Temperature at Lunch - 126

Well then, this'll be my first, hopefully of a few. I am sitting in my office (for lack of a better term) in thewonderful, glorious, city of Baghdad. Well, not exactly in Baghdad, as that would be a little too dangerous. But quite near it. Sorry, that's one of the things I won't be able to mention. Other things I can't really mention: precisely what it is I'm doing, why I'm doing it, or what I've accomplished. And finally, please don't ask me what I think about what's going on over here. I have a very limited job, focusing on only a couple things, and if Ivory Tower ever described anyone, it's me at the moment.

But, I can point out some of the silliness, some of the weirdness, and constantly point out the heat! (Did I mention it was 126 yesterday?) I don't know if anyone can imagine that without having actually experienced it. It's HOT. combine that with the wonderfully functional A/C units we have here, and it's quite an experience.

Yesterday, the A/C in my tent stopped working, so when I got home, it was about 110 or so inside the tent. That was an experience. So hot that you just don't want to move. I sweat through my t-shirt in about five minutes. What other wonderful amenities to talk about? Oh yeah - toilets. For about a week and a half, I had to use the Port-a-Johns just outside the tents. That's another wonderful experience, when you start sweating because inside the box is hotter than outside (did I mention 126?). Luckily, I found out that there are flush toilets a few minutes walk away, so that's sorted. You know, you never really appreciate the joy of indoor plumbing until you've lived without it for a week. And I don't know what's worse, going into a latrine at the end of the day when it reeks of sweat, piss, and shit, or right after its been washed, when there's water dripping on you (they just spray itwith a hose), and there's the incredibly acrid odor of the cleaning agent that gets in your nose and just burns.

Well, I think that's enough for one day, I'll write about the wonders of laundry bags in a little bit.