Qatar Arrival: Journal 8/31/06

Posted by Ms. Babble

August 31, 2006

The Jami has landed. I’ve made it (finally) to Qatar. Day 1 is already done and gone. It was a incredibly tedious trip here. We boarded a C-130 Monday at 8pm and it seems that with each flight on this airplane my stomach gets loopier and loopier. Needless to say, I’m glad I brought a bottle of water on the flight to help lubricate my stomach.

Three hours later we landed and I had no idea where we were at. The air force makes it a habit not to tell you anything. All they’re concerned about is loading everyone up and getting the baggage strapped down in the rear. Previous groups that have gone on this trip have flown to Kuwait or Baghdad or wherever first before making it to Qatar. So when they opened the rear hatch, the only clue I had as to my location was this massive wall of humidity that slammed into my face.

Several bus trips later we were shoved into a briefing room. It was already 1am by this time and I could barely see straight. They talked so fast that I don’t think I would have totally understood even if I was completely cognative. They threw us a “map” of the post, gave us a pillow and blanket, and showed us where we were to sleep. Overall it felt like a big “Welcome and good luck.”

I finally got to sleep around 4am. I’m in a room with 6 other females and half of them decided to wake up around 8am. All their noise and shuffling got me up as well since it’s so hard for me to fall back asleep once I’m up. The first thing I thought about when I woke up? Coffee.

Without even thinking, I throw on some pants and a t-shirt and just start walking. I shoved the “map” in my back pocket and started my pilgrimage to coffee. We arrived the night before with everything pitch black. Not to mention all the buildings look the same and I wasn’t focused enough the night before to get any sense of bearing. This map they give us… it sucks. It has a square here and a square there with lines for roads in between. It leaves out all the other buildings that don’t pertain to me and gives me absolutely no sense of distance. Out on the street, none of the buildings are clearly marked and the only way I knew which building was the medical clinic was because they have a small red cross on their air conditioning unit. In the briefing they never once mentioned anything about transportation and so I walked.

Did I mention it’s, like, 10,000 degrees plus 500% humidity out here?

So, I’m walking down this road hoping to see a sign that says something like, “Coffee this way!”. After about 20 minutes, I see a Burger King in the distance. Otherwise, everything just looks like unmarked buildings with barbed wire around them. I look at my little map. Look up. Look at the map. Look up. Fuck it. I turn around.

All the way back where I started, I randomly go into these rows of warehouse size buildings that house us. The last one I get to I discover where the bars are. I make a mental note and think, “That’s all fine and dandy, but where’s the coffee??” Back outside in the swelter, I see some people sitting at a bus stop and not more than 30 seconds later it picks me up. “Just get me to coffeeeeee!!!”, I tell the driver. He nods and drops me off on the other side of post where the PX and restaurant are. As I turn the corner in the little shopping complex, there’s a Green Bean coffee shop. I nearly drop to my knees at the site of it. I promptly order a double espresso, vanilla frappe, and pastry. Life is now good.

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