The Kuwaiti Crud

Thursday, 11/16/06
2130

Well, that’s what someone called it. Or should that be “The Kuwaiti Krud”? Whatever it’s called and however it’s spelled, I got it. I’ve felt kind of achy and lacking in energy for a few days. At first I thought it was a reaction to the flu shots we got last week, although I would have thought that would happen within a day or two, not a whole week later. So I just kept pushing myself, thinking I was just tired and would get over it.

Yesterday afternoon I felt especially crummy. I simply had no energy or motivation, couldn’t concentrate, and every joint in my body just ached. When my stomach started feeling sort of gurgly I decided it was time to call it a day and go to bed.

It turned out I did have some kind of a bug, and I stayed in bed for most of 24 hours. I slept almost the whole time, drinking water occasionally and eating nothing but a few bites of cereal and a handful of nuts (the salt tasted good!). Finally this evening I went to the mess hall for some food - chicken soup, some rice, and a couple of bananas. I topped it off with several cups of green tea flavored with Jasmine – one of my favorites. Although I still feel tired and a bit achy, I’m better now and will go in to work tomorrow.

It was weird to be here in my room for 24 hours straight. Because there are no windows, it doesn’t matter what time of night or day it is; it’s always the same. You turn out the light and it’s dark. Although there’s always somebody coming or going in the hallways, nobody makes much noise since there are always people sleeping here. The ventilation runs constantly, so there’s a steady low-level whooshing noise in the background. So it’s just the same all the time. I think this must be the way it feels to be deep inside a Navy ship.

I was surprised I was able to sleep as much as I did – I thought I’d start to get restless, but that was not the case. Every time I awakened, I would fidget around a little, put my head back down, and wake up a couple hours later. So I guess I needed the rest to fight off whatever kind of bug this was. Now that I’ve gotten it once, maybe I’ll be immune to future episodes. I’m unsure whether that will be the case or not. I hope so, since it wasn’t any fun.

For now it’s back to bed – I’m still kind of hungry, but I don’t want to eat too much and upset my stomach.

Mood: Tired
Music: Silence

Cooler Weather

Sunday 11/12/06
0830

A few days ago (Wednesday morning, I think). I woke up to a pleasant surprise – the weather had cooled off dramatically overnight. There was a strong wind out of the north for several days, and it seems to have brought this weather with it.

I didn’t remember to look at the weather map in the Stars & Stripes until yesterday, when the high/low was 72/64 in Kuwait City. So it’s really quite a change from what it was when I got here. I have been told it stays like this until about March or April, when it starts to get really hot again.

So we have a bit of a reprieve, which I hope will be enough time to do what I need to do with the air conditioners. There are a lot of things to get done, and that will move right back up to the top of everybody’s list as soon as the weather gets hot again.

Meanwhile my life here has settled into a bit of a pattern, and I’m starting to realize that even I can begin to feel that things are monotonous. I’m a creature of regular habits – at home I usually do things at the same time every day, I use the same products and eat the same foods all the time, and I have a place for everything (and try to keep everything in its place). While I enjoy some variety from time to time, it’s more like an occasional spice than a way of life. I don’t enjoy change just for the sake of change.

But that is all within the context of a large metropolitan area, where I live on the boundary between the city and the country. There I have almost endless opportunities to vary my patterns or to try new things if I choose (such as choosing a new direction for a weekend bike ride or trying a new recipe or restaurant). Here the environment is much more uniform and constrained, and the choices are limited.

For example, the food in the mess hall is very good, and they have quite a surprising variety. But already I’ve been here long enough to see the pattern repeated several times. Yesterday somebody told me that after a couple of months it all seems the same. I thought to myself that I was already beginning to feel that way. And although this installation is pretty large, my world centers around what amounts to a few square blocks, and the rest of it all looks about the same, anyway.

So it will be interesting to see how I cope with this. I suspect that nobody who really knows me would expect that I would be feeling this way – I didn’t anticipate it myself. But as I said in an earlier post, the newness has begun to wear off.

So far movies have helped a lot. I’m starting to read again (for some reason I have not felt especially motivated to read much for the first few weeks), and of course there is my military school that will require a lot of time. I don’t really have time for any extensive pursuits outside of work anyway, but I can see that having some sort of mental escape or outlet, a source of variety from time to time, will be important to keeping myself on track, focused, and functioning effectively.

Now that I think of it, I suppose writing this blog is helping me in that regard. Among other things, it helps to keep me looking at things through fresh eyes, since I’m describing things here mainly for my family and friends, most of whom have never lived on a military post or had much to do with the Army. It’s also a tool for reflection and introspection. The exercise of writing my thoughts down helps to sort them out and organize them, and also to keep things in perspective.

Well. Not quite what I had in mind when I started out just to write a quick note about the change in the weather, but there you go. Res ipsa loquitur. :-)

Time for breakfast. I’ve gone back to cereal and fruit every morning, except for Sundays. Today is the day I allow myself an omelette, bacon, sausage, biscuit and gravy, etc. They have all that stuff available all the time, but if I ate it every day I’d weigh 900 pounds by the time I left! I wonder if they’ll have the Special K with dried strawberries…(You have to get to mess hall early if you want the healthy cereal – by the end of the breakfast meal, all that’s left are things like Froot Loops and Cocoa Puffs, which few people eat but of which they buy tons anyway).

Mood: Relaxed
Music: Silence