<<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> only has one <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, for starters - sorry if I upset anyone by massacring the spelling in my previous post. Other than that it's referred to as <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> (for <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>), and is a dusty, generally dry military base southeast of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> in the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> province of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. The terrain is <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> and doesn't contain much that isn't a building of some kind, but occasionally a small tree struggles to find some <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> in the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, and provides some welcome shelter from the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. It's winter and the air itself is relatively pleasant, but the sky is always clear and it'd be easy to get scorched by staying out too long.

We arrive at <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> or so, strung out by the long day and travel delays. It's dark and we are herded this way and that like cattle, given some lectures on rules and whatnot, and eventually wind up in a yard pulling bags off trucks and setting them in rows while trying to find our own.
As this is going on we are saved by the first sergeant of our assigned unit who has managed to locate us and has a far superior plan to the one laid out for everyone else. The gist of it is that we will drive to the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, drop off our gear, and then head to our rooms and go to sleep.

Sleeping arrangements aren't ideal but the beds are clean and fresh linens are provided which we appreciate with gusto. Space on <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> comes at a premium, and for the time being we're <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. The rooms contain plenty of beds but with <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> being maintained someone is always on a <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, so as we come and go we're required to <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> . On the plus side, the bathrooms have a steady supply of hot running water and are cleaned daily. <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> is available by the bottle, replenishable by palette upon palette stacked outside everywhere, and after a welcome night's sleep we learn techniques for <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>.

Speaking of outside, I get my first look at <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> when I emerge from our <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> sometime the next day and am nearly blinded by the sunlight. <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. We're housed in <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> - a modular <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> containing <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> bedrooms and a bathroom - which sits close to the middle of an area probably two <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> full of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> buildings. The streets within the mods are square and wide, forming neat rows with every building surrounded by <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> walls which look exactly like the ones you get down the middle of highways except these are roughly <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. We depart <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> for the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> - it's not far - and as we leave the mods we discover that the planning process was apparently abandoned outside the housing area in favor of the 'build things wherever there is room and leave a space wide enough for a truck here and there' school of force development. The crooked streets, nonsense traffic, and general bustle remind me of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, the main difference being that instead of actual buildings the blocks of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> are crammed with either rows of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> doubling as buildings, <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, ongoing construction sites, or all manner of tents, shanties, lean-to's, and vehicles. Although most of the military presence is <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> is actually a <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> post and both military and civilian personnel from countries all over the world are represented en masse, indicated by the phenomenally attractive smell of everyone's feces burning in harmony with the garbage somewhere in the distance. <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>.

As entertaining as a <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> can be, my main focus right now is to get to work and discover what life is actually going to be like out here. Questions abound: <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>? Guess we'll find out all this and more, soon enough!