Cell block 6...not your Grandma's powder room..

(see steps leading to shower door)

bathroom jokes aside...can you imagine how interesting it must be to shower in CELL BLOCK 6. Yes, that is what I do daily, well almost daily. Imagine two containers (yes, the things you see driving down the highway being towed by an eighteen wheeler) stacked two high, the lower being the toilets, and the upper the showers. The toilet container stalls have block lettering on the wall behind the toilet paper that say WC1, WC2, WC3, etc. Water Closet? At least they flush and are clean; thanks to local nationals who clean twice daily these latrines. Sinks have running water, non-potable of course, but at least both hot and cold! I first visit this welcomed luxury before making my way around the corner and up the "scary" stairs (ones that you can see through, like on the outside of the air craft carrier, and you can see the water below you, scary!) to the shower area. Pick a CELL, any CELL. This place had to totally have been moved here from Leavenworth or Purdy? I select the CELL with the fewest woman already drying off, or stepping in. The rooms really have bars on the windows and the doors are solid steel. You kind of feel like you are in a meat locker. You are walking on slotted boards that are perfectly arranged above the concrete (or is it cement, Barb/Ted?) flooring that has a distinct dip in the center to drain the water). This too is a luxury considering that at other FOB's you are walking in 3" of stale gross water. Luckily there is non-potable hot and cold running water; whenever I have been up there, I have found plenty of both. One of my greatest fears coming here was the dreaded 3 min. shower restriction. But no one here seems to follow it. When you come out of the shower, you feel refreshed, and believe it or not the room where you get dressed is big and is air conditioned. This is awesome, because you don't work up a tremendous sweat before you leave the place, like other hot places I have been. There is decent lighting above the mirrors by the sinks. But the sinks are circled with rust, so you can imagine, although cleaned daily, this place is not your grandma's powder room.