Sunday, September 24, 2006

What I've Been Up To

It’s been awhile since I’ve put up a quality post. I thought tonight I would just throw a random entry together about many different goings-on at McMurdo. I’m still luggage-less, and today makes 42 days it’s been missing. Other than that… things are great! I’ve been busy…

Lockout Pager
This week I’ve had the privilege of carrying the Lockout Pager (I say that sarcastically). If anyone gets locked out of their room, they call the Firehouse who pages the Lockout Pager. Since I had it this week, I was responsible for calling in to the Firehouse to find out who was locked out, what room, and where they would be waiting. Luckily, I only had 6 pages all week. One of my co-workers locked himself out but knew where I was so he just came to find me, and one of the cooks, who lives down the hall from me, locked himself out but just knocked on my door since I was home.

Sunday Run
Yesterday, I enjoyed my first Saturday off since I arrived here. As janitors, we usually work Monday through Saturday from 7:30am-5:30pm. However, a lot of garbage is created on Saturday nights since most of the base has Sunday off, so every week two janitors volunteer for Sunday Run, which I did this week. I had Saturday off in return for working Sunday. Sunday Run consists of going through all the dorms to collect trash from the recycling centers and bathrooms, cleaning Highway One in the main building (including sweeping/mopping floors and cleaning bathrooms), and cleaning the bars that were open Saturday night. It can be started anytime after midnight Sunday morning and has to be finished by 5:30pm (with the exception of Highway One which needs to be ready by brunch at 10:30 and the Coffeehouse because it opens in the afternoon on Sunday). It usually only takes 4 hours or so and after you finish, you have the rest of the day free. If you plan it right, it’s kind of like having two days off in a row. Erin and I split the run so we could complete it on our own time. I wanted to do mine right away at night since I’m a night owl anyways, and Erin likes to get up super early and get it done. I went to a couple of parties last night (sober of course), and then started the run at 1:30pm. I collected trash in half of the dorms, cleaned the bathrooms on Highway One, and then went to Southern Exposure (the smoking bar) to clean it up. I went back to Highway One to pick up the Wet Floor signs I had left out, and I ran into Erin who was just starting to sweep and mop the floors. I headed to bed and chatted with my roommate before she went to work at 6am. I woke up at noon (like I usually do on Sundays anyways) and went to brunch and then had the rest of the day free!!!

BINGO Ball Picker
Wednesday afternoon, I was asked if I could call BINGO that night at Gallagher's. I agreed to help out, but when I got there another guy was already to call. So I was the ball picker, which required little to no talent... but it was still fun. We picked 6 different kinds of BINGO, ending with Blackout. We played 8 States, which means the eight numbers around the free space, among other varieties. Before each round, I played Vanna White and held up a blown-up demonstration card to show what kind of BINGO we were playing. Cards cost $5, and prizes include gift certificates to places back in New Zealand and other things like Body Butter, a box of chocolates, or a travel towel and locks. The prize for winning Blackout is always $200! Not a bad deal. I was so good at picking numbers, that the caller asked me to do it again in two weeks. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Being a Stretcher Bearer for a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI)
Earlier this season, we were asked to consider volunteering for the Mass Casualty Incident Crew. I received an email this week informing me that I would be a stretcher bearer and training would start on Friday afternoon. We have to have training in the event that something goes wrong with the first few flights of Mainbody which start arriving the beginning of October. It’s a terrible thing to think could happen, but I guess it’s better to be prepared. The entire Medical department for the MCI gathered to go over basics of how things would run and how we set up if we get called into action. The group was made up of communications (who go along with the doctors and radio in updates), medical auxiliary (who do splints and random medical things), recorders (I’m not quite sure what they do), and stretcher bearers (my job). We broke up into our job groups, and I quickly realized that besides one of the co-lead stretcher bearers, I was the only female in the group. That’s probably because I have huge muscles and workout all the time. Kidding. We reviewed how to set up a stretcher and the stands they sit on, and we also learned how to strap the victim onto a backboard and how to carry them on a stretcher. Four people at a time carry the victim using wooden handles at each corner of the stretcher. It works kind of like a car in that the person in the front left position gives the directions. We all had to take turns as the “driver,” and it went really well. We will receive more training after the rest of the summer contract employees arrive and can fully prepare for an MCI (the winter-overs that are still here will all be leaving by mid-October). After we finished with training for the afternoon, I ran into the two lead stretcher bearers just before dinner, and they told me how great it was to see that I was doing it since there aren’t very many female stretcher bearers.

Hut Guide
A few weeks ago, I signed up to be a Hut Tour Guide. Last week, we had training which consisted mostly of learning the rules. There is only one hut in walking distance from McMurdo – Discovery Hut, the one I’ve shown in photos. We must sign out a key which is recorded with the National Science Foundation, and we are only allowed to take eight people at a time. There are two other huts that we will be trained to give tours to: Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans and Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds. In all likeliness, we won’t ever get to give a tour of Shackleton’s Hut. The only way to access it is by helicopter. Getting to Cape Evans, however, is not that difficult. Next Sunday, there is a recreation trip to the Cape that winter-overs have first priority to take. Two Deltas with 18 passengers on each will go out for four hours or so. Tami, our trainer, asked if I would be interested in going along as a Hut Guide Trainee!! I am so excited, so this week I will have to spend some time absorbing information.

Craft Show
This afternoon there was a craft show in the Galley for anyone who wanted to set up tables to sell their artwork. It was amazing to see the talent coming from this community. There were many knit items: shawls, scarves, hats, mittens. One of the guys in my dorm has been making jewelry for over 30 years. He had some beautiful pieces of art. Quite a few people had photos for sale. Two people had paintings for sale. Phil was selling scrimshaw art for a friend who's not here this season. Our laundry lady, Barb, was selling dolls that you could have made to look like you wearing ECW. Two people were selling different types of zipper pulls (makes it easier to grasp with your thick gloves on). And Antz was selling DVDs of his time-lapse photography, which I of course purchased. There will be another craft show during Mainbody, which I've heard is double or more what we saw today.

Posted by Katie from the Ice @ 11:35 PM