Is It Monday Yet?

Okay, it doesn't matter what day it is, it always feels the same. Week-end? Just 2 more days until Monday. Well, the Red Cross team gets a break anyway. We work shorter hours on Sunday and on every other Saturday; and we can wear our PT (okay, for military, it's Physical Training, but for us it's Personal Time!) Uniforms. That is, unless we have a meeting to attend, which I do every Saturday. The team members who work at night don't really see anyone, so they are okay to wear the PT's. We are doing about 40 emergency messages (or as NHQ has designated them--Emergency Communication Messages) per day. The ECMs start coming in at 5pm and continue on until 8am. Then it's onesies or twosies through-out the day.

Today, we had the Sergeant Major come into the office for a chat with the Red Cross ladies. He is looking forward to the day he can go home (which is not too long--within the next month or so) and be with his family. Also to be able to cook in his own kitchen. He loves cooking and was giving us recipes on making stuff out of noodles, canned chicken and Picante sauce. Sounded very high in sodium, but I can see it. He also talked about going to Wal-Mart or to Home Depot any time you want. He misses his family and being in CONUS after being here almost 15 months. He talked about some of his experiences in going outside the wire and visiting his troops. Most of the time he flys, but sometimes it's in a convoy, which is very dangerous. He talked about seeing some of the houses on the outside with the swimming pools and palm trees and getting ideas for his dream house. Its a great thing when a crusty old Sergeant Major, the senior enlisted person, comes and just sits and talks with the Red Cross--means he feels comfortable, he trusts us and knows we're the next best thing to home. We are glad to have him on our side. Well, that's all for today. Take care. Add comments!!

The Day Is Done

It's Easter and everywhere on the COB everyone is going around as normal groundhog day except for the occassional "Happy Easter". Somehow it just doesn't seem real. We are on short days this week end as the message traffic is not that much, thank goodness. So for me the day is done. I went to the post office and checked our "box" which is quite literally a cardboard box we share with several other companies. I received a box of stuff I ordered and one of the other team members received a letter. Go figure--not many of us receive snail mail, but when we do, it's a treat. I spoke with one of the other team leaders that is part of this entourage, and he has been at the COB before. I asked him about the "crack" house (a small house that is literally unsafe because of the cracks in the structure) that Red Cross employees used to live in. I drove by there initially on my tour of the base and they were not too safe looking. He confirmed Red Cross used to live there, but the buildings became too unsafe and they moved us to our current CHU's. He also relayed a story to me about his time here. He walked to and fro from the "crack house" to the office and each day he passed by a bone lying in the dirt. He didn't pay any attention to it until another worker mentioned seeing it. They decided to investigate and when they uncovered it, they found it was a human bone. The proper authorities were called and eventually they determined it was part of a femer from a person (from the Kurds) that had been put in a mass grave. Evidently, the place he was passing was a mass grave. Morbid, huh? Don't know why I shared that, other than it's part of the experience here--with death and dying. Well, on that note, think I will end this and do something more cheerful tomorrow. Take care and write or email when you get the chance. Also, post comments!

More Pixs

Thought you might enjoy seeing the landscape we see everyday. One is the landscape, the other is the stadium that has an outdoor track.

It's All in a Day

Okay, it just seems like it's groundhog day...it isn't really. I go into work at 6:30am (after stopping at the Greenbeanery for the Latte) review any messages or issues that came up during the night, sweep the dust in the office and empy the trash. At 9am Jan comes in, usually walks in, and is all agog about the dust or the ride or the heat. We watch the queue for Red Cross messages on illnesses, deaths, births or some other life event for our service members and civilians and when one comes in, we call it out and hopefully get a good line that doesn't sound like you are screaming down a well with an echo and extreme static. And hopefully you get a person that can write and spell or type and spell so that every letter in the message doesn't have to be screamed phonetically (Maybe I should learn to spell??) and the people across the hall do not have to hear about someones mother having a serious operation. After that's done we go to lunch at the main DFAC, walking over in the heat and dust. It's funny to see everything so dry and yet there are still puddles of water here and there. When we get to the entrance of the DFAC, the Ugandan guards want to see our ID and if there are new ones stare at it for a very long time and finally an experience one will tell them Red Cross is okay. So we go in, get our tray, plastic plate, plastic ware and go to the salad bar, healthy bar, or main line and always to the desert bar with B&R ice cream or huge homemade oatmeal, peanut butter or chocolate chip cookies. We find a table, grab a bottle of water or soda and sit. Sometimes the soldiers will join us. Sometimes not. Today, we had a doc from the hospital sit with us. He is a cardiac specialist from Fort Gordon and is here for 2 more months. Jan and I finally finish, dump our trash in the can and leave walking back. As it happens, the bathrooms in the building are not working and rather than try and fix them, we now have Porta Potties! Yea!! However, there is a trailer about 200 yards from the building we can walk to. The afternoon usually brings a swirl of computer problems, an influx of messages and phone calls and people coming into the office asking for phone cards so they can go to our Cantina/calling center and call home. There are some intersting conversations we sometimes overhear. We also make sure the ever brewing coffee pot has some of that wonderful Starbucks coffee in it for the troops, and that there are cups for them to get the coffee in. We bring in bottled water and make sure there is enough in the fridge for a cool bottle and that there is enough for the coffee. Finally 5 pm rolls around and Carol is in and it's time for me to go-back to the DFAC, upstairs to MWR or back to the CHU to rest. It's all in a day's work!

COB Speicher ARC

Well, as promised here are some pictures from a previous Red Cross team member of what our CHU's look like inside. You get the picutre. Will try to do more for the next post.

Groundhog Day

Okay, it's only been a week, but it feels like we have been here forever. Think my team mates are getting a little testy with one another, but it is to be expected. We finally made the office our own by moving it around a bit. Found layer upon layer of dust and dirt. Yuk! It's a never ending battle. And our SUV looks like is is a reddish-orange instead of white. Go figure. I have met many intersting people here. One that really keeps us entertained during the day is a young airman that looks to be almost 18 years old (although he tries to convince us he is much older). He comes in on St Paddys day, dancing a jig and always has something funny to say. Jan mentioned she had a scorpion visitor that she had killed with the fire extinguisher and he was asking if she still has it, as he would like to see a scorpion while he was here. He asked her to bring it in a bottle if she sees one again. And then he mentioned he had a praying mantis that landed on his shoulder and made faces to simulate what the praying mantis looked like. Very amusing. He is part of our security that makes our base safe, including giving out traffic tickets and investigating crimes. He got here in December and will be here for 6 months then go home for 4 to 6 months then return for another 6 months. States in some ways, Air Force has it worse that the Army in that they are back and forth every 6 months, while the Army is here for 15 months and then are back for a year or 2. Either way, it's a strain on all involved.

Another intersting person I met on the way here was a young woman from Arkansas who is a civilian mechanic, and works on Humvees as well as other military vehicles. She spoke with a definate Arkansas Twang, but spoke of the vehicles as her "babies". She was proud to share that she could take one apart and put it back together. She sounded as if she had a very hard life, coming from an abusive relationship and pulling herself up by the shoestrings to work in the Army Depot building vehicles and now going to Kuwait to build more for our troops. She says she is not ready to go into Iraq yet, but from the way she spoke, I know she has more courage than many people I know. Anyway, was a person I think I will always remember.

Well, that's it for this post. Will try to see if I can upload some pictures of our CHU's and what our office looks like. Thanks to all who email me. Keep them coming!!

Happy St Paddy's Day!