Dusting off duffle bags

January 25, 2005

It's amazing what accumulates in a year.

When I rolled into Iraq in the back of a humvee with a canvas top and make-shift armor on its sides on April 9, everything I had -- from underwear to equipment -- was crammed into two duffle bags, a folding army cot and a backpack.

Now, nearly 10 months later, I'm dusting off those duffle bags.

I looked around my trailer at Taji this afternoon and realized that it has somehow transformed from a metal shack with a cot and two duffle bags into a home away from home.

Books, CDs, office supplies.

Cold weather clothes, pink Scooby Doo slippers, an emergency supply of shampoo and conditioner.

These things weren't in my duffles when I came here.

We're all trying to figure out where this stuff came from and what to do with it. Much of it came in carefully packed boxes from home. Some came from the PX. And some of it just appeared.

As I sit here drinking my combat mocha -- what we call the mix of hot cocoa and coffee -- I'm amazed at how comfortable this place has become.

And I'm not alone.

Guys have surrounded themselves with X-Box video games, miniature DVD players, fuzzy blankets, favorite foods. Now it's time to get back to the way it was when we arrived -- nothing but clothes, equipment and a cot.

The line at the Post Office for mailing stuff home is around two hours. Trash bins are filling up.

It's time to clean up and get the hell out.

I have piles of notebooks filled with scribbles of interviews and observations. Those will be shipped home with a handful of books I haven't had a chance to read and the blanket from my cot.

I'll carry my cot out of Iraq, probably sleeping on it on the way south to Kuwait. I may keep it. We've become quite attached over the last year. It's gone with me wherever I go.

I guess you could say I've grown partial to it.

I'm sitting on it right now, actually. It's my bed, my couch, my office chair, my table.

Over on the folding table I use as a desk is a pile of cardboard disks that I acquired as change from the military store on post. Change isn't worth the effort over here, so the Post Exchange -- Afees -- gives cardboard disks called pogs as change.

They're considered gift certificates and come in 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent denominations. The thing is, they're only good at Afees.

So we're adding up our pogs and preparing to cash in.

Every time I got a pog, I'd toss it into a water bottle I'd cut the top off of.

I counted up my pogs today: $20.40!

The thing is, in order to get rid of them, I have to shop at the Afees PX. And right now my life is all about downsizing, not adding to, my possessions.

It's a catch-22.

To turn my Iraq change into cash, I have to spend it on more stuff!

Posted by Amy at January 25, 2005 09:07 AM