I am now a war hero

Sorry I didn't write anything last night - just plain too busy. After all, it was succumb-to-army-peer-pressure day (aka get a haircut day). There is a hajii shop right down the hall from where I "work" where haircuts are $5. I asked to get skin on the side so that I could go as long as possible between haircuts and avoid paying $5 just a little longer. I guess the barber either knew my evil plan to avoid being a repeat customer or did not speak English because he just gave me a haircut. He was a very slow barber, but that worked out okay because our conversation was painfully slow. I did find out his name was David, and when he found out my name was Matthew he got very excited and got an interpreter in so that he could tell me there is a shrine to St. Matthew up north on a mountain. This led to us finally figuring out that he was Catholic, and I think I conveyed that I was Christian but protestant. Actually, I know he understood I was a protty because he asked why I didn't pray to the Madonna. I didn't answer him completely because deep theological issues are best left to a time when you have more than hand signs to communicate and when neither party is holding a straight razor. Not quite how I pictured my first encounter with an armed Iraqi. All in all, a mildly pleasant experience.

Today was a thankfully slow night at sick call, so the medics taught me some combat lifesaver skills. I got to stick a breathing tube (nasal pharyngeal airway tube) in someones nose and give someone an IV. Medics are pretty strange - they were arguing over who got to get stuck for the IV like it was fun to get stuck with needles. By a rookie, no less. I would rather have a needle than the breathing tube. When I tried on the first nostril, it wouldn't go in. In fact, the medic's eyes teared and nose started bleeding. But all the medics insisted that I had done a great job, and when the nose bleed stopped, the same medic let me stick a tube up the other nostril. They say they do it to each other for training all the time. The needle went better, but I feel that I have shed enough blood to get the Bronze Star with Combat V.