in his show! Maybe he did and I just missed that episode.
The weather has been sweltering hot. It was pretty rough to be out in it all day, during the heat of the day, with very little relief from the sun. We went into one building and the guy said it was only 100 outside. We told him that we saw a thermometer that said 120 and he said that was only in the sun. We pointed out that we, too, were in the sun. We were a good, comfortable 120. Well, we were 120. Not sure how good and comfortable it was. But we had a blast being out. You’re looking at two “dispatchers” who are paid to sit for 12 hours at a time, neither of which enjoys sitting at all. Being out and doing things all day was completely thrilling to us! We got to see real people, cool sights, feel the sand and rocks beneath our feet… Oh, and speaking of sand. Whew. This deserves another paragraph of its own.
Yesterday morning, I woke up early and had to make a trip outside. I feel like a dog—being sent outside to do… business. :) Anyway, I was a little confused with the morning sky. The sun was out but something wasn’t quite right, but that early in the morning, nobody can really tell what’s what. About an hour later, Juli headed outside and just stood at the door. That’s when I realized that the surreal sky was, in fact, sand. Yes, my dear friends, I got my first Afghanistan sand. Wow. So we had to brave the day a couple of times, but we had a day “off” so we didn’t have to be out walking in it for hours on end. Part way through the day, things calmed down a bit. Today was a different story. Wow again! Not only was the wind blowing harder and the sand thicker, it was also chilly because the sun was so obscured. The good news is that I came somewhat prepared for sand storms. Not too big a deal. I’ve grappled in the sand, and am no stranger to the feeling of sand in the ears, eyes, up the nose, all over the skin, inside clothes, on everything… but this stuff is vastly different from normal sand. It isn’t even visible on the skin, but you can sure feel it! When I went to shower tonight (somewhat pointless given the fact that by the time I got back to the station, I was completely covered in sand again), I untucked my shirt and just laughed at the difference in the color between what was tucked and what was exposed. I pointed that out to my chief a bit later and he checked his too. Sure enough, the tucked part of his shirt was rather white. The rest was definitely yellow. Once again, it’s a different world here!
Oh, for those who are interested, since it looks like I’m stayin’, I’ve got an address for you all to use.
Dana Veca
Dyncorp Fire Dept.
FOB Dwyer
FPO/AE 09373
Letters will be answered in the order they’re received, and any and all correspondences will be so appreciated!
Alright my friends, once again, it’s bedtime. I wanted to write so much more, but I’m a tired bunny today. These long days are great and they’re really helping me sleep well at night… eventually. I’m at that eventually. I’ll try to write more soon and give you a clue of what things are really like. The daily stuff. It’s so much fun. At least by my standards. I have to laugh at the guys who whine about this from our company. We all asked for it! What is there to complain about? The military has every right in the world to complain about their conditions. I’d say about 75% of the time, they don’t even really want to be here. Us? We signed up. Hardly seems a fair balance, does it? Heh, speaking of the military, I saw a guy today in the DFAC who used to work in the same building I did at Pendleton. What are the chances of that??? I’m actually somewhat surprised that I haven’t found more that I know here, but I may before the year is out.
Happy Monday to all of you at home. I hope it is as delightful as mine was.
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