Well day 1 on the the dusty turf, and my laptop is useless. During the trip some rather bad decisions by my superiors regarding personal property affected the backlight on my laptop and now it is impossible to tell what is occurring on my screen. Needless to say, I'm reluctant to trust the locals to fix it, but seeing as I don't really have a choice, I've commissioned a local to attempt to fix it, if he cannot affect repairs by tomorrow (payday) then I'll be forced to ship it back to the states in hopes of using the (hopefully still valid) return policy.

While I'm waiting, I've also noticed that my PSP is starting to run worse and worse, often freezing and shutting itself off. Now with no way to entertain myself, and my roommate having lots to do on his side of the room, I've encountered a strong sense of jealousy. I took thorough precautions to ensure the safety of my hardware only to find that it is destroyed upon arrival. I am pretty upset about it. Anyway, I'm not looking forward to spending another grand buying a new machine and loading it with all of the necessary tools and such.

There is local internet with a max speed of 256kbps at $90.00/month. I'm not enthused about that price, since the expected and unexpected missions will leave about 7-12 days a month of free time. I'm probably going to check on wireless rates instead and determine the best and cheapest approach from there.

I don't have a camera, cell phones aren't allowed, and all I have that works (barely) is a PSP, so if you're interested in writing me, email me and I'll send you the address. Thanks guys. Take care.