Life at summer camp (post by Tom)

The only problem with this summer camp.....too much summer!**

So just a quick story about my shower this morning (blogs are supposed to be personal, right?) Anyway, I got up at 4:30 a.m. to take a shower. That sounds early, but apparently about 4,000 other guys had the same idea - so the water pressure left something to be desired. I would categorize it as maybe a drizzle (if you're from Oregon, you definitely know a drizzle when you see one. If not, just imagine an only semi-continuous, very light stream of water.)

So as I'm doing my best to get wet, wash, and (most challenging) rinse, guy #4,001 turned on his shower, which took things down to a trickle. I don't think guy #4,002 or #4,003 got the memo that the shower was already doing it's best impression of a sharply kinked hose, because once they began their liquid thievery, my shower quickly went from drip...............to zip. Yes, that's right, my poor soapy self is standing under a completely vacant shower head, wondering how long it will take guys #4,001-4,003 to quit hogging my water (and that's assuming guy #4,004 stays out of the blasted shower.) After about 2 minutes, (long enough for my anger to soften into amusement about my predicament,) like liquid manna from heaven, I started to get a drip again, which progressed almost to a drizzle by the time I was done. Now, I can't be entirely sure whether I actually rinsed, or if the soap had just dried during intermission, but I'll take what I can get, so I decided to turn off the shower, and allow others to share in the bounteous blessings that are summer camp showers.

And that, my friends, is how interesting things are in Asab. I'm a stone's throw from the cradle of civilization (okay, maybe an 8-year camel ride) and yet my first blog entry in months is about my weak-sauce shower. Yikes. Sounds like it's time to go home.


**Other side-effects may include dehydration, loneliness, hair loss, indigestion, apathy, sunburn, boredom, weight gain, drowsiness, carpel tunnel, and a poor sense of humor.