Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Immernoch Pech Gehabt, part deux 08172008
The POETT group has a week to go. In two days, their replacements will be here. Arriving when I did, I think no one is trying hard to make me part of their team.I'm a late-comer, someone to be tolerated for a short time, while their collective minds are elsewhere. Maybe it'll take some time to become integrated with them,but they seem disinterested in a lot. I got a bunk and a sheet. I didn't get any blankets, nor even a piece of a blanket to screen off my hooch from the rest of the POETT enlisted area. Tonight, when the entire unit disappeared, I swept up the plywood tent. In the spare room where everyone parks their weapons, I saw two pieces of blanket wedged behind a flattened bunk, up against the wall. I remembered seeing a piece of 550 cord danglling from the corner of a container, so I "liberated" about 40" if cord. It wasn't quite long enough to tie around the two 2 x 4s that framed my doorway, but there was a small gap where a knot with a nail would not pull through, so I had just enough 55 cord to string my my half-blanket and I now have a door like everyone else. The other half-blanket piece, I'll use to keep myself warm. When they showed me my bunk last night, all I got was a sheet, so I slept under my towel.
I went all day without eating a meal because I didn't know where the chow arrived. There are a few small teams in this compound, Camp Gannon. The chow hall is in another small clump. And the shower trailers are in yet another small clump of plywood tents.
Perhaps I should clarify. The hooches aren't tents. They're structures made of plywood walls with sheetmetal roofs. The interior is partitioned into small hooches each an inch or two longer than a bunk, and about twice the width of a bunk. Thus you have just enough room for a bunk, and almost enough room to turn around.
Most guys have made shelves of 2 x 4 and plywood. This is where they keep their stuff- clothes, shaving gear, etc. My stuff remains in my rucksack. Now that I know where the chow should be, and where the laundry and showers should be, I'll make an effort to use them tomorrow. I lived on a handful of trail mix,beef jerky, popcorn and apple juice today. I don't think anyone is trying to make my life miserable, but I don't know how to ask "Where do you get hot food?"And no one seems concerned that I'm at loose ends.
Last night, the medic showed me how to use a Wag Bag- a single-use plastic bag for disposing of human excrement. But no one showed me the plastic tubes sticking out of the ground where you pee. Maybe it's me- maybe I need to speak up more. But I'm trying to refrain from seeming "needy." The group has been together for awhile, and I'm just someone who showed up at the eleventh hour. I don't know if we'll go to the port in the next two days. I suspect when the replacements arrive, I'll go along. The port is not too far. But with its proximity, these guys may not want to go any more.
I went all day without eating a meal because I didn't know where the chow arrived. There are a few small teams in this compound, Camp Gannon. The chow hall is in another small clump. And the shower trailers are in yet another small clump of plywood tents.
Perhaps I should clarify. The hooches aren't tents. They're structures made of plywood walls with sheetmetal roofs. The interior is partitioned into small hooches each an inch or two longer than a bunk, and about twice the width of a bunk. Thus you have just enough room for a bunk, and almost enough room to turn around.
Most guys have made shelves of 2 x 4 and plywood. This is where they keep their stuff- clothes, shaving gear, etc. My stuff remains in my rucksack. Now that I know where the chow should be, and where the laundry and showers should be, I'll make an effort to use them tomorrow. I lived on a handful of trail mix,beef jerky, popcorn and apple juice today. I don't think anyone is trying to make my life miserable, but I don't know how to ask "Where do you get hot food?"And no one seems concerned that I'm at loose ends.
Last night, the medic showed me how to use a Wag Bag- a single-use plastic bag for disposing of human excrement. But no one showed me the plastic tubes sticking out of the ground where you pee. Maybe it's me- maybe I need to speak up more. But I'm trying to refrain from seeming "needy." The group has been together for awhile, and I'm just someone who showed up at the eleventh hour. I don't know if we'll go to the port in the next two days. I suspect when the replacements arrive, I'll go along. The port is not too far. But with its proximity, these guys may not want to go any more.
# posted by rich @ 2:02 AM 
