Learning to live anywhere but an isolated patrol base is a difficult process. Everything you take for granted in the States has been stripped away - hot food, hot water (hell, running water), toilets, central heat, clean air, and so on. It's amazing how much crap we use every day that doesn't contribute meaningfully to our survival.
Anyway, what's strange is you can't pick back up the habits of using these amenities even they're available again. Sitting inside insulated from the wind makes me sweat because I'm wearing layers all the time and I've acclimatized to the severe Afghan winter. The cough I developed from breathing in all the dioxide (thank you, burning piles of plastic and shit) has lessened noticeably. My fingernails are clean for the first time in months.
Strangely enough, the hardest thing to pick back up is showering. Normally I'm a pretty clean guy but going weeks on end with nothing but baby wipes changes a man. I took a shower five days ago and still feel really, really clean.
And I'm not even the worst on the team. You should see Mumbles. Or smell him, I guess. I had to threaten to duct tape him to his cot and beat him senseless if he didn't take a shower. It was something like a month but he has had access to the shower trailer for at least two weeks.
Living on this Forward Operating Base for a few weeks will help the transition to Camp Leatherneck, which adds a cafeteria and heated rooms into the mix. From there it shouldn't be too much of a leap to the manicured, perfumed reality awaiting me back in the good ol' U.S. of A.
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