I flew to An Numaniyah today, finally. We rode a Blackhawk from Baghdad to An Numaniyah, arriving around 8 pm or so. I guess they received much heavier rain down here, because the whole post is flooded; huge pools of water everywhere. They say you have to wade through waist deep water to get to the chow hall.

When I walked into the door of our billets, someone walked up from the cellar and announced the water pump for the building had burned out (again). Then the electricity went out shortly after that. There is currently no internet connection (the dish was blown off the roof), but we do have a satellite phone so I can call home occasionally. I also have my own satellite phone, but I may keep that on the down low as I don't want it to get co-opted for other things. I was given the phone specifically to call back to Baghdad when I need help and my minutes are limited. Otherwise, there is no phone coms either.

Oh, and there's no American toilets. Actually, there's no toilets at all. Only the Iraqi style shitters. The kind that are little more than a porcelain-lined hole in the ground that you squat over.

It's hard to explain why, but I think this is going to be an interesting experience. I have a feeling I am going to be doing very little actual telecommunications work, and a whole lot of "figure-it-out-as-you-go" work. I think they need less of actual MOS specialties than they just need competent bodies.

I should have an address fairly soon. I will email it out when I get the opportunity. It looks like we don't have access to things to the same degree we had in Baghdad, so I may need to make use of getting stuff shipped over.