So, friends. I live about 1200 meters away from a genuine cesspool. An open-air lake of human feces. They pump the refuse of 30,000 people into a reservoir, and let it evaporate. This is the best solution the mightiest military on the planet could come up with. Also, you'd think they would put it far on the outskirts of the base, maybe downwind? NOPE. Middle of the fucking base. You catch a nice whiff any time the winds change.
I probably took a few years off my life getting this picture. I'm like Marie Curie. At any rate, I give you: The Poo Pond.
For any photo geeks out there, this was shot on my new Canon 5D MKII with 24mm TS-e 3.5L. ISO 160, 1 sec, f11. Two shots, one shifted up, one down, stitched in photoshop.
That is pretty disgraceful that not even the most basic of sewage treatment is carried out. It isn't rocket science. I would offer my services as a consultant - but I have no intention of doing any site visits.
My contract is up in one year and nine days. No, I am not reenlisting. I will live in a box on the street before I reenlist (historically more likely than one might think!).
I have a few months left dodging rockets in Afghanistan. It'll be good to be back in Japan.
For all those wondering what Sober looks like these days, here I am after a nice eight hours of filming in Indian country. I'm on day five without a shower.
And I thought I'd share this shot from a couple days ago.
I'm nearing the end of my time here, thought I'd share a few more images and a video.
This shot was taken from the left-rear gunner position of a Striker, between two bases out in the boonies. Half the journey was dirt trails, half was on new pavement. It was a very dusty, bumpy ride.
Next, a photo taken via helicopter. I'm lucky to be one of the few people out here with access to these charter helicopter flights, basically a chauffeur. They're civilians, meaning they get to ignore a lot of the military flight regs and fly like absolute fucking maniacs. Terrifying, but also quite fun. Anyway, this is one of the many mountains sticking up out of the desert.
Here's one of my last videos, featuring lots of kaboom:
Late flight. Taking off from a combat zone at night means no exterior lights. Red light travels less distance than other colors, thus the interior light:
Just turned in my six-month chip here in Kyrgyzstan, feeling good. Thanks to everyone for the comments, I'm glad I was able to get a couple of songs submitted. I'll post the best photos and video I've got when I get home.
