The Office

I posted a few days ago about "the hooch" so it's time to describe the office I get to work in. It's huge. Probably about four times as big as my hooch. And while they're still working on getting us hooked up to phones and internet and a very large TV screen (for training, nod nod) I'm already getting the idea that the office might be a better place to hang out than the hooch. Perhaps that's their plan to keep me working late hours. It's working already, even with only one operating computer, as I'm getting a full 12 hour work day in without even trying. And I feel guilty for leaving "early". I guess it comes from the at-sea routine of working 16-hour days. In any case, work is keeping me busy, and busy is keeping me from watching either the clock or calendar (I barely know what time it is and I don't know what day/date it is) and that's a Good Thing (tm), at least early on in this deployment. I still haven't quite mastered the bus schedule. Or perhaps the buses themselves haven't mastered it. There are 8 different routes, and I picked the one that would get me closest to work today... and waited 40 minutes for the bus! And then the second bus on the same route came within a few minutes afterward. You'd think they would space themselves out a bit more. I think I've learned my lesson, though, to catch one of the more frequent busses that gets me reasonably close, and then walk the difference. I'm looking into buying a bicycle... something I may regret when the rainy season arrives. One thing I've (re)learned over the last two days of watching operations work in the battalion is just how much responsibility is given to some of our young (compared to me!) soldiers. We have some really good guys leading the charge over here and I'm honored to be serving with them. And I'm striving to help them do their jobs better.