Post by Update 4 on Mar 15, 2008 12:38:08 GMT -5
It looks like this is starting to be the standard weekly update every Saturday morning. I thought about calling it the weekend update, but that would be doing a disservice to Saturday Night Live. Maybe we’ll just call it the Saturday morning update? I can’t guarantee it every week but I’ll try. Don’t get worried if you don’t see it, just know that we are busy and will get to it soon.
The week was a good one. We had some easy days and some tough, long ones, but all in all we got a lot accomplished. Today it was capped off by going to the Grand Opening for a new Clinic. A number of Sheiks came out and this clinic is going to help a lot of people.
Weather always seems to be a topic of discussion, and it keeps getting more and more interesting here. First it was hot, and the A/C units weren’t working right. Luckily, Cpl. Mia and Cpl. Vee were able to solve the mystery with a simple blast of a pressure washer. Basically, mud had clogged up the intakes and just needed cleaned out. Back home you might plow snow, but here we’ve actually seen mud being plowed because it is so bad. Now the A/C’s work and it is actually cold in the trucks sometimes.
Cpl. Johnson and LCpl. Ray have started to be entertained by jokes and riddles from Jack the interpreter (not our Jack, the old one). LCpl. Ray might have discovered his hidden talent for comedy. Maybe if enough people request it, he’ll post one of his jokes.
Something must have been in the water this week or at least for our drivers. PFC. Oliveras, Doc Laranang, and LCpl. Ray all had some issues with driving this week. Most of them involving random curbs. Pretty sure our next project should be to have someone paint lines on the roads and make the curbs all bright yellow. Maybe that would help….maybe.
The team made an effort this week to introduce football to the Iraqis. Not soccer, but actual football. It’s pretty funny because they don’t seem to know what to do with a ball shaped like that. We might have well handed them a banana and said go play. In time we’ll get them ready, because we hope to have a Team 3 vs. Iraq Football game.
I’m not sure if the people back home realize exactly how much of a cultural experience this is for the Team. Not just with the Iraqis but in many ways it’s a miniature world’s fair everyday around here. Look at it this way. We are Americans in Iraq who are eating Mexican food fixed by a lady from South Carolina at a chow hall guarded by Ugandans and worked by Philipinos. Truly the multi-cultural experience. For now we don’t get this exactly because we don’t really have a chow hall per se. Most of the time we are eating well, but not quite the healthiest food. Marines run on their stomachs and with the food that is available here, those stomachs are full of Honey buns, a favorite of the team.
Until next week that’s all I’ve got. Thanks to those of you who made posts to the forum. Don’t worry, MAMAMIA, Cpl. Mia wasn’t embarrassed. I hope that more people will make posts on there and let us know if you have questions about what we are doing. Don’t be afraid to post. Thanks for all the support.
The week was a good one. We had some easy days and some tough, long ones, but all in all we got a lot accomplished. Today it was capped off by going to the Grand Opening for a new Clinic. A number of Sheiks came out and this clinic is going to help a lot of people.
Weather always seems to be a topic of discussion, and it keeps getting more and more interesting here. First it was hot, and the A/C units weren’t working right. Luckily, Cpl. Mia and Cpl. Vee were able to solve the mystery with a simple blast of a pressure washer. Basically, mud had clogged up the intakes and just needed cleaned out. Back home you might plow snow, but here we’ve actually seen mud being plowed because it is so bad. Now the A/C’s work and it is actually cold in the trucks sometimes.
Cpl. Johnson and LCpl. Ray have started to be entertained by jokes and riddles from Jack the interpreter (not our Jack, the old one). LCpl. Ray might have discovered his hidden talent for comedy. Maybe if enough people request it, he’ll post one of his jokes.
Something must have been in the water this week or at least for our drivers. PFC. Oliveras, Doc Laranang, and LCpl. Ray all had some issues with driving this week. Most of them involving random curbs. Pretty sure our next project should be to have someone paint lines on the roads and make the curbs all bright yellow. Maybe that would help….maybe.
The team made an effort this week to introduce football to the Iraqis. Not soccer, but actual football. It’s pretty funny because they don’t seem to know what to do with a ball shaped like that. We might have well handed them a banana and said go play. In time we’ll get them ready, because we hope to have a Team 3 vs. Iraq Football game.
I’m not sure if the people back home realize exactly how much of a cultural experience this is for the Team. Not just with the Iraqis but in many ways it’s a miniature world’s fair everyday around here. Look at it this way. We are Americans in Iraq who are eating Mexican food fixed by a lady from South Carolina at a chow hall guarded by Ugandans and worked by Philipinos. Truly the multi-cultural experience. For now we don’t get this exactly because we don’t really have a chow hall per se. Most of the time we are eating well, but not quite the healthiest food. Marines run on their stomachs and with the food that is available here, those stomachs are full of Honey buns, a favorite of the team.
Until next week that’s all I’ve got. Thanks to those of you who made posts to the forum. Don’t worry, MAMAMIA, Cpl. Mia wasn’t embarrassed. I hope that more people will make posts on there and let us know if you have questions about what we are doing. Don’t be afraid to post. Thanks for all the support.