June 14, 2020
Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras

Life here continues apace, albeit at a very slow pace. The rains have decreased significantly and some days are decidedly sunny, though correspondingly hot. Wandering around aimlessly continues to be a big part of the entertainment here.

As mentioned, EZ-GOs, or similar small golf cart-like vehicles, are the primary means of transportation, though I pretty much walk everywhere.

Some people pimp out their ride.

The Dining Facility (DFAC) here is really rather good. Breakfasts are more or less the same everyday. You can get eggs cooked to order, or go through the main line, instead. Lots of fresh options. One can easily overdo breakfast. Trust me on this.

Lunches and dinners typically have 3-4 choices for main dishes, lots of side dishes, salads, fresh fruit, and dessert. The mains are generally pretty dang good, and sometimes excellent. We recently had a Latin America Food Day for lunch which included a whole roast pig, Dominican chicken stew, Honduran arroz con pollo (which was excellent), and Puerto Rican mofongo. Wednesday is Surf n Turf day with steaks and lobster tails for lunch. I really need to get out and run more.

The housing options are interesting, though “option” is probably a bad choice of words, as you get what you are assigned. As I am not here more than six months, I don’t warrant the newer and nicer “quads” which have a bathroom and kitchen sink. Likewise I’m also not at the bottom end of things, so don’t have to live in one of the “Termite Shacks” which are somewhat…rustic.

Still, given the tropical location that likely contributes to their rusticity, they can present a pretty picture. From the outside, in any case.

The Termite Shacks are mostly used as temporary housing where people might wait 2-4 weeks before getting into nicer permanent housing. Most of our junior soldiers are in decent newer buildings with shared rooms, and with toilets and showers nearby.

There is but one weekly supply flight that comes in, and it can be somewhat irregular. I suspect the supply chain was based on demand influenced by the ability to get off post and shop at local Honduran stores, something that is not currently allowed. This leads to interesting shortages, like the frozen food section of the PX shoppette yesterday.

Since you can get three good meals per day at the DFAC, this is not a significant hardship.