Phone Call!

Brett called me! I will give a summary of the conversation:

Brett said they spent a few days in Germany, a few days in Kuwait, and now they are at their post at Camp Bucca, Iraq. Camp Bucca is a detainee prison so that will be their job. Currently they are living in tents but they should be moving into trailers in the future. Right now they are following the unit around that they will be replacing. The base has a small store, Pizza Hut, and a Burger King so it's similar to a small town. While they were in Germany, the USO gave them free phone cards so that was how Brett was calling me. The calling card he used was for 100 minutes but using it from Iraq, it only lasted 20 minutes. He said Wednesday is "Good Food Day" as the military allots more money for their meals on that day. Last Wednesday he had prime rib, baked potato, and corn on the cob. (Really roughing it, huh? He didn't even complain about the quality of the beef!) He said he is very fortunate in that his work schedule is 8 hours per day with one day off per week. He said many of the others are working 12 hour days with no days off. It just depends on their specific job. I asked him what was the most surprising thing thus far and he said the number of American civilians that are employed on the base. He said at times when you are walking around the base, it's like walking at the mall because of the diversity in age of those that are around. He said they are not to leave the base at all and the only time they see children is when they have visitation for the detainees and their families come to visit.

He did mention that he was stuffing his duffel bag and while he was pushing real hard, his hand came back and hit him in the face and broke his new glasses. Right now they are superglued. I told him it's nice to know that even though he is clear across the world, Brett is still Brett!