A Snapshot Of Camp Julien

From a recent arrival to Camp Julien, Afghanistan.

It is a well organized camp. We work, eat, sleep, shower, all in tents. The sleeping quarters area is down a flight of stairs into a lower area. The tents are all in rows…………tent city. Each large tent is set apart by a concrete bunker around it. When you go in the door it appears almost like a hall with canvass walls. There are 8 people per tent unit. Each has their own ‘cubicle’. The cubicles are made of canvass with a zippered door. Nobody uses the zipper though, because it is very iratating to hear a zipper open and close each time someone has to go to the bathroom. We have hung up blankets or rugs instead, gotten at a bargan from the market. The cubicles are large enough to comfortable contain your cot with a mattress and a couple of barrack boxes. Some of the people who have been here for the whole ROTO have given there area a personal touch. The woman I replaced has shelves. There is an availability of wood here, and no shortage of talent. The guys built here a couple of ‘book shelf’ units to hold clothes and such. Each of us has a light and power supply. There are lots of TVs and DVDs here.
A word about DVDs and CDs. That is a hot item here. There is a large business in bootleg discs. You can by up to 5 movies burnt on a disc for as little as 2.50 US. Even all the movies still in the theatres are out there. They record them from the movie theatres or find stolen copies of to bootleg.
The bathroom is another story. From the outside it almost appears like a sea cargo container with tented sides opened out. Inside on the right is 5 stainless steel toilets up on pedestals. You step up into the toilet area and close the canvas curtain behind you. There is very little room. Your knees touch the canvas. There are 5 showers on the otherside. The bathrooms are cleaned once a day by a cleaning staff. They do an excellent job of it.
One other thing I am greatly impressed by, is the laundry facilities. If you take your laundry in before 1100 to the laundry tent, it will be ready for you the next day by 1300. It is returned bagged and folded. Laundry is sent out to be done. It is so nice and clean. Gone are the days of sitting for 6 to 8 hours on the ship to do laundry and fighting for a washer or dryer. Then getting your clothes out smelling like jet fuel.
Right now I am not impressed with the weather. The other night it rained all night and turned to slush by morning. It snowed/rained all the next day. We now have rivers and lakes in the camp. This is reeking havoc with the power. Our sleeping area/bathrooms had power problems for the last few days. Power is on and off. It gets bloody cold in those tents with no heat.
There you go. A little taste of life in the fast lane.