I have discovered why I "enjoy" living here on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Lindsay more than on KAF. It's not just that the food is better (it is) or that there is less dust (much less), but it's that FOB Lindsay is a village, just like Wolfe Island, where I live in Canada. There are other similarities too. Wolfe Island has a population of about 1500, 500 of whom live in Marysville - FOB Lindsay's population is about 600. Every day when leaving the island you must line up for the ferry, well here on the FOB we line up our HMMWVs to pass through the vehicle check point. Just like in Marysville there is one general store on FOB Lindsay and very few choices as to where to eat. You nod to your neighbours as you walk around the FOB, just as you do on the Island, and you have to go to the Post Office to pick up your mail. Also the FOB dog, Blondi, runs freely around the FOB just like the unleashed dogs of Marysville, and you have to take your own garbage to the dump.
There are even some of the same people on FOB Lindsay as you would meet on the island. There are the visitors from KAF who come for the food, just like the hordes of tourists who jam up the ferry in the summer. We have equal disdain for them here. There are the free spirits who come to the Island to escape the high cost of living in Kingston, thumb their noses at the rules and let their hair grow. On Wolfe Island they are the artists - on FOB Lindsay they are the Special Forces. On Wolfe Island during hunting season I have often been awakened in the early morning by the shotguns blasts of hunters. It is the same here on FOB Lindsay, except that the hunting season runs all year round, and the shotguns have been replaced by artillery and A-10 attack aircraft. The turkeys shoot back here too.
Finally, there are the farmers. On the Island farmers grow hay and corn, and raise cattle or bison. There is also the odd rumour that there might be a little "aromatic herb' growing out there in the fields. At FOB Lindsay it is the same, but flipped on its head. The farmers around the FOB grow opium poppies, and rumour has it that there might be a few pomegranates hidden out there in the poppy fields.
So for a Wolfe Islander FOB Lindsay is just like home, except I've got a 30 metre walk to the washroom and it's a lot hotter!
2 comments:
So, as an entrepreneur maybe you could start promoting a wind farm and cause all the insurgents to leave because of headaches and other medical problems people complain about living near the turbines!
The Dogs name is Kilo and I was one of the people who helped keep her in FOB Lindsay. We raised her since she was a pup and we always gave her our food from our care packages and she was always welcome in our tent 14!
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