{"id":62,"date":"2016-09-18T09:08:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T09:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/?p=62"},"modified":"2018-03-07T01:26:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T01:26:16","slug":"latrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/18\/latrine\/","title":{"rendered":"Latrine"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I am in place I am unfamiliar with and ask someone, \u201cHey, where\u2019s the head,\u201d they are usually an army soldier and they look at me like \u201cwhat the hell are you talking about.\u201d To which I return a very similar look to express \u201coh shit, you\u2019re a soldier, what the hell do you guys call it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Latrine. Head. Ablution. John. Shitter. WC (water closet). TOILET.<\/span><\/p>\n

Toilets in Afghanistan are pretty shitty (unintentional pun, but left in for effect). The ones found on our bases and fobs are designed such that one either has exceptional sky-dumping skills to drop the kids into the deep and narrow well and land in the water, inevitably splashing excrement water all over one\u2019s backside, or one blasts shit all over the back of the porcelain to where the water from the flush will never rinse it down. Of course, most people are not considerate or attentive enough to realize they left such a mess, and rarely brush the bowl, or even attempt a second flush, to clean it up.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the plus side, though, at least our toilets have seats rather than the traditional Afghan stomp pads.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"This
This is a high-end Afghan toilet, with running water, found in a government building in Kabul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I am in place I am unfamiliar with and ask someone, \u201cHey, where\u2019s the head,\u201d they are usually an army soldier and they look at me like \u201cwhat the hell are you talking about.\u201d To which I return a very similar look to express \u201coh shit, you\u2019re a soldier, what the hell do you… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9IVlY-latrine","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":187,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/14\/cvc-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":0},"title":"Chula Vista Challenge Half 2018 Race Report","date":"August 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Chula Vista Challenge Half, 2018 \u2013 Long Course Aquabike (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike) official time: 3:13:23 swim: 34:38 bike: 2:37:40 overall: 5th of 37 1-49 age group: 3rd of 11 A day of firsts\u2026 This weekend was supposed to be my first 70.3, half Ironman distance race. Instead,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Triathlon"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chrisdonlon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/img_0419-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/06\/race-report-desert-tri-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":1},"title":"Race Report: Desert Tri, 2018","date":"March 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Desert Tri, Lake Cahuilla, La Quinta , CA March 4, 2018 Expo\/Packet Pickup\/Wetsuit decontamination: After a lunch visit with my wife\u2019s grandparents who live about 30 minutes away from the race site, I got to the expo just in time for the final course talk and wetsuit dunk. By this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Triathlon"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/chrisdonlon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ea585aec-3bab-4922-bfab-4badf766154a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/02\/palomar\/","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":2},"title":"Palomar Century ride - training report","date":"September 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"About 20 years ago, when I lived in Fallbrook and drove a Jeep, I used to drive my jeep up to Palomar Mountain and find dirt fire-roads and trails along the way to justify owning a 4x4 in rural Southern California. One time, somewhere amongst the 12 miles of switchbacks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "life is life"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/chrisdonlon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/img_0437.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/10\/cjoc\/","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":3},"title":"CJOC","date":"September 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This week I had to train on covering the night watch in the CJOC (Combined Joint Operations Center). It's kind of like in the movies; picture\u00a0a big stadium style room, tiered work stations with several computer screens at each, large screens at the front and around the room with projected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AFG"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/10\/wtf\/","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":4},"title":"WTF: Merica, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me","date":"November 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"On November 9, a huge bomb detonated. It wasn't something I was prepared for; a situation pushed to the back of my mind because the chances of it actually occurring seemed so unlikely, nearly impossible. Then it happened. Shock, disappointment, helplessness,\u00a0fear and a few other unfamiliar emotions I don't know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AFG"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":250,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/13\/im703-indian-wells-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":5},"title":"Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells La Quinta 2018 - Race Report","date":"December 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Official Time: 05:00:501.2 mile Swim: 00:36:06T1: 00:04:0556 mile Bike: 02:28:01T2: 00:02:5613.1 mile Run: 01:49:42Overall: 249th of 306335-39 AG: 34th of 310 What a weekend. It was the perfect culmination of a long season of hard work and progress in my pursuit of continual improvement. The 2018 season has been a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Triathlon"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chrisdonlon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Indian-Card1A-770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}