I know what you are going to ask

Just to let you all know, I am back in JBB for now.  I have returned from R&R and have resumed my duties here. 

I also wanted to share that as part of a now-that-I-think-of-it ill-conceived pre-R&R agreement with the Battalion XO I got a "high and tight" flat-top haircut yesterday.  It looks amusing. 

Now, the answer to the question I know you are all asking is: no, I will not send any pictures.

Kosher (for passover) MREs

Let's see if these made it to JBB in time.  

In transit to R&R

I am now en route to the US for some R&R. I flew from Iraq to Kuwait, from Kuwait to Ireland, and we are now headed from Ireland to Atlanta where I will catch a flight to NY.

I will be in Brooklyn for the better part of my two weeks with some respite somewhere else. Call me if you want to get together. My usual number will not work until I return for good int he summer. So use the funny "Google Call" button on the side of this page to call me.

Life in JBB - IBA holders

No matter who you are, these things look weird when you first get here.  They are all over and everyone thinks they are something else.  I personally thought that they were memorial things for people who were killed.  Some people thought they were religious items.  Other people had no idea what to make of them.  But really they are holders for your individual body armor (IBA) and Kevlar helmet.  They look like little crucifixes and really are creepy at first.  Most people keep their body armor on it.  I usually just keep my knapsack and bicycle helmet on mine.  I leave my body armor under my bed.  Many people like to keep that stuff at work.  It really depends on what you do and where you spend most of your time.  But the truth is, it really doesn't matter where you keep your body armor since you hardly wear it here.  But the holders are really odd.  I asked our guy who makes them to make sure mine was the tallest one.  It is actually almost lifesize.  The two pictures show what the holders look like - the first is mine next to a regular one in my office.  The next one is a picture of the holder being used properly with the IBA and Kevlar. 

Sand storm

We are in the middle of a sand storm now.  It is pretty gritty out there.

Life in JBB - Laundry

There are a number of laundry options here at JBB. Most people use the standard laundry option. Basically that means that you give your laundry to some office run by TCNs (third country nationals) and then you pick it up from them three days later. I am not such a big fan, but it is fairly reliable, though people claim to have had stuff lost. The office is right near where I live, so it is not so bad.

There must be many offices that do this, but I only know about the one near me.

There is also another laundry which (because we are special) we can use. Not everyone can use it and it is on the other side of the post, but you can turn in laundry and they will return it to you in 24 hours.

There is also a self-serve laundromat. Just bring in your stuff and use the machines to wash and dry your clothes. They have a lot of machines, but it is often full. You have to go at odd hours to get your laundry done.

I understand there is also a place where you can have your clothing pressed, but I have no idea why anyone would want to do that.

Life in JBB - Water

I was actually fairly surprised how good the water here tastes.  I would not drink whatever comes out of the sinks here, though the signs all say that it is potable (drinkable).  What we do get in abundance here is bottled water here and it tastes pretty good. 

 

Wherever you go you see a huge pallets with hundreds of clear 1 litre plastic bottles of water.  People just take a 12-pack back to their room every now and then.  Most of the offices have these pallets nearby and they restock whenever they run out.  The DFACs have refrigerators full.  Many office refrigerators have signs that tell you to take water and replace it with one that is not cold.   A forklift comes by every now and then and drops off new pallets of water whenever they run out. The water is stored in this big lot that I pass by every now and then that just has acres of pallets of water.  I have a feeling that we have been consuming more water here than Iraq has consumed in its whole history. 

 

Rumor has it that the water we shower with comes from a rather ugly looking river just near JBB and it is cleaned.  But that is just a rumor.  I am not sure I believe it though.  I have seen what they call "reverse osmosis water filters" that make the water we use here. 

 

Oddly enough, you can actually purchase water in the PX too.  It cost something like $0.68 for a one litre bottle, though I can't imagine who buys it when you can just take as much as you want from what is laying around.   

Jewish documents from Baghdad U library

This AP article is interesting. Personally I wouldn't return anything to this country until it was completely stable.

Brooklyn

Here is the flag of Brooklyn flying over Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

Life in JBB - Money

I have not spent much money since I have been here.  I neither have time to spend it, nor time to look for things to buy, nor time to shop, nor time to use stuff that I would buy.  Moreover, there is nothing I really need.  The army is pretty good at providing food, clothing, and most other eseentials.  Other useful things come in care packages, like more food from home and toiletries.  Once in a while I have to spend money, like when I want a haircut or some other things from the PX or one of the stores. 

We have various money options here in Iraq.  Most places accept credit or debit cards if they are Visa or Mastercard.  Many places also accept cash, American cash.  However, while we use American dollars we do not use American cents.  We use AAFES change.  AAFES is what used to be called (and sometimes is still called) the PX.  AAFES is the army store and they have pogs instead of change, so it is rare to see a quarter here.  Here is a picture of some AAFES change.  They have all sorts of military pictures on them.  We also have "Eagle Cash" which is an Army Debit Card which is accepted in almost every place on post that charges for something.  There are machines that let you load the card with money that gets taken straight from your bank account and then you can spend the money using that card.  The post office here takes Eagle Cash and Cash, but not the AAFES change.  The "Haji shops", where you can buy pirated DVDs and software takes almost anything.  The restaurants take all forms of payment too. 

But again, there is just not all that much to buy here. 

 

Life in JBB - Showers

As Army showers go, the ones we have here are pretty ordinary.  We not not have plumbing in our CHUs, so one must leave their CHU if they want to use one of them.  The showers are in large trailers that have about 12 sinks and 12 showers, each shower covered by a cheap and rather uninteresting shower curtain.  Yes, they are in ordinary free-standing trailers and there are lots of them around the post, especially near the living quarters, though some are in pretty random places.

