blackwater adventure

Thursday

we started off the day signing up for a helicopter flight to our next base and then went on to take a tour of something i had never toured before. for those of you who don't know where the solid waste you personally produce goes, i can tell you now. we went and toured the graywater and blackwater ponds. those are polite and official terms for the "holding ponds." oh my goodness. i have a pretty rock hard stomach and high tolerance for a lot of things...a lot. when my team member, Lauren the wastewater engineer, got out of the truck at the edge of the ponds of course I hopped right out only to be greeted by a wall of stink so strong that my body's survival instinct kicked in and i proceeded to dry heave. then i put my head up and since i have to breathe to survive i breathed again...yet again i began to dry heave and then my eyes started to water. it was truly an uncontrollable reaction. now, this wasn't as dramatic as it may sound. Lauren and the tour operator were already at the edge of the pond and i was at the side of the truck and this was pretty low key looking at; the heaving convulsions emanating from my belly were not low-key at all. so, i put my head up gaining my composure again because i pride myself on not being delicate or squeamish. THen i experienced more watering from the eyes, but at least my head was up and i was done convulsing. i proceeded to walk up to the edge of the pond the whole time using whatever ab muscles I had to contain any heaving. i shook it off and i could handle the smell now. just at that point i could look over the edge of the pond and even though the stink was survivable, the visual of the...lets call it "solids" floating affected the self-control I had managed to wring out. alas, i didn't flinch too badly and i maintained composure for the next 30 minute tour. did i mention my other team member, chuck, and my Army escort chickened out and stayed in the car? it made me proud to out-toughen them in this competition, however, this also meant that they were the audience to my (apparently comical) initial reaction. i am attaching a picture of me at the conclusion of the tour with Lauren on my left and the tour guide on the far left. i could have called this picture many things. maybe i'll have a contest accepting proposals for titles; it could be fun. for now, i'm calling this picture either "my sense of smell is scarred forever" OR "I survived Blackwater Ponds, Iraq."