Reasons

There's a combination of reasons why I haven't posted anything. Here's the top 5:

1) Internet has been down days at a time

2) I've been busy in the times when I have had internet

3) I've been lazy in the times when I haven't been busy and had internet

4) I was asleep

5) The dog ate my homework, a meteor hit my tent and blew up my 5 page draft where I had written on the times when I didn't have internet, and then a flood came through, washed everything away, but dried before I could take pictures because of the heat.

So, I'm going to admit that the top 5 is only 80% accurate. One of those reasons might be a little bit exagerated. I've taken tons of pictures of the town and people and stuff, so I'll be posting them little by little, but first is first. I did promise some pictures of my crib, so here they are:

Ok, the one on top is a picture of my area with the "curtain closed". The white thing in the right is our AC vent, which runs from that corner. You'd think that because i'm closer to the AC, my corner is cooler... no no nope. Think about the sun warming the tent, makes it very very hot. Well, i'm against two walls of the tent, which means i got more heat coming my way. Basically, my corner is warmer during the day, and cooler during the night.

The picture below is basically same as on top, but with the curtain open. I got a COT, with a small mattress on top. And a portable dvd player there on the matress. Helps kill some of the time.

The next two are the rest of the area, each picture turning 90 degrees. I got a 60 day calendar board to help me plan my stuff. The rest are the basics, coffee, goodies from the care packages, baby powder, etc... I also inherited a small desk from one of the guys that used to live here.

Well, there you go. That's where I live. It's got what I need and a little more. I got a small TV from the guys that we replaced and we placed it in the middle of the tent, where there's more room. One of my guys brought an XBOX 360, 4 controllers and some world war II style games. That's how they kill some time.

One last thing. We were driving through the town the other day and I had my camera out, taking some pictures of the locals. One thing I noticed, there's a lot of graffitis out here. So I took a picture of one of the graffiti's, and then I asked my interpreter what it meant.

The Interpreter read it a couple times, said there was a word or two he didn't understand, but this is what he came up with: "Chavez no se va!" (If you get it, you get it, if you don't, you don't). I guess they got one thing right over here.




So, that's all I got for now. I'll be posting some of the pictures I took from the people and the town on the next posts. Hope everybody's doing ok! Take care and i'll be reporting back soon!

ps. Vince, I got your package. I can tell you probably mailed a few to Neely when he was deployed. And the picture is hilarious, although I wouldn't show it to all my Soldiers though! Just the more senior ones.