The Republic of ARMY

13. Back Home

My short issue ended, only realizing at Cairo that I really loved to photobomb BTS' photos.

While the guys had been at the airport again, I had shown up in their group photo. This time there was no mistaking it. RM was looking at me as I walked past, my side profile visible.

I wasn't only visible on that photo. The press and other fans took photos of them, and I popped up in a number of other pictures. Fan accounts showed their followers how distracted the boys were as I passed around. RM seemed the biggest victim of this category.

Even then, I didn't have time to dwell on this, so I prepared to have the army helicopter pick me up within minutes of my arrival in Cairo. My brother was in the plane and hugged me tenderly. I was happy to see his face again.

The flight didn't take long, and we soon arrived at our base. From above, we could see the solar farm looking good as the installation was completed. I also saw the second phase of our work beginning, in the form of fog nets.

While at the WHO meeting, I had come in contact with Creating Water's CEO from Netherlands and after a good discussion, he had offered to help set up a trial stage for the fog nets that would capture water from dew.

If it was successful in the Atacama, it most probably would be helpful at our little paradise.

Alighting from the helicopter needed my brother's help. He happily lifted me out of it, and proceeded to carry me around like a little kid. I didn't complain. In fact, I was completely exhausted as my body caught up with the change in timezones pretty quickly.

"Guys! She's back!"

"Let's give her time to rest, okay? Raina, talk to us when you wake up, okay?"

I sleepily nodded as my brother led me to my small cube of heaven. The sheets felt pleasantly cool as he pulled them up to my chin. "I guess you'll be out like a light then. See you in the morning."

"Ryan."

"Yes little Rai?"

"I love you."

"I know little Rai. I love you too."

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The sound of men running through the camp woke me up. I felt well rested, so that meant I had slept for over eight hours. It also translated to me skipping out on supper.

As if in agreement of that thought, my stomach rumbled.

I got out of bed, dashing to the breakfast hall to grab a bite, and only just on time to fin the last bowl of porridge being served. It was strangely as good I had expected it to be.

Bir Tawil had an interesting feature actually. The sunrises were beautiful, but then they were also brief because the temperature steadily rose with every minute the sun was up in the sky.

Donning white or pale coloured clothes was the best thing to do.

I was going to help set up the fog nets and then head to the solar farm whose first phase was almost completely installed. The windmill farm was also running quite well on the other side of the territory.

The borehole was providing a steady source of water, and with the windmills running, the pump worked daily. With the solar farm, we would have enough energy to set up another borehole and pump water to the small tree nursery we had set up. It had five hundred saplings of Australian Eucalyptus.

We had also brought in Desert roses which tended to grow well in dry areas, some acacia saplings, baobab, cacti, sisso, desert willow, chinese elm and chitalpa trees.

For a joke, we thought of throwing in a few honey locust tree seedlings. To my shock, my brother brought in a few from our visitors, the Creating Water team. The head of the team promised to spread the word that anyone who visited was required to bring a few saplings that could grow in desert climates with them.

We chose to plant the first fifty trees in the evening. Everyone had a partner, so one dug the hole and the other prepared the hole with whatever fertilizer we had found at the base.

Watering would be done every evening as we planted more trees at the same time. We utilized mulching materials that could cool the soil down. When it was finally cool after sunset, we headed back to the camp and had dinner.

The next few days passed in this manner. We were very pleased to finally plant our very own vegetable patch once the fog nets started working. The second phase of the solar farm was soon established and we kept on working hard.

I spent every minute I could poring over books, research papers and other relevant documents that could help me make the project a success. My brother and I prayed fervently daily for a positive change as the sun kept beating down on our little soldiers in the sand.

They looked so worn down every evening, but every morning, when we woke up, they would look so much stronger and better. This kept us going strong. We could only hope that the trees would establish deep roots much quicker.

In a month's time, our vegetables were doing so much better than the trees. The kales were ready for harvesting, all thanks to the constant water and the warm weather.

The first fifty trees seemed to have taken root and looked better than some of the others we planted latter. We still watered them daily, despite the worry we had. Our next batch of little trees came when Dr. Li officially paid us a visit three months after we started the tree planting.

She brought a thousand desert fruit tree seedlings with her.

"Let's do something special," she told me as she smiled at my latest report. "Let's officially start growing fruit trees."