Hangin' in there

There must be a little-publicized water surplus in the city of Kirkuk, because our FOB decided to have ANOTHER wet and wild event this past weekend. And, naturally, some element of competition is essential to any worthwhile endeavor at a military installation. Thus, in deference to that recent Ben Stiller movie with so many great lines, the Services group put on the KRAB "Water Balloon Dodge Ball Tournament". Sixteen teams of five signed up (yes, there really isn't much else to do on Sunday afternoons) and vied for the title....and, as is often the case, our EMEDS team bested them all and strutted victoriously to Mongolian BBQ night at the DFAC (dining facility...it's important for our intellectual stability that everything has an acronym). We even won digital picture frames as trophies for our effort.

On a more serious note, we finally held the mass casualty exercise for which I had spent a few weeks preparing. Its purposes were to simulate a disaster or attack that injures more patients than our facility can simultaneously treat and to practice our group's response. It went well and several interesting lapses were noted in our system, which have all been addressed. Here are a few images of the ER as we prepare for and then treat our patients.

Don't worry, even with ALL of this excitement in one week, I still found plenty of time for exercise and planning various youthful activities (wait until I describe our skit for the talent show contest at the end of this month!). Our unofficial EMEDS running club meets almost every morning at 0515 and heads out for various distances. We usually have at least 3-5 people, with some mornings hitting 7 or 8. Saturday morning has become our long distance run (meaning multiple loops around the 6 mile route we're allowed to run) and the dust storms have been surprisingly cooperative lately. The morning depicted below was a particularly clear sunrise and I got some great shots from around our base.

I'll conclude with a shot of the cemetery that is within our FOB. We aren't allowed to enter because it's a sacred site for the Iraqis. But, during Saddam's regime, this was engulfed by the Iraqi military base and civilians were denied access. We had a ceremony here last month involving Army and AF chaplains as well as local religious leaders, and some Kirkuk inhabitants got to see their ancestors' graves for the first time in decades. Pretty cool, I thought.

I praise God for this difficult time of separation from my family, knowing that He will grow our characters and marriage though this trial. Thanks to all of our family and friends for their support and prayers. As always....I love you deeply, Cita.