It's raining inside!

Last night we discovered that the information provided by our tent's previous occupants was partially correct. It did indeed get wet inside when it rains. However, not quite in the manner we had expected. As I mentioned previously, many folks put their bags on top of cots, expecting that a heavy rainstorm would flood in from the ground up, so "high ground" would be safe. As I also mentioned previously, I played the odds, leaving my bags on the floor under my cot. Last night we got a heavy rainstorm, and there was no flooding from below. What ended up happening was that water would seep through the seams in the tent material, causing it to "rain" inside the tent below some of the seams. The worst drippage was closer to the outside of the tent, and those near the center were safe and dry. I managed to luck out with only a few drops headed my way, most landing on the outside of my sleeping bag's waterproof cover. And my bags fared well underneath my cot. Not so the pile of bags on the cot a short distance away, where they were placed (near the walls) to stay dry, and ended up getting dripped on from above. We all live and learn. We spent most of the day trying to get the mud off of our boots. Of course, by the afternoon, all the mud had turned into caked dust and came off easily, although the sweep-up operation got a bit dusty. Since the Sunday I left home, I've managed to be traveling every Sunday for the last month. This will be my first opportunity to attend church since March, and fortunately they have scheduled an evening service that I can attend after our training hours are over. It will be interesting worshipping with everyone carrying weapons around the church, but such is the reality of the situation. So I'll end this note and head off to try to find out which one of Saddam's former palace buildings got turned into a chapel.