Blackout Weeekend Meaning no "English" - Hindi only. Most of the guys drove halfways up the volcano and then climbed to top. Some of us stayed behind. I was late to the volleyball game and they wouldn't let me join.
 So I gathered cans of vienna saugages,
tangerines and candy bars and set out to climb the volcano, the hard way - straight up. I got halfways up the first slope and it began raining.
So I built a shelter out of the rocks under a bush and sat there for 30 minutes. Made it to the top of the knoll and it rained again, so under a bush again. I was about a third of the way up and it was only noon, so I decided to go all the way. Easier slope but covered in scree so the
climbing was slower. here were some ground birds that kept fleeing from me, so I just followed them. Ran across pig tracks and piles of spent shells.
Towards the top it became dense and I had to crawl under the brush a few times. Had to do a few jumps over gullies and the last stretch was through clouds.
But I made it to the top and made a peace sign out of rocks as my signature. Drizzle so I found a small cave filled with feathers and bones that I used
build a fire and roasted my saugages. After a small rest I made my way back down, only slipping a couple times. I had knocked off my first mountain.
My family's turn to cook. Mark and I were cutting the chicken for the curry. We were very neat about it, cleaning out the bones. But Jas insisted that we bash the beast to pieces, bones and all. My bermudas got covered with blood from that and we managed to make a few
jokes about it in Hindi. David Downes was in charge of the curry and it turned out HOT. My ears burnt from eating it. Jas set up his tape recorder in the dining hall and treated us against our wishes to Hindi music. A yaqona session set up.
Jas got looped on alcohol and got lost - he came crawling in after a long search for him. Perrys, Bailey and I played Monopoly in Hindi. While most of the guys got up a poker game.
There was a Junior National Guard staying in other barracks. And it bothered us because we could smell the steaks they were barbequing while we had curry three times a day. Just after midnight we hear all this commotion like WWIII had started.
A bugle was blowing, someone was shouting orders and the kids were running around screaming. Thought maybe they had found Jas, eh? But it was probably a practice alert.
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