I am continuing to get settled into my job, and I must say
that it’s probably the most interesting in my career. The people, the personalities, and sheer
circumstances while being deployed; all ingredients for big fun.
I’m going to rewind briefly to this morning then I’ll
reflect on yesterday.
As I came into my building this morning for work *Amir (the
housekeeper) is the first person I see.
I say, “Good morning”, and he quickly goes into a rant about both the
vacuum cleaners in the building being broken so he couldn’t vacuum. Um, ok.
As a mother, I know that anytime someone starts vomiting random
information that they are usually guilty of something. In my head I’m thinking I need to cordon off
the building and have EOD do a sweep of the building! After at least 90 seconds of explaining and
doing hand motions about the vacuum I told him I’ll let someone know. I saw that there was one more person in the
building this morning, one of our IT people.
She’s in the Navy, so if I screamed for help she’s well suited to assist
right? Wait, they all aren’t SEALs???
Everything appeared ok so I dropped my things off to work
then headed to grab some breakfast to bring back to the office. On the way there I saw a Captain who
attended CAST with me. He confirmed even
people that rode the short bus can earn a commission if their timing is
right. Anyway, he informed me that he
was on his way to his office. ..wearing full battle rattle. At our location you only “suit up” when you
go outside the wire aka leave the confines of the camp. I was a bit confused by his wear of the gear
but I figured “Whatev, he’s got this…hopefully” -_-. On top of this he gave me his usual weak
partial handshake. The kind where the
person only uses their fingers to grab yours.
Ugh, it’s like holding a handful of wet noodles; just gross.
Fast forward to yesterday:
I met a lot of people, went to a meeting with nothing but Army
Colonels and didn’t understand a single thing, and got in my usual gym time. At the meeting there was a Romanian and
Aussie Colonel too. When the Romanian
started to speak I may as well not have even been in the room. And by the look of the faces of the ‘Mericans
, they might as well not have been there neither. Due to the nature of my job, people are
constantly in and out trying to get face time (introduce themselves) with hope
that enough rapport will be built to work a few favors if ever needed. One meet and greet in particular is forever engrained
in my elephant memory. The command
chaplain stopped by to introduce his replacement. As usual, I flashed a smile with a quick
hello and I shook the hand of the new guy.
The current chaplain then reached for my hand and with as much machismo
possible, clenched my hand as if he was looking into the soul of the
Taliban. It was the kind of death grip
that you can’t even spread your fingers to break out of. He should consider selling a bit of that
ego/testosterone to the Captain in hopes they both find a healthy balance.
I’m attempting to settle into a routine that maximizes my
time here. Definitely a work in
progress, but at least everything is going well for me. Well until next time friends, bye bye.
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