Hey y’all! Wow…time is surely getting away from me. Sorry I have not been in to visit in awhile. I started my new job on 18 April and feel like I don’t know when I am coming or going right now. It’s exhausting. But I LOVE IT! Honestly I do…
Uniforms issued – 6 Camp Lemonnier Fire and Emergency Services dark blue T-shirts, 3 "too big for me" men’s 511 work shorts in a nice khaki color with lots of pockets, 1 extremely long green belt (I can wrap it around me twice), and for now, my own black Worx Steel Toed boots from home. I have the correct desert boots on order…so looking forward to receiving those. The belt, I need to get some help. Need to cut it and burn the edges. I just haven’t really thought much about it.
Radio issued – I am on “A-Shift” and have been designated A-21 on the radio. The radio clips to a strap that is just above the back pocket on the shorts. In this Fire Department we don’t hear tones, we have no bright red lights go on in the middle of the night, and we have no PA system. When a call comes in, we hear about it from dispatch on our radios. When a call comes in for the ambulance we’ll hear “Stand by for Medical…Stand by for Medical…” to get our attention, and then we hear the meat of the call. We respond on the radio “Medic 1 responding with 2…” and we are off. Most calls are pretty quick to get to. The station is pretty well centrally located. But you surely know we are coming when we respond…the engine is required to respond to every medical call with us. And you definitely want to get out of the way of that engine and us in our ambulance!
Temporary quarters assigned…I am sleeping in a tent, y’all! Good grief! My Girl Scouts should be so proud! I have to gather my things and walk about 2 blocks to the ladies room where I can shower, brush my teeth and all that good stuff. I have my shower shoes and my flashlight! Anyway – there are not enough sleeping quarters inside the station, so there are 2 large tents across the street from the station. The tents have about 10 “rooms” in them each. I say rooms loosely…some plywood slapped up and some AC vents and voila! We have a place to sleep. I have a bed and a locker in here. I can hear everything that is going on outside. The Local Nationals like to congregate right outside of our tent – there are a couple picnic tables for their use and an area where many of them come to do their prayer time. I hear them sometimes until late at night, and then definitely in the mornings about 0500…sometimes earlier. I remind them in my kindest “I know you didn’t just wake me up again” voice that there are people sleeping around here. Most annoying part. Our wake-up isn’t until 0700.
Behind the station they are building a set of CLUs that we will be able to move into soon. These are dry CLUs, meaning no bathrooms inside the rooms or connected to the rooms. So we’ll still have to use the shared facilities. But these rooms will be much nicer. We have 4 females working for the department now, 2 on each shift. So I’ll be sharing the CLU with one of the ladies from B-shift. We only stay down here when we are on duty. Thankfully I do not lose my CLU and CLUmate that I have grown so attached to already!
So…my first week. Lots to learn. Right now it’s all about becoming familiar with everything. Where do we keep everything on the ambulance, where do we get new supplies, where is all the paperwork we’ll need to complete, do my log-ons work for the various systems I will now need to access, etc. etc.? We spend several hours just driving all over base so I can become familiar with how to get places. There is lots of construction going on around here, so we also need to know how to get places when roads are closed. As EMTs we are both Attendant In Charge (AICs) and drivers. So we take turns with each. I have started taking the HazMat Awareness course for DoD and have many more courses to follow. We have run a couple of calls, and in my most fabulous style, I had a small altercation between the ambulance and a yellow safety pole on Friday morning. UGH! My license is suspended already…for 3 shifts and they are going to put me into remedial drivers training, when I haven’t even finished my beginner’s drivers training! HA HA No damage to the ambulance, just a little yellow paint along the side of the beautiful white painted ambulance. So I spent Friday doing the paperwork associated with vehicle accidents and preparing a Safety Brief on what to do and what not to do when you have an accident in one of the department apparatus! Wow – way to go Kath! Start off your first week with a big bang, would ya? I just feel bad for the pole, it seems to have sustained the most damage. But a little touch-up paint and it’ll be good as new! No worries…I then got the many stories from the guys here of accidents they have had and things they have gotten into trouble for. So….thank you guys! I feel better now.
Schedules…the scheduling is very interesting for working at the fire department. Like I mentioned, we have 2 shifts. All shift changes occur at noon on shift change days. My first weeks look like this: reported Monday at noon, worked 24 hours, and was off Tuesday at noon. Back to work on Wednesday at noon, worked 48 hours, and was off Friday at noon. Back to work on Sunday at noon, off Monday at noon. Back Tuesday at noon, work 24 hours, and off Wednesday at noon. Off for 48 hours, and back to work at noon on Friday, work 48 hours, and off again at noon on Sunday. Then it repeats again. We log 84 hours per week. This coming week I am working the 48 hours for B-shift – so I am working Tuesday at noon until Friday at noon. But then I don’t have to come back until Monday at noon again! I get a weekend off! WOO HOO. So with us being short staffed right now, we sometimes get moved around. But that’s fine…what else is there to do around here anyway?
Perks?? Yes, there are some perks. I enjoy being closer to the Galley. We obviously can go to eat; we just take our radio with us. Thankfully though it is frowned upon for us to frequent the Galley out side of meal times. So I don’t see any of us over there all the time getting fat and happy! We also can go to the gym…again, bring your radio. We are strongly encouraged and seriously more like required to maintain a certain level of physical activity. So we can go to the gym and log our physical activity in our Fitness logs back at the station. That is a nice perk indeed! The exchange is close by, so we can pop in there if we need anything to buy (toiletries, DVDs, iPods, etc. etc.) The Green Bean Café is also close by and we can sit outside there for the free Wi-Fi and get online. Just some little things that make the days go by when the calls don’t seem to be coming in much.
The mornings are always fun – we pull out all of the apparatus from the bay and clean them and the bay itself. It seems the Chief has a real issue with pigeon poop! So we make sure the bay and our apparatus are poop free every morning. I actually enjoy this activity – as we are all out there together working the whole bay and trucks. Kind of like a bonding activity, or something like that! But I did hear today that they are making strides in eliminating the pigeon problem altogether! Wow – that’ll be nice! I’ll keep you posted on that one.
With the temperatures rising around here, and being outside working a lot now, I find myself much more tired at night. Which is good…I have been sleeping great! Also with the temperatures rising so much, I find we all have to change our uniforms a couple times a day…including showers. No wonder they have water issues – I imagine most people on camp shower at least a couple times daily. It’s just inevitable.
I get lots of interesting stares lately too – as most people do not know that I transferred. So when they see me in my uniform and with the radio…they are quite surprised! What is that HR lady doing in the fire department? Ha ha But the best part – I feel like I so belong where I am now! It just feels right for me and I am very happy about that. Really happy.
Other than that, I got in some good diving before I started my new job. Since we always have a shift change on Sunday, it will be more difficult for me to get a Sunday off. But I do have this Sunday coming up off…so I have already secured my spot on the boat. Cannot wait! I also find myself spending my afternoons off at the base pool. Just laying out, mostly. It’s a small lap pool, so not really for me to just hang out in. But I am getting a little color and just enjoying being outside with nothing to do. I also use the time to do laundry, clean my room and bathroom…and nap! Most importantly…nap! HA HA
So far so good….and I just wanted to share! Hope all is well back home. I miss and love you all lots! Hope everyone had a joyous Easter!
Take care!
Ciao!
Kathi
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