Sunday, July 5, 2009

That's Desert With One "S"

Marc was able to call today from Kuwait. He is on a military base there, the name of which has already escaped me. He has an orientation briefing tomorrow (or today, in Iraqi time...they are 8hrs ahead of CST). Then he will wait until a flight can be arranged from Kuwait to Kirkuk, Iraq (the original destination), which will probably be the middle or end of the week. Here are a few bullet points from our conversation...
  • It is hot and sandy. Straight up desert. He said the heat will take your breath away when you walk outside, but you don't really sweat since it is so dry. There is a constant "breeze," creating a sort of convection oven feel and lots of airborne sand to be randomly deposited on EVERYTHING
  • He has quite a bit of jet lag. When I talked to him, it was about 11pm there. He had to be up at 3:30am, but he wasn't really tired since he had only been awake for about 6hrs. He said he is not really sure when to eat and is just caculating his next meal time by the clock since his stomach is also adjusting to the time change. "The chow is not too bad," and they have a Starbucks there!
  • He is sleeping in a tent on a cot (see picture above). It is basically one big room lined on either wall with cots, which he claims are relatively comfortable. There IS air conditioning. When he arrives at Kirkuk, his accomodations should improve significantly. He will have an actually room with one (or possibly no) roommate.
  • He purchased an internet card for the week, so he will be able to be online when the connection cooperates. It was good for the kids and me to see his face via web cam! God is good.

2 comments:

  1. really a Starbucks? no way

    this blog is so helpful! God is good, glad the web cam is working for y'all

    ReplyDelete
  2. The picture of Marc as a cool Blair Witch-like feel to it.

    ReplyDelete