Saturday, May 2, 2009

More From the Other Side of the World

Another email from Dad that I thought you might find interesting; especially the part about the camels.

~Janie

Day Two of the R and R

There are two self service machines at Taji.  They are always in demand as I
suspect they put our clothes in a large tub with soap and water, then have
them agitated by camels running in circles.  Unfortunately the camels do not
come equipped with a delicate cycle, so the clothes take quite a beating.
The lifespan of the clothes is greatly increased by doing your own wash.
This does not even take into account that the standard laundry service is a
three day turn around - longer than any transient is here.

At 0500 this AM the machines were full, so I (being prepared for once), sat
down to wait for an open machine.  One truck driver got there just after I
did and a steady stream of others followed suit ( no pun intended).  It took
until 0900 to get the clothes (one load) washed and dried.  Of course the
DFAC is closed for breakfast by then - oh well.

I did, however, reach the end of my "must do" list and am ready to leave
tomorrow.  I should be in Baghdad by tomorrow evening.  I got my phone
charged and in the middle of the night I was awakened by a mysterious noise
that was similar to my alarm clock.  The noise was my phone informing me
that I had three new voicemails.  I haven't opened them as it may take a
week's pay to satisfy the minutes charged.  How I can get voicemail when we
have no service is beyond me.

No comments:

Post a Comment