Jamba Juice, the Lightning Bolt and the Disappearing Sand

Well, It's Wednesday and things are going well. I've gotten in the habbit of waking up at 0500 and jogging to the gym and working out in the mornings before work. This morning I woke up to the sound of raindrops hitting the plastic roof of our tent and when I jogged to the gym I saw the largest lightning bolt I've ever seen. It spread accross the dark desert sky and momentarily lit up the entire base. It was amazing, especially since I haven't seen any lightning in Hawaii over the past year. The down side to it is that the thin vaneer of sand that usually coats everything has all but disappeared for the moment and it's been replaced with a thick pile of mud that sticks to your boots, gets in the carpet and dirties up everything in sight. (Personally, I kind of miss the sand, but the rain sure is nice.)

In an effort to break up the manotony and keep up with one of my interests, foreign languages, I've decided to learn Swahili since there are lots of guards here from Uganda and other parts of Africa. The first word I learned was the word for "Hey there! What's up?" which is Jambo (pronounced Jahm-bow). When it is said, you're supposed to shout it loud and friendly. So finally I got up the courage to say it to one of these guards. Well, back in Hawaii I used to always go to this place called Jamba Juice to get protein and juice drinks and I must have had it on my mind when I approached the guard because load and proud I looked at him and exclamed, "JAMBA" (Jahm-buh), with an A at the end instead of Jombo with an o. Anyway, he looked at me like I was on crack and he and his Ugandan chums, in addition to the other marines on the bus, gave a chuckle to themselves as we drove away from the checkpoint. I guess I have some practicing to do...

Today I start my 12 pm to 12 am shift (noon to midnight) 7 days a week. It's good to start to get into the swing of things. I set up my office yesterday - I bought a throw rug, I put out my Yankee Candle, a Hawaiian painting, a digital picture frame with pictures of all my friends and family and most importantly, my hundred dollar gold-plated filter coffee pot. At the fear of having everyone think I was a complete fruitcake, it turns out everyone is jealous of 'the Doc's office' and they're all going to the store to buy throw rugs and they're all going on line to order digital picture frames and yankee candles. Pretty funny I thought.

So that's it for now. Thanks for everyone that's posting. It's nice to read your comments. Until next time...Jambo!!!!