Well, I made it safely to Kuwait very early this morning. We landed at Kuwait City, I called Sarema on an international-capable cell phone, drove around to a few of the American bases, and then ended up out here in the middle of the Kuwaiti Desert.
To bring this into perspective, the last time I deployed with the Army was to Haiti in 1994. We flew in to the country on a rickety C-130 transport, picked up our vehicles at the port, and moved onto an abandoned airfield. We had no buildings and only one tent for the entire company, so I slept outside on top of my Humvee for 2 weeks until we got a shipment of cots. Then I was able to build a little poncho hootch next to my vehicle to keep me dry when it rained every night. About three weeks after we arrived in country, a shower/bath unit showed up and I was able to take my first shower in 20-some-odd days. Although it was September/October, it was still oppressively hot and humid in Haiti and I
really needed a shower. We never even thought of having a PX (the Army's equivalent of a department store) and overall it was pretty austere living conditions.
Flash forward to 2005 and Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. I sleep inside a 60'x100' air-conditioned cement building with 50 other people. We have everything sectioned off into little four-man quads, separated by wall lockers with bunk beds. I share my quad with three other Majors: Dave, John, and Jim (a lawyer). There is ample electricity (though it's european voltage: 220V) for our laptops and an eventual TV. There is a HUGE PX here that sells munchies, toiletries, shoes, small rugs, DVDs, Xbox games, CDs, and even 8 models of televisions. I've seen worse PXs stateside.
I didn't want to go into detail on the latrine arrangements in Haiti, let's just say that it was
primitive. Here in Arifjan, the latrines and showers are outside the living quarters in little trailers, but at least there's porcelain inside them.
Also, if you don't feel like eating for free in the huge, air-conditioned chow hall, there is a small quad of eateries from the western hemisphere: Subway, KFC, Hardee's, Pizza Hut, Baskin-Robbins and even a Starbucks. I haven't tried the showers, yet, but at least they exist. Other than it being
FLIPPIN' HOT during the day (I mean seriously: it's like walking around with a hairdryer blowing in your face from 12 inches away!), this base isn't too bad. Dave and I were even saying that we feel kind of guilty for having this level of creature comforts while there is a war going on.
I'll write more soon and post a picture of our living conditions. Thanks for all your good wishes these past few weeks.
