Thanks for the Tips, Y'all.
In my experience with firearms and cameras, I found that few things actually break, but many sprout legs and walk off or are pulled in to some other dimension when I am not looking. Filters, adapters, cable releases, batteries, rolls of film, bullets and primers being the chief fugitives.
I am about 8,000 miles from home over here and this place sure isn't like the red clay of Oklahoma.
All of Kuwait is carpeted in sand. There is the hard crusty kind and the loose kind. Up near the Iraq border, the sand is a little coarser, and that is where the Cobras live. Down towards Saudi, the sand is finer and that is where the sand vipers play. I have not seen either yet, nor the killer scorpions down south, the striped sea snakes or the venomous sea shell. I am a school teacher here and my students love to go camping in the desert, and they see all these critters.
Driving on the sand when it is slightly moist will convert the loose kind to the packed kind. The wind or driving on the packed kind when it is dry will convert it to the loose kind.
Sand storms are up to a 3 day event, and you may not be able to see your hood ornament as you drive to work. During sand storms, many drivers resort to "sonar" i.e. some incomprehensible system of horn honking that allows them to miss each other and many of the pedestrians.
Getting things (toys) here means you bring them in with you in your luggage (all my leather craft tools), leave them home (all my camera gear) or find a friend who works on base and has an APO. Otherwise, Non-Kuwaitis do not get mail delivery service, but you can have things sent here from civilization. They go to Kuwait customs and sit there for 4 to 8 months before they summon you to the customs office, and open your package in front of you. I am thinking of having some one send me some shrimp...........
My master plan is to purchase a MD this summer when we go home to Texas and bring it back in my suitcase. I think I will ship my underwear and socks in the MD box to my friend out at Arifjan. If something is gonna get "interdimensionalized", it better be my used undies instead of my "new exercise machine". (<- Please note the politically correct, ready for wife, description of a MD).
Once we get back in August, I will wait for mid September (When you can actually breathe. The air has lost that "pizza oven" quality by then). and then start trying to detect things outside the apartment.
During August and the first part of September, I am going to fasten large steel washers and various coins to my wife's cats, and see if the MD will find the cats through the mattress, the pillows, the carpet, and elsewhere. I think this will be a more educational endeavor than "air testing".
Once again, thanks for the tips!
John Morton
Might want to carry some plumbing grease and use it on battery door as well as the headset and coil connections to keep the sand and moisture out. Also a spare faceplate decal not a bad thing to have, Sand has habit of jamming up everything. Spare plastic nuts and spare lower rod since they do jam up in sand. Weakest point of battery door is the rubber O-ring. May never use some but you will be glad to have it if needed in the sandbox.