Djibouti - Day 7 - Relief

Last night as I was getting ready for bed I noticed the temperature was a little cooler. At 110 degrees, even 5 degrees is a welcome cold spell. Once again, I hopped up into my rack and tried to close my eyes. From 11:30pm until 2:30am I tried to go to sleep but I couldnt. And when my alarm went off at 6:30am I woke up to a rather warm tent. So far on this trip I've only managed that one 11-hour night of sleep. That's not good for seven days of work.

Still I bounded out of bed, got dreessed and made my way to the classroom. At long last class was going to start. I was anxious to meet the students and get to work. I have two civilian contractors and three PO2s (Petty Officer - 2nd Class; E5). Two of the sailors have IT ratings, and the third is an Electronics Technician who is getting some cross-training.

When we broke for lunch I noted that the temperature was not as hot as it had been the past few days. Even better was the appearance of fresh pineapple and strawberries in the galley. Needless to say my plate was full of those delightful golden chuncks of ambrosia. Nothing makes me as happy in a buffet line as fresh pineapple. Nothing.

After lunch we returned to the classroom and continued working on the lab exercises. The students are very personable and engaging to where if I'm not careful, we would truly enjoy just sitting there and sharing stories. Nevertheless my job is to facilitate the learning experience and their job is to engage in the learning process. So far, so good. Still, I'm thankful for this group and their friendliness. I only wish I had them for the entire week - we would have had one heck of a time. But like a t-shirt in the souvenir shop clearly points out, "What happens in Djibouti stays in Djibouti."

Once class let out for the day I spent the rest of the evening reviewing tomorrow's material as well as double-checking the labs. A couple of the students were having weird problems on their machines. One of the sailors was trying to make me feel better by offering, "Don't be shy to tell me that I fat-fingered something." At this point his is the most logical explanation, but I won't tell him.

I looked at my watch - 11:30pm and I must have caught my second wind because I didn't feel sleepy at all. I took my laptop over to the galley to make some calls home while consuming some MidRats (Midnight Rations). It's been fun learning the Navy vocabulary while I'm here.

It's now 2:00am and I'm not sure whether I should bother sleeping. By the time I trudge back to the tent and climb up into my rack, it will be time to turn around and come right back. Maybe I'll crash at the MWR building. I've been calling it the 11th Parallel, but it's really called 11 Degrees North. Oops, my bad.