It's Wednesday?.....Mayor Cell that's right!

Today was another day out of the ordinary. Well it started ordinary enough. See I woke up at 4:30 am as usual. I shaved and brushed my teeth and prepared to head to the gym as usual. I went and did a heavy work out for an hour and headed over to do a two-mile run with my company. After the run I headed to breakfast and had a very satisfying meal. Then I walked over to the motor pool and walked through the gates at about 8:45. On mornings where we run we have formation at 9am (other days 8am). So I like to get there 15 minutes early, cause in the Army if you’re on time-your late. As I was walking through the gate I was listening to a very funning report on the BBC World Service on my short-wave radio (Here is the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3712960.stm although it was told much funnier on the radio). As I came through the gate my Assistant Platoon Sgt. Was seated, he was the only other person there as of yet. He started to motion to me. I thought he was just being friendly. So I gave him a thumbs up, but I could detect that he had something more on his mind. Once I reached him he asked, “Did you check the duty roster?” I briefly searched my mind and asked myself, “What day is it? Could it be Wednesday?” I had a vague mental note of something I was assigned on Wednesday. The Sgt. informed me that I was almost three hours late for Mayor Cell duty. I gave myself a swift mental kick and began the 1 ½ mile hike over to the Mayor Cell area. I had to stop at my room to get the rest of my battle gear, which you’re required to wear when you report there.

Well when I finally dragged myself into the Mayor Cell office signed in and went over to the soldier waiting area. I found out that all that I had missed was a few hours sleep. Cause everyone was in there sleeping and watching the Cartoon Network. I plopped down, laid all my stuff aside, put my head down and joined the napping crew. I woke up a few hours later to go get some lunch then I went back and napped a little more. That is until the Sgt. On duty there popped in and said he needed a soldier to escort the electricians. He said that looking straight at me, not leaving any room for doubt as to who was supposed to volunteer. Well it turned out to not be so bad. I rode around with a crew of three others. One was the American supervisor, who was from Texas. He had gotten here about the first of September and had been lured by the $80 K tax-free salary. Then there were his two underlings from the Philippines who have been here seven months. Here in Iraq they make about double what they’d make in their country. But they have to work here for two year continuously with no breaks to go home (Americans get up to four vacations in a year, most take only three cause they want to get in 330 days.) It was a lot of fun actually. He rode around on a gator while they did minor repairs in various rooms. Then we went all the way down to the infantry area. We had to go room to room checking outlets.

Apparently, you’ve gotta be careful when you’re in that territory. See these are the guys who are out killing day in and day out. Anyway, I guess my electrician friends have gone through there before and these infantry guys come flying out of their trailers weapons leveled. One of them felt that we didn’t give enough warning before entering and he gave us a good tongue-lashing. But beyond that we it went smoothly. The Texan was telling me about some of the wild life he’s seen. I guess down by the river that flows through camp you can see big footprints of lions. And I guess he’s spotted some pretty big antelope around the area too. And I thought this was a pretty dead area with some birds and flies.

Well That’s it for my report today.