Comfortable Familiarity

It's already been a month. Hard to believe but just like last time, the first few months tend to go by quickly. Being back here has been a little weird, but at the same time it's like I never left. Some things have changed, a few new buildings (a new dining facility), but mostly it is exactly how I left it August 2009.

When I was here last, I befriended a barber from India. When we first met, I asked him where he was from, a town west of Channai. As soon as I told him I had been there only a few years ago, his eyes lit up and he immediately said "It's nice, no?" Every two weeks I would go for a haircut and I would be sure he was the one to do it. It wasn't because I felt he did a better job, or that he spoke good English (because he knew only a few words, "Hello Sir", "How are you Sir?", "Same cut Sir?"), I did it because I knew that he took the job here to support his family back home and that every cent of the tip I left for him was going right back to India. As I was entering the barber shop to get my first haircut for this deployment, I scanned the room hoping to see him again. I didn't see him. But within seconds of stepping foot into the room, out of nowhere his beaming face called out to me and directed me back to the same chair he had been using for at least 3 years now. After exchanging "Namaste", in broken English he said "It's been long time" and to my surprise, "Same cut Sir?"

Along with finding that my usual hair cut was remembered, the all too familiar Stars and Stripes Newspaper is again part of my daily routine. Best part of that is the crossword I do. Nothing like the New York Times in difficulty rating but it's something that keeps my mind sharp.

One of the more noticeably waste of money spent by our government was on upgrades made on port-a-johns. I scratched my head and continue to mull over how this upgrade had gotten through the bureaucracy when the US has been in a recession the last 3 or 4 years. What's the upgrade? Figure this one out: All port-a-johns now have porcelain toilets and urinals with full flushing capabilities (self contained though which still requires a sewage truck to pump it out and a potable water truck to refill the water tank above the port-a-john). A quick Google search for pricing (literally just checked this @ plumbingsupply.com) shows that a brand new porcelain urinal is around $175 each and a porcelain toilet bowl according to newtondistributing.com is around $137 each. There are literally thousands of port-a-johns here alone...who the heck approved this to waste money like that??

Oh, and of course, just like last time, I got the Kuwaiti Krud again...love it.

One of the things I had to deal with the first weeks being here was living in a building that did not have unit integrity, meaning that myself and 2 other Captains were the only ones from our unit it in. Everyone else was from various other units deployed here. Being that I was the only one on night shift in the entire building and since there was no way to set down rules on being quiet at all times, my first weeks here for sleeping was miserable. I get off work around 10 or 1030am, head back to shower and get in bed by 1130. Problem was, the other people who lived in the building would come in during their lunch break, talking loud, turning up their music and turning on their TVs and lights. I spent the first few weeks getting very little sleep, being woken up multiple times by people shouting at each other from across the building. I finally got fed up with having to go into various areas and asking that TVs/iPods etc be turned down so I could sleep so I moved out of that building and into a new one. I hated having to pack all my things up and move them to a new building a few hundred yards away and all the work it took to get set up in my new place but I am thankful I did and have gotten really good sleep since. I have a bigger area to spread out in (lived in a 6ftx6ft in the old building). I'd say its probably about 6ftx20ft. Much better.

Oh, and going with the seemingly normal way the military works, I will be starting new job Sunday. I was originally slotted to be the Night Battle Captain for the first month to fill in for LT Turk who is arriving in the next few days and once he did I was to work a swing shift to oversee the day and night shift battle captains since I did the job last time I was deployed. However, my boss has informed me that with the current draw down plan upon us, he needs someone to take over the planning portion of how we will be executing the withdrawal efforts of the remaining units (approximately 100,000 Soldiers). Apparently the captain covering down on that job isn't getting it done and based on the bragging my previous bosses had done for me about my abilities, I got plucked out of what was planned originally and now I will be thrown into a job that I am an entire month behind in the knowledge power curve. Should be fun. It's a challenge and even though I'm sure its going to be tough, I know it's a good way to progress in my career.

Its going to be a busy 11 months....