Delirious in Manas

First I'd like to preface this posting with the fact that I'm sleeping on the top bunk of a rather rickety metal bunkbed and woke up about every 2 hours last night, so I'm hoping that what I write will make some semblance of sense.

We arrived in Manas, Kyrgyzstan yesterday afternoon after a never-ending day of travel from Norfolk, VA to Bangor, MN to Leipzig, Germany and finally to Manas. For those of you who like a little information about the places I stay (Mom), I cut and paste this from Wikipedia:

The ethnonym "Kyrgyz", after which the country is named, is thought to originally mean either "forty girls" or "forty tribes", presumably referring to the epic hero Manas who, as legend has it, unified forty tribes against the Khitans. The 40-ray sun on the flag of Kyrgyzstan symbolizes the forty tribes of Manas.[6]

A few other tidbits include Russian being the most common language and the official language along with Kyrgyz. The writing is Cyrillic which is used in the Slavic languages like Russian. The currency in the Som which I've never seen and probably won't. The population estimated at 5.4 million and the time zone is 11 hrs ahead of eastern standard time.

That said, my experience here has been a bit cold and dark and smelly. It isn't as cold as Leipzig was thank God, because I left my fleece and gortex in my checked luggage which I now have, however, it (the weather) isn't warm. I picked up my chemical gear and my cold weather gear last night then proceeded to a meeting to find out that they have no plan yet for me and my fellow family doc colleague headed to Bagram. I have visited the latrine outside the women's tent twice now and plan to avoid it as much as humanly possible as I've been close to passing out from the smell and have become a bit more adept at breathing through my mouth when necessary. There is a much less aromatic facility near the Pete's Place (common hangout with constant sports on the big screen, lots of tables, wi-fi, and a small bar - I plan to partake of that tonight). And after a fitful night sleep and feeling guility about disturbing my poor bottom bunkmate from the need to visit the restroom at 0100, I found myself walking to the nearby DFAC (dining facility) in a still dark Kyrgyzstan at 0730. Hoping now that most everyone in my female tent is up and there are at least a few lights on, I plan to head back to my bunk for some light reading and likely a resultant nap to fill my time for at least part of this cold, wet, wintery day.

I know this all sounds very dreary, but it actually isn't all that bad. The food is plentiful, the coffee is good, and the people are friendly.

I think that is about all my tired brain can handle at the moment.