A Typical Day

I wake up early in the morning, before the sun rises, and head out to work for the day. The mornings are starting to get cool here now. It’s very dark over here, there’s no such thing as light pollution. You can see every single star in the sky. Sometimes when I look up at the sky, its beauty makes me forget that I am in the middle of a war zone.

Everyday at work is very much like the next. I have my regulars who come in at the same time every day. These guys are the cooks, guards, medics, mechanics, and others who usually stay inside the wire and have a regular schedule. Everybody else is unpredictable, coming in when they come off missions, about to go out on missions, or sometime in between sleeping and eating. There are some guys that come in every few days and some that haven’t come in a month; some have more time than others.

Every now and then I get a few guys who sit down and talk with me while waiting on their buddies to finish calling home. They tell me about their missions; about how many times they’ve been blown up, how life is at Roe and Joe, and then what they’re going to when they get home.

Some days sounds of the artillery are heard, other days there are explosions. Every time those rounds go off, the whole internet café jumps almost out of their seats until one of the more informed guys says that it’s only outgoing. One day we heard an explosion in the early afternoon and found out at dinner that it was the sound of our guys getting blown up by an IED. That day the guys weren’t so lucky and a few of them had to be medivaced out.

After work I sometimes hang out at the MWR tent and watch a movie with the rest of the guys until chow time. Most movies never make it all the way through because they are poor quality bootleg DVD’s bought from the local nationals. Movies are the best selling items here on FOB St. Michael, it takes peoples’ minds off of reality for a while.

The other day I went to the guard shack about a shipment I had received the day before. While I waited on the Sgt I needed to see I hung out with a few of our guards who were on call for emergencies. I sat and played catch with one of the guys while the others got haircuts from a talented Sgt with a pair of clippers. He tried to lure me into the chair for a trim, but I had to decline. They sat around just talking since their DVD player was broken. They have a little can on top of the TV for donations to buy a new one. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to buy one before we leave at the rate they are going.

Chow time is a great time for me to talk with people I don’t see very often. It’s also a good time to watch the news. There’s a TV with a satellite connection in the chow hall, so it’s the only place to watch “real TV”. The food is pretty good here for the most part. Our cooks do well with what they have, and they always make sure to fill your plate. The best thing we have had so far is a cheese cake that was shipped in one time. I have no idea what brand it was, but it was incredible.

I usually go to sleep just as the sun sets here on our tiny FOB. Some nights it’s hard to sleep because the wind is blowing so hard that the tent hits up against the cots inside. Some nights the sounds of artillery keeps me awake. It’s also difficult because everyone has a different schedule in the tent. Some work days and some work nights, and others work sometime in between the two. A few of the people in my tent have put up partitions in an attempt to gain a little more privacy. That is definitely one thing that is hard to come by here.

Most days here are indistinguishable from the next here, but they are going by steadily. I only wish they would go by faster.