Blather

This post is a bit unusual because I'm doing this straight from the only functioning internet location without first drafting and subsequently editing my post.

The team left for the port today, so I took the opportunity to do some laundry. Wearing my last clean clothes, I scrounged a freight-damaged three-hole sink with no drains. I scrubbed the sand from it, then cut three bottoms from garbage-salvaged cereal containers and duct-taped the lids to the bottom of the sinks, making a nice, water-tight container. I used about 18 liters of water to wash, 12 to rinse and the third sink became my "wet clothes drain here" container.

Hand-washing socks, underwear, T-shirts, golf shirts, 511 pants and shirts took awhile. Rinsing was not so difficult. Then I had to use a clean cardboard box to hold my wet laundry while I nailed two nails behind the Wag Bag Shack and tied 550 cord to the Hesco walls for a clothesline.

I watched AlJazeera English TV's show on "Israel- the Promised Land?" for awhile, then checked my clothes. When I put them on the line, they were dripping; after a half hour, they were merely damp. I'm hoping they'll be dry soon, so I can put them away.

I noticed that some of the sand-colored stains hadn't come out in the wash. Iraq's sand is so fine, it's like powder. Powder so fine it won't come out with soap and water. Or maybe what my clothes need is better washing.

Thus my morning has involved trash, tape, laundry soap, hammer and nails and some chagrin at my less-than-perfect hand-washing skills.