Semper Gratus!

I introduced this terrific lady when she wrote about the first time it rained in Iraq. Now she sent a wonderful look into a day in the life of a nurse in “this place”.

Twenty-four hours in my life here. To me it sems rather dull and routine. However, today I decided to record my happenings and was quite surprised to find that my “normal” day was rather abnormal. It was full of some awkward situations and also new observations. Maybe this happens everyday and I just haven’t noticed. I hope you enjoy and laugh a little, as I was laughing rereading what had gone on in just one day of my life here…

7 Jan 2007

0054- I am finally sitting in bed. I stayed after work to proctor a couple of the medics for their online course finals. I am exhausted and the thought of waking in 6 hours to go to church seems to me, at this point in time, an overwhelming task. Normally I am excited to go and play the piano for service; it is like meditation to me. After this week, all I want to do is sleep. Who am I kidding? After 9 months of this place, all I want to do is sleep.

Ok, lights out and time to power sleep. See ya when I wake.

0704- ARG!! Morning? I fought a little internally, but it looks like church has won in the end. So, I am going to go get presentable for the public. Oh, and I feel dehydrated, but there aren’t any bottles of water in the room which means I would have to go outside, down the stairs to the water point and grab a bundle of bottles. Yup, ain’t gonna happen right now, so I will go on being thirsty.

0718- Ran in to Tina when I was in the bathroom (yes, indoor plumbing!). Looks like we will be going to “Town” for lunch today. All that means is hoping a bus to Camp Victory to enjoy the best chow hall in the area. (Don’t worry Mom, it doesn’t really mean “town”.) I am really wishing I had time to take a shower right now, but I have to get out the door to church so I can practice with the Chappy for service. Grab my hymnal and it is out the door (but not before I reflect on the fact that hymnal sounds a lot like urinal… Come on, I am nurse, I can’t help it!)

0807- Church has started. I played #21- Come, Thou fount of every blessing. And I played it quite well considering I had been practicing #111 all week (oops).

0850- Service is over and it was very nice. I am glad I got out of bed after all. I closed with hymn #99- What a fellowship, what a joy divine. Then I played a couple of songs while everyone was leaving, and as the ICO translators started coming in to take over the building (we use the ICO building for our church services). One of the translators came up to listen to me play, and when I was finished he asked if all the songs from the book I was using were Christian. I explained that the songs use versus from the bible or are inspired by the bible, so yes, they are Christian songs. He said they were very pleasant and he enjoyed hearing music in this place (meaning the building).

0917- Found out there is a general coming to visit, so I have to go to the hospital at 1215. Lunch plans have been delayed, but I already took a gloriously refreshing shower and will now commence mandatory napping. Night night.

1200- Tina wakes me up from some outlandish dreaming just in time to get dressed and speed walk to the VIP gathering at the hospital. Joy…

1230- Still no general, so they release us to return to our daily activities. Tina and I think we still have a chance to get to Town, so we try to snab the First SGT’s vehicle without success. Howerver we are undeterred, and we go back to our rooms to freshen up, and plan to catch the bus.

1255- Made it to the front gate of our FOB where a kind SGT asks me “Hey LT, Where are your name tapes??” HUH?!! I look down to discover that I had grabbed the wrong top on my way out to catch the bus. Damn! No patches at all. That’s a no go…

1305- Ran back to the room and changed tops. Returned to the gate and made it through with minimal jokes. Now we are just sitting around waiting for the bus to take us to Town. I am also noting that we do indeed have time to go grab Subway cince the chow hall is closed. (failing to note that I have to be to work in 2 hours…

1420- Got carried away chit chatting and lost track of time… OOPS!!! Run to the bus stop.

1520- One agonizingly slow bus ride, plus the even more painful 20 min waiting for the 1440 bus in the first place, equals 20 min late to work. Ana points out to me “hey, no prob, we were just worried something had happened to you. You are never late. Dr. Pease wanted me to go alert the company commander!” Luckily, there are no patients at this time of the day anyways… OOPS!!!

2034- What a painfully uneventful shift… Boredom, lack of quality sleep and add to that the somewhat abnormal happenings of the day thus far, and I just want to go curl up on one of the trauma beds and take a nap… ARG! Cardiac patient just rolled in through the doors….

2126- So, just to add to today’s oddities, I want to point out that in the past I have said words like “slow” “quiet” and “bored” about a hundred times without anything happening (which everyone in the medical field knows you NEVER say those words because when you do, something curses you and you end up with a massive trauma and having to stay after work to catch up on all the paperwork). But not here. Sometimes we even joke that we will go create our own patients if they don’t come in on their own. However, today, I just write the word “bored” once and BAM! Not so bored now. Which reminds me, I have to go push another 5mg of Lopressor…

2310- The last few hours just flew by! Which were quite unlike the first 5 in which I checked my 4 email accounts at least 10 times, read a Vogue Magazine (yes, I actually read all of it), went on 5 second-hand smoking breaks, ate dinner and joked around with the guys. I am going to call my mom and dad now and see how they are doing.

2354- Enjoyed a 46 min conversation with my parents, but now I am beat. I am a mere 3 min walk to the barracks. That is all that stands between me and my beloved sleep. Well, that and dawning my flak vest and getting my weapon from the arm’s room. Better get to it, huh?

0020- Well, that is it. That was my day! I have brushed my teeth, washed my face and jumped into bed. I am but minutes from partaking in my favorite past time here: sleeping!!! It was a rather odd day, wasn’t it?? I had intended on writing about a “normal” day, but I suppose those really do not exist. I hope that I made you laugh at least, because that is all I did today as the events unfolded.

I thanked Tina for waking me from my really odd dreams, but then blamed her for not catching my uniform malfunction before we left the barracks. All we did was laugh, it was great. That was my day, all 24 hours of it. Now, sleep!

Greetings Everyone!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Holiday! Our Christmas was actually quite enjoyable! My girlfriends and I were full of cheer the hole day and into the night.

So, you maybe wondering what “Project Care and Share” means… Well, I am writing to see if any of you would be interested in helping out a really awesome program we have going here. We have many children accompany their family members when they are visiting their detained family members here.

So, one of our Captains started to collect toys and school supplies to give to them when they come. You can imagine what a strange this place must be for a child! It has been a great program, but still unorganized and not fulfilling its potential. Now, the program has been taken over by myself and another 1LT, and we are giving it all we have. We are reorganizing what we have, but would also like to take it to the next level.

If you are interested in helping we are looking for stuffed animals, and all sorts of school supplies. We hope to get backpacks (children’s) for both boys and girls, and fill them with color crayons, paper, coloring books, pencils, and even English children books for kindergarteners and first graders. We even give them sandals, gloves and sometimes coats, lotions, and candy.

Even if you just send something for one child, you will be impacting the life of one child in this place.

The supplies will come directly to me and go directly to the children when they come through the visitation center.

If you are interested, please contact me for more information! or just send whatever you would like to me. I am including my address below.

That is it for now from Iraq.

Stephanie

I’m not going to disclose her email or address on the blog, but I will more than happy to be the go-between for anyone interested in sending donations for “Project Care and Share”. Write me at GunnNutt at Sempergratus.com.