 

To get to the trailers closest to me, I have leave my CHU and walk about 2 minutes across a large gravel lot.  When I go to shower I usually wear flip-flops and Army Shorts and an Army T-shirt. The walk is very annoying for a lot of reasons.  First, flip-flops and gravel don't go well together.  Second, if it has just rained, flip-flops and mud and puddles really don't mix.  This is especially true for the way back after I have showered and have to return back to my room by slogging through all mud again.  Third, sometimes it is just cold and who wants to go leave the building in the cold to shower? And who wants to walk back in the cold after a shower? 

 

The trailers are almost always clean.  And while that is a good thing, they are always clean because there is always someone there cleaning them.  There is always a TCN (third-country national) trying to wipe down the sinks or squeegee the floors while you are there.  They are really polite and don't get in the way, but they are always there.

 

There is usually hot water, but not always. Once in a while I was forced to make do with a cold shower.  But that's rare.  It is also pretty rare that you have to wait for a sink or shower.  Actually, that has never happened to me.  Usually, when I go, there aren't more than three or four people using the trailer.  So it is not that bad. 

 

Now you know how I shave, shower, and brush my teeth each and every morning. 

Weekend getaway

I was able to spend the weekend in VBC - Victory Base Complex in Baghdad.    I got to see some of Saddam Heussain's palaces and the compound.  It was good to get away from JBB.  I'm back now. 

Life in JBB - Clean hands

Each DFAC (Dining Facility) here (and there are four of them) has an antechamber with about 15 sinks and lots of paper towels that all have the consistency of toilet paper.  Everyone washes their hands before entering the DFAC to eat.  Hand washing prior to meals is not normally that interesting, but in this case it is because there is no such room with sinks in any of the DFACs in the US that I have been to.  I guess that you are expected to come to DFACs in the US with clean hands, whereas here, people may be coming from the field with dirty hands.  So the sink room is something you only see here.  Perhaps it is related to the dirt. And almost everyone entering the DFAC uses washes their hands - the soldiers, the TCNs (third country nationals from places like Nepal, Uganda, or Bangladesh), the locals, and the US civilian contractors.  I have actually seen people make nasty remarks when people just walk in to the dining room without washing their hands (I witnessed this personally). 

 

On a related note, though I don't like using the stuff, hand sanitizer is fairly ubiquitous.  Wherever you go, every office, latrine, room, etc, has hand sanitizer.  The USO put it in the little kits they gave us, it comes in care packages, they are attached to the latrines, and they are generally all about.  I have a bottle on my desk.  I got new bottles as part of a "flu kit" that just contained hand sanitizer and cheap tissues.  It is quite normal for people to asent-mindedly use some while standing by a desk, in a meeting, outside, or wherever. I caught myself doing it yesterday.  Actually, I think I have used so much hand sanitizer at this point that I can tell the difference between the different brands by the way my hands feel a few seconds after rubbing that stuff on them.  Some brands leave your hand feeling refreshed in that alcohol wipe sort of way, others leave your hand feeling sticky, and others have moisturizer. 

Life on JBB - Coffee

Here on JBB we have many coffee options. For starters, each of the four DFACs (Dining Facilities) has coffee machines and to-go cups. So you can get regular coffee there. They actually only have regular coffee - none of that "unleaded" stuff, as some here might call it. Actually, two of the DFACS have two coffee machines: the first is labeled "regular coffee", the second is labeled "strong coffee".

The DFAC closest to my room has the worst coffee of the four DFACs on JBB and their to-go cups don't work well either. They have those Styrofoam cups with those clear flat plastic lids that belong on cups of soda and always manage to drip. The DFAC nearest my work makes a pretty good coffee and they also have decent to-go cups too. The good cups are those paper cups with white plastic lids with the little hole for drinking. The DFAC I usually go to for lunch has good coffee but bad cups. I try to take a stash of the good cups with me to use in the morning when I make my morning coffee. I also try to grab a whole bunch of those tiny little cups of flavored creamer that they have. Those do not need refrigeration, so I can keep them in my room. I do not have a refrigerator, so I cannot take milk back to my CHU.

In my CHU I have a French Press to make coffee, and I also have a plastic thingy that makes a good drip coffee, like a coffee maker would. I have plenty of regular coffee maker coffee around. I use the French Press on Sundays when I have some time to clean it. I prefer French pressed coffee, but without a sink, cleaning the press is annoying and time consuming. Mostly I make instant coffee. Starbucks has good fine powdery instant coffee that I was sent (THANKS!). I am growing to like that (and also running out; hint hint). I have those tea-bag-like Folger's instant coffees which are OK too in a pinch.

There are also at least two stores that sell coffee here on JBB. First there is a Cinnabon store near the PX where you can buy a fairly decent cup of coffee and there is at least one and maybe more, Green Beans Coffee, one (I think) on the Air Force side of the FOB and the other on my side but inside an Air Force compound.

My office also has a few coffee machines, but for some reason I have never had coffee from them. Believe it or not, I'm trying to cut down.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving here as well.  As you can imagine the Army does celebrate it.  We alas did not really do too much it honor of the holiday.  I was out of work by 6 PM, which is 1-4 hours earlier than normal.  We noticed throughout the day that other Army units we needed to coordinate with were not picking up the phone or answering emails, leading us to believe that many units were celebrating Thanksgiving more than we were. 

 

I did get to participate in an Army Thanksgiving tradition where the officers (including yours truly) served food to the enlisted soldiers.  So I served corn, green beans, and turnip greens (whatever those are) for about 45 minutes. Typically enlisted soldiers serve the food, though the past few years the trend is to hire civilians to serve the food.  Most of the food service here is done by TCNs (Third Country Nationals); these are non-Americans, non-locals. So we relieved them of their serving duties for lunch.  It was much less stressful than my regular job.