I wasable to talk to Bill on Thursday night. The girls stayed up and talked to him and then I was able to finally listen for myself if he was OK. Hearing our voices was hard for him, but we worked through that part and had an excellent visit.
There is about 1400 people staying on the compound and for having that many people living there, Bill says that it is eerily quiet at night. There is no TV in this room, so Bill doesn't even have any background noise once he is in his room. He is not quite sure how many pictures he will be able to take this hitch, as he said there are guard towers all over, with guards of course, and he certainly doesn't want to draw attention to himself as he is snapping pictures everywhere. (They may think its for the wrong reasons...not sure) He is slowly adjusting and getting a feeling for the place. He has a bit of variety of food to chose from. He has stuck to chicken as his meat- so has already asked me to NOT cook chicken when he first comes home. He has heard the beef tastes a little different there, so he hasn't tried any of those kinds of dishes yet. There are wild dogs that live outside the compound and will attack you if you leave the base on foot. He has to walk to work in the dark and the other morning, as he was walking the 15 minute walk, he could hear them barking in the distance. He said it was a little unsettling to hear them.Bill said that if he was to take a complete walk around the base, it would take him an hour. Besides one walk the first night there, he hasn't done any exploring yet. Because they are so close to the equator, there is 12 hours of daylight and 12 of dark, so by the time he gets home from work, there isn't much daylight left. The only thing that he has to pay for himself is beer at the pub. He hasn't gone there yet, as he wants to adjust a little more, and with being the "new" boss, he figured the pub isn't the best option for him. The guys are very nice and his first impression is that they are hard working. Kelly, his cross shift, has been amazingly helpful to Bill. There is WAY more computer work that he needs to do there and is frantically trying to learnas much as possible before Kelly leaves on Tuesday. I told him that it will take time, just like it did in GP when he first switched positions. He is still adjusting his sleep patterns and I think is able to get more and more good rest with eachnight he is there. He has no internet yet, and maybe never will, so we have been emailing him the hockey scores.
Bill misses us immensely and it has been very hard on him being alone over there. He is still a bit nervous about being 2 days away if anything happens over here. I have reassured him that everyone is going to be fine and healthy. I think each day brings a little less sadness as he adjusts. I was hoping that if you have a minute you could fire him off an email now and then. It will certainly help take the boredom out of his evenings.
bill.wolstenholme@halliburton.com
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