Some Photos

These are some potato chips they have here that are ketchup flavored. You may be surprised to hear that they taste exactly like potato chips with ketchup on them.

This is what the back of a bag of ketchup flavored chips looks like. Not as exciting as the front.

This is Frank. I went back to the original site where I first met him, and I'm pretty sure this is still him.

We hung out for a while, shook hands and such. We talked a little more this time though. I found out he is actually a Turkish fly, he came down with the TCNs to see what the poo tastes like in Iraq. He was sad to find that it tastes like digested bread and cream cheese. I told him about "the Lagoon" where they dump the port-a-potties, and he was pretty excited about that as it would give him access to more variety.

I've decided that the weather always sucks in Iraq, it's just varying kinds of suck. For instance when there are not dust storms, there are rain storms that turn all of that dust into glue-like mud. It's probably the stickiest mud I've ever seen and is almost impossible to get off. It was very chilly this morning with a bunch of dense fog, then it burned off and got really hot. Bah!

This is the nicely folded Taco Bell I told you about. They are still out of red sauce though, which is a bummer. Also, I've decided they are way too stingy with the cheese. There was literally maybe 10 little shreds of cheese in this one. Not acceptable.

This is the Taco Bell. You order from the little box that stands by itself on the right, then pick it up at the window in the big trailer. Burger King and Pizza Hut have similar trailers with ordering boxes. It's nearly impossible to tell when your order number is being called, as their accents are so strong they all sound the same.

The BX is the big brown building, with a couple of the little shops in the smaller trailers. They have electronics shops, barber shops, gift shops, rug/carpet shops, smoke shops, etc.

This is the Lagoon, where they dump sewage. The seagulls like it. They are air-rats.

This is the truck that empties the port-a-potties. One of our jobs is to follow it around. It's awesome. It's currently dumping poo into the lake. It is best to park upwind of the truck while following them around.

This is the Iraqi beach. You can see the lawn chair for tanning and the little table for food or perhaps to hold your canvas if you wanted to paint a picture of a lake made out of human waste.

This is another view the lake with a lot more air-rats. Also take a look at the awesome mud. I almost got stuck three times today, as I was in a huge extended cab monster truck thing and the 4-wheel drive didn't seem to be working. I left a couple foot deep trenches in the mud, but eventually got out. Also I'm pretty sure the heat is stuck on in that truck, as it got much hotter inside than it should have been, and the AC/Heater was not on.