Misconceptions

I was just reading an earlier post of mine and realized some of what I said was wrong so just wanted to clarify. I am not the only woman on this base...there are five now including me. One is Iraqi, at least one is Ugandan and I havent met the others. There is a woman's bathroom with one shower stall. I do have electricity in my trailer (and unlike the military who are four to a trailer I have my own) and i can even get a mini fridge and tv if i want (but there is really no need for a fridge since the DFAC is open 24 hours and is always stocked with diet coke and its not far from my trailer..what else do i need?) (and i dont know if i should get a tv because while there is satellite tv it is almost entirely in arabic). There are about 220 or 240 people on this base...the base has tripled in size recently and no one really knows why since the U.S. is supposed to be making our military footprint smaller. There are Ugandan soliers...maybe 30 or 40. The cooks and maintenance people are from India i think. We have our own little global presence right here in Karbala :)

Im leaving the base for the first time tomorrow morning. One of the other members of the PRT is doing a bit of probing to find out if officials want training/information on the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) and I want to get the Karbala judiciary involved in this so I'm going with on the mission. It will be good to see something outside the four walls of this base. I ran 5 miles today around our "track" (more like rock/gravel/sand/dirt path)...each lap is about .45 miles so it took quite a few laps and it was mind numbing. I did get to see a helicopter land right next to me on the pad and learned that is not something you want to witness up close unless you enjoy being pelted with gravel and inhaling dust.

I hardly slept at all last night because soldiers kept knocking on my door looking for the military person who was in my room before me (or at least that was their excuse :) so i'm off to bed early tonight.