Move

I finally did it. After 6 weeks I moved from the tent to a villa on August 27 (yesterday). Before I describe the villa, I want to tell you something about the tent.

As I explained earlier, what they call a “tent” is actually a steel framed structure with tarpaulin roof and sides. It has high gabled roof, one single small door and 49 beds. I have seen the tent sometimes totally full and sometimes with a handful of residents. The tent is equipped with eight (8) air conditioners that are running 24/7/30/365 i.e. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 30 days a month and 365 days a year full blast full time. Having so many people in the tent there are so many demands for different temperatures. Some walk around and lower the thermostats while others walk around and make it higher. All around the outside of the tent, there are walls made out of sand bags that provide a fair degree of protection against direct fire. But (God forbid), if there are rockets coming from the air and hit the tent roof, there is no protection at all. Luckily no direct hit has been recorded on these tents.

With the number of people in the tent, it is (was) surprisingly quiet except the occasional banging of the door when some people just let the door close by itself and being a steel door, it shuts with a bang. Lights are off at 2200 and on at 0700. In between if any one comes late or has to get up and go at night, he has to use a flashlight because the tent is pitch black at night. So in the middle of the night there are numerous flashlights flashing. At the beginning when I arrived, I did not have a flashlight. So after walking out one night (you can guess why) I came back, opened the door, closed it ever so gently and started feeling my way to my bed which was at the far right corner two beds to the left. After passing a couple of beds I got disoriented in the dark and did not know which way to go. I stood there for a few minutes then I found it easier to retract my steps back to the door which was not too far and was slightly visible because of rays of light coming from around the frame. Once at the door, I mentally pictured my path and started again. This time I bumped into only one bed. Needless to say that I bought a thumb size flashlight the next day. Life was much more convenient after that.

The villa is a little farther away than the tent was. So we have to share vehicles of which there are four for something like 25 people. More about the transportation later as we go through so learning curve and 'teething'. The villa is a huge two story reinforced concrete building with equally huge front and backyards and a swimming pool. It is heavily guarded by Coalition forces and requires adherence with a lot of military regulations. One of the regulations is 'no picture' policy. So I have to abide by that regulation and will not send any pictures. I will work with responsible authority to if I can some pictures from the interior to give a fee.

There are some rooms in the ground floor where most of our group is housed. Before moving, we were asked to select roommates for room assignment. There is an Iranian born naturalized US citizen (like me) and another US citizen who asked me to join them to which I said yes. The Administration manager asked us if he can assign to our room another individual whom I will call Mr. X who was on R&R. I did not know Mr. X very well but the two potential roommates said “NO”. Apparently no one wanted to room with Mr. X. The Admin Manager is one of the nicest persons that I have met. So, he listed Mr. X in his own room thinking that they possibly could live together.

There are five beds in each room and with the three of us there were two vacant beds. These beds were assigned to two new people who are arriving on September 3. As soon as we moved in and Mr. X found out which room he was assigned to, he created a scene. I mean a “scene”. He did not like his room and did not like his roommates. So, he went from room to room to see where he could fit. When he came to our room and saw two empty beds and saw me and the Iranian guy, Mr. X just dropped his stuff on one of the empty beds and said here is where he will live. Guess what? The bed that he chose is right next to my bed. I am only hoping that others are wrong about Mr. X or God give me the strength and wisdom to change him. Although I doubt it.

More Later