Broken Generators and Sad Goodbyes

Broken Generators

At MES, those of us that live and work here are lucky enough to have our own little compound with our own small rooms, our own shared bathroom and showers, and our offices 100 ft from our living quarters. This is a super sweet set up, but it’s all dependent upon having a working generator. The generator keeps everything running from the computers to the lights to the water pumps. When the generator dies, we might as well pack up and leave.

Since I’ve been here, we’ve gone through 3.5 generators. When I first showed up 5 Months ago (can you believe it’s been that long?), the living quarters were working off of one generator and the work area off of another one. This was advantageous cause if one died, we’d still have power on the other side of the compound. Somewhere along the line it was decided that that set up wasn’t working anymore (or maybe they just needed one of the generators for somewhere else) and we were down to just one generator for both sides of the compound.

One generator in and of itself isn’t that bad, until it goes down, which it has done three times since it was installed. Once, they were able to just fix it and let it lumber on happily until the next death, and twice it needed to be replaced.

The funny thing is that sometimes it’s only a simple piece that’s missing, but they never have the piece so they just replace the dead generator with a new used one.

A week after the generator died the second time and was replaced with a new one, all the lights started doing a poltergeist impression and the computers were beeping in rhythm before everything went dark and the generator started billowing smoke. And as they say, “Another one bites the dust!”

Unfortunately, the generator decided to die in the afternoon and we were told it would be 5-6 hours before a new one could be found and installed. So what do you do to entertain yourselves when it’s going to get dark in a few hours and there’s no power? First you start a two on two game of gravel yard soccer and have everyone else perched on top of ConEx containers heckling the players as they attempt not to trip/fall/sprain ankles/scrape palms/etc. as they’re running around on rocks.

It was my OIC and me against my old OIC and another one of the contractors in an all out slow-motion (speed was impeded by the gravel field) match. My team came out on top with a 7-3 victory. Our prize, a bruised shin for me, a scraped palm for the OIC, and bragging rights for both of us. It was a lot of fun.

The soccer game lasted till tummies started growling and people went foraging in search of dinner. When we came back from dinner, it was dark and there still wasn’t any light to be had or a new generator in sight.

The NCOIC brought out glow sticks to light entrance ways to buildings and walkways. As many of us were huddled in the front parking lot area talking and listening to music that one guy was playing from his laptop, glow sticks started raining down on us. The short confusion of “WTF?” gave way to “Oh it’s on now!” and a glow stick war was started with the NCOIC and OIC on the outside of the compound wall (watching the installation of the new generator) and five or six of us on the interior of the compound.

Tossing glowing sticks back and forth over a 8 foot wall should not have been nearly as fun as it turned out to be, but something about the situation and the people made it very enjoyable. We even started strategizing and figuring out how best to hit our opponents when you really had no clue where on the other side of the wall they were. It was definitely a good way to past the time until the lights came back on.

Saying Goodbye

In a few days time, the MES ACME Lab will closes its doors and those of us that live here will be scattered throughout the country or back to the States. With the drawl down of the war, the smaller bases are shutting their doors before the larger bases and it has reached the point where it’s our turn.  

In true ACME fashion, we couldn’t just slink off into the sunset like villains and so we instead had a giant party and invited most of the people that knew anyone here. A barbeque, music, dancing, fire, and good people, made the night a good one. Even the dry lightning storm that eventually turned into a downpour didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. It’s going to be sad leaving everyone here, but there are new adventures to be had and new people to meet.