Hillah, Iraq.
I heard one of the KBR employees called life in Camp Charlie “Groundhog Day”, referencing the Bill Murray movie. This is a perfect term. The personnel that don’t go outside the wire wake up at the same time every day, use the same shower and bathroom, eat at the same time (often at the same table), and work in the same place every day. Nothing changes. The weather doesn’t change, the scenery doesn’t change, the commute doesn’t change, and the menu really doesn’t vary that much.
Today was an exception on the menu front. Well, not really the menu exactly, but Pineapple Juice upset the drinkbox world with its surprise appearance. All of the other juices went virtually untouched as Pineapple was the star of the day. By the way, pineapple juice is awesome.We spent the morning making Hearts and Mind Bags to hand out to kids.
People have been extremely generous by sending lots of stuff that kids would love or need: Hot Wheels, pencils, pens, candy, paper, bracelets, sunglasses, toothbrushes, hats, stickers, chalk, balls, and a bunch of other stuff. We made over sixty bags, and loaded them into boxes so that all we have to do is grab a box when we go on a mission.
The cammie netting has been strung on the pool, and the pool is ready to be opened. We are going to put a deck up, but, really it is ready for business. We have planned a big 4th of July opening, with the El Salvadoran colonel cutting the ribbon.
As I previously mentioned, the Poles are really upset over our pool. I took a picture of their totally un-American sized pool for your comparison.
Their pool is approximately three feet deep, perhaps six wide, and maybe ten feet long. This is proof positive why Europe only produces finicky little sports cars, while America is the country that brought you the Chevrolet K5 Blazer with full time four wheel drive and a 350 V-8 engine: we think big.Work on the pool had to be stopped for a mission. The embassy guys noticed a house across the river with a lot of suspicious activity, so they went to investigate. They found a bunch of guys with guns over there so were sort of vague about what they were doing there. In fact, these strange guys started asking a lot of questions about the embassy, such as how many people live there, where is the chow hall, etc. Given the increased security that the 4th of July demands, the guards were very interested in learning more about these guys, so they called the Justice League. We loaded up for the very quick trip to this house. This was not a SWAT or Iraqi Army evolution, so things went really smoothly as we rolled up to the house. While the Green Berets kicked down doors, I watched the street. This street was particularly littered with garbage, which kept the dog barking down as they were busy rooting around. Soon kids came out to see what was going on, which is always a good sign. I got a chance to use some of the Hearts and Minds Bags that we put together.
The guys that were there seemed to be legit, so we went back to Camp Charlie. When we got back, the pool chemicals had arrived, so we dumped in a bunch of chlorine, as well as a variety of other chemicals, including one that bonds to stuff suspended in the water and sinks to the bottom. I am sure that all these chemicals are no less harmful that the anti-mosquito chemical treatment my cammies required.
Mail arrived today. I got a boatload of mail, including a lot of great stuff for Hearts and Minds (HNM) bags. Becky sent Fandango on DVD, which is superb. Best package of all came from my Beautiful Bride. In addition to the highly valued oh so silky American toilet paper, she included an MP3 capable car stereo and some high output speakers. I suspect I will probably have the only armored truck on the planet with a heavy machine gun AND a kickin’ sound system.There is a relatively new Air Force Captain here who has taken over the job of Quality Control for KBR. His actual job is to inspect the work that KBR does, but KBR has been using him as the heavy to catch people they feel have done work that KBR should have done, or modified work they feel they have a right to do. The KBR folks discovered our pool pumps (even though they have very little right to enter our area of camp), and are really upset because they say that the generators are already at capacity. They sent the captain over to tell us that our pool pumps were taxing the 800 kilowatt generator.”KBR says that the pumps are using too much electricity.”I replied, “They only draw 4.5 amps at 230 volts.”
[deer in headlights look]
Aha, I thought. You are a layman, so I will explain it to you in technical terms…”You see, I have two pumps at 230 volts that draw a maximum load of 4.5 amps. There were two spare breakers in the panel, each rated at 15 amps, so I just wired each pump on its own circuit. Furthermore, the C-Hut is drastically over air conditioned, so I secured the breaker for one air conditioner. That air conditioner unit draws 2700 watts, so, really, the pumps consume less energy.””…”, he said.
“I traded an air conditioner for the pumps, and we use less electricity.””Oh, good.” he replied, happy to have something to tell KBR.We finished up the day by watching Fandango on the projection TV, eating microwave popcorn and soft baked cookies. It was great.