***** 14 Mar 2007 *****
Hi,
So i experienced a camp move today. We loaded the entire camp onto huge trucks and drove about 20km to a new location. Watching them load the "skids" was impressive. They are at least the size of double wide trailers, maybe bigger. A trucks front wheels would lift a good 5 feet into the air while loading. Then they had to transfer the skid from one truck to another truck. When a skid was finally loaded it stuck out on either side, it was more than three times as wide as the truck, and it would slowly wobble back and forth perpedicular to the truck. And by seeing how just how slow it wobbled you could get a feel for just how frikin heavy it was (physics!), and that made you really hope it didn't fall. Actually, one skid had some trouble when it was being tranfered from a loading truck to the driving truck. A cable on the driving truck broke, and the skid got pulled sideways and almost fell off the truck. Exciting...but then it took almost 2 hours to fix. And that was just one out of 20 some skids. And then we drove to the new campsite and did it all in reverse. So it was a long day with a lot of waiting.
While waiting I learned how to tie a turban properly from an authentic Omani while sitting in a truck waiting. I heard stories about how this Omani's mom got mad when his dad married a second wife...because people do that in Oman sometimes. I took a nap on a pile of reciever cable, and because i was so tired (from waking up at 4am) it was the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. I fed a camel several apples...I got to see its tounge. It was wearing either a jock strap or a bra, depending on whether it was a woman or a man. Some piece of fabric was wrapped around it to protect its underside. AND I got to drive one of the trucks... off road! I never thought i'd get to do it so soon! I only got to because I had to go to the bathroom horribly bad, and there were no bathrooms, so Keith the head mechanic lent me his truck to drive out in the desert and pee. I'm so glad I learned too drive on a stick shift. And then when I peed, the pee landed about 6 feet down wind of me because it was blowing like a @$#%@$!
Finally we are back in the office, with lights and computers and air conditioning. We managed to unpack everything in an hour or two...a lot quicker than it took to pack it all. It's been a pretty exhausting day, but interesting. So i thought I'd share.
Love,
Selah
Hi,
So i experienced a camp move today. We loaded the entire camp onto huge trucks and drove about 20km to a new location. Watching them load the "skids" was impressive. They are at least the size of double wide trailers, maybe bigger. A trucks front wheels would lift a good 5 feet into the air while loading. Then they had to transfer the skid from one truck to another truck. When a skid was finally loaded it stuck out on either side, it was more than three times as wide as the truck, and it would slowly wobble back and forth perpedicular to the truck. And by seeing how just how slow it wobbled you could get a feel for just how frikin heavy it was (physics!), and that made you really hope it didn't fall. Actually, one skid had some trouble when it was being tranfered from a loading truck to the driving truck. A cable on the driving truck broke, and the skid got pulled sideways and almost fell off the truck. Exciting...but then it took almost 2 hours to fix. And that was just one out of 20 some skids. And then we drove to the new campsite and did it all in reverse. So it was a long day with a lot of waiting.
While waiting I learned how to tie a turban properly from an authentic Omani while sitting in a truck waiting. I heard stories about how this Omani's mom got mad when his dad married a second wife...because people do that in Oman sometimes. I took a nap on a pile of reciever cable, and because i was so tired (from waking up at 4am) it was the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. I fed a camel several apples...I got to see its tounge. It was wearing either a jock strap or a bra, depending on whether it was a woman or a man. Some piece of fabric was wrapped around it to protect its underside. AND I got to drive one of the trucks... off road! I never thought i'd get to do it so soon! I only got to because I had to go to the bathroom horribly bad, and there were no bathrooms, so Keith the head mechanic lent me his truck to drive out in the desert and pee. I'm so glad I learned too drive on a stick shift. And then when I peed, the pee landed about 6 feet down wind of me because it was blowing like a @$#%@$!
Finally we are back in the office, with lights and computers and air conditioning. We managed to unpack everything in an hour or two...a lot quicker than it took to pack it all. It's been a pretty exhausting day, but interesting. So i thought I'd share.
Love,
Selah
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