The Poo Pond

Besides the sights and sounds of different places, there are also the smells.

Now, for anyone who has lived on the wrong side of the tracks, gone Volksmarching in Germany, lived on or around farms or been in Preventive Medicine there are odors one just ignores. You know that they are just unpleasant. You understand why they are there and you ignore them.

Not so with certain groups of civilians or military. They are really, really upset at the idea of sewage treatment facilities. Especially ones that are within their sight or olfactory limits.

(the comment about Volksmarching was simple – all of the hikes seemed to go out of town, up and down a number of hills, then come back in through the industrial, water/sewage treatment area)

So it is with Kandahar. At the time that the aireation ponds were set up, the camp had not extended out in that direction. Now, with construction and expansion, there is this lovely circular pond in the middle of many of the life support areas (mostly contractors).

Yes, it smells. On some days more than others depending on the wind. The cold makes things better. When someone was whining today I just looked at them.

Think a minute, I said – you might find it annoying but it is harmless. It could be worse.

How?

One of the inbound rockets could hit it, causing an explosion and fountaining of the contents for blocks……

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11 Responses to The Poo Pond

  1. Angeluna says:

    What a lovely thought. I’ll bet you shut that person right up.

  2. Bob says:

    Those complaining should have been in Vietnam daily when the outhouse barrels were burned. Just open the back wall of the latrine, pull the barrels out a safe enough distance to not burn down the latrine, add a bit of diesel to each barrel and then ignite the diesel in order for ALL THE CONTENTS to burn away. And you’re so right: some days were better than others — depending on the direction of the wind.

  3. Isobel says:

    Timely e-mail. My son was visiting last week. He’s currently studying the gastrointestinal system. I just requested that it NOT be discussed at dinner. 🙂

  4. Bruce says:

    And then there was the cess pit at Ali al Salem….

  5. Alison says:

    Oh. My. What a thought. Just don’t spread the idea to them…!

  6. Brad says:

    Ever the optimist

  7. Berg says:

    CSAR used to be located right near the ponds….summers were not fun

  8. Carmen says:

    Wow, you really made his/her day a little more freaky! J

    I went to school in Appleton, WI for a summer, and when the wind was blowing ‘wrong’ you’d get a wonderful whiff of the paper mills – which the townsfolk called “the money smell”. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around pig farms. The worst.

  9. Mary says:

    OMG!!
    You are tooooooo funny! I can just picture how you delivered that zinger!!
    LOVE IT!!

    I was thinking you’d say something about miasma and disease or maybe cholera, I never expected what you actually said!! Hope he had to salute you after you said it!!!!

  10. Pat says:

    When I was a teen, I volunteered for the local theater group, packing
    bags of popcorn to sell during intermission. The challenge was that
    the theater was in the same building as the Sanitary Engineering
    department, and the popcorn was packed in the same room with the ovens
    where they bake the sewage. Yes, BAKE it. In slow ovens. Forever.
    Let’s make it smell stronger. 🙂 I can deal with poo ponds, with a
    preference that I don’t have to go into them.

  11. Ken says:

    I was thinking the same thing while I was walking past the Poo Pond, what is a rocket hit here! It did smell really bad, but I have smelled worse…

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