Hillah, Iraq.

We are taking it easy today, which I think we have earned considering all the work with the Minister of Defense. I cleaned my room thoroughly, including the filter in the air conditioner. I changed my sheets, and loaded up my bag to take to the laundry. I swept the floor, and liberally dosed it with the foo foo smelling disinfectant that the previous occupant left me.

When I dropped off my laundry, the Iraqi guy commented on my watch, a Citizen Aqualand Duplex. Imitation Rolexes (called Fauxlexes by the Americans) are very cheap here. He asked me what kind of watch I had, and I told him. He arched an eyebrow and asked if it was real.”Oh, yes. It was a gift from my wife.” This was amazing to him. I know he was impressed that it was real, but I also suspect that he couldn’t believe a woman would give her husband such a nice gift.The Warrant Officer and I finally got around to putting our respective stickers on our vehicles.

These are the humvees belonging to the Army Special Forces guys.

As you may have guessed, they are NASCAR fans. The 2 car is called The Punisher because it had no air conditioner until about three weeks ago.

The Marines are going to find out which NASCAR cars are sponsored by the Navy and the Marine Corps, and number our humvees appropriately. Humvees are not very roomy. It is a lot like being in the cockpit of an airplane. You have to be pretty organized, as you really don’t have a lot of space, and if you drop something, it is going to be very hard to pick it up wearing all the armor and gear. I keep all the important stuff tied to my armor (GPS, flashlight, radios).This is the driver’s seat of a humvee:

and looking back from the driver’s seat:

Looking forward from the SAW gunner’s seat:

You can see the hole in the roof that is the turret. A humvee crew consists typically of five: driver, vehicle commander, SAW gunner, back seat gunner, and the upgunner in the turret.It occurred to me that I really have taken no pictures of Camp Charlie. This is the grain elevator right outside the camp. There are snipers in the top, and they shoot at pretty much anything outside the fence after dark.

I use the grain elevator as a contact point to talk on air planes. If you have any doubts about how hard it is to talk on, try to talk somebody onto the water tower using nothing but words.This is how the camp looks from the top of the SF building.

Those containers are the trailers we live in. The large tent to the right of the El Salvadoran flag is the chow hall in this photo:

We just opened a new gym. Here is the old gym:

It is the cammie netting over a loading dock, behind the trucks.Here is the new gym.

The Arabic writing says something like “God bless the nation that gave us Saddam Hussein”. One of our Marines from New York City has already sent for spray paint. The inside has been cleaned up, and will be quite nice.

It is better than working out in the sunshine. Today is also the day that the showers and toilets get cleaned. This is great for many reasons. Most importantly, there is toilet paper again, which should all be gone by sunset as it gets hoarded. Also, cleaning day is the best chance to use a toilet that has not been soiled into a thoroughly vile state. Finally, cleaning day means a shower redolent with the heady scent of Clorox. It requires three Iraqis to clean the showers and toilets. One cleans the showers, one cleans the toilets, and one smokes cigarettes. They switch jobs often.Went for a run, and I feel pretty out of shape. I plan on starting a workout routine, now that we are settled.

I realized today how hard it is to get along without running water handy. We have plenty of bottled water available, but it is tough as I am so used to running water and a sink.

My smallpox is finally looking like it is healing up, too. Tonight I also learned that you should always make way on the sidewalk, no matter how narrow, for someone running to the bathrooms.