"The truth of the matter is that you always know
the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it."
Norman Schwarzkopf

We are going to hit the rack hard tonight! We have not gotten enough sleep the past couple of nights trying to adjust to our Wake and Sleep Cycle Program. The program actually got skewed because we had Dutch media coming in from the Netherlands to do some PR for us for the next three days. We have had a very productive, very busy day thus far. Our Engineers have been working hard in getting our GreenHab operational with our tanks overflowing. Once they were working on that, our generator started to go offline. When that happened, our internal water tank did not fill and we were out of water for about 3 hours. They were working for about 5 hours determing why our generator would work fine for about 10 minutes then shut down. We determined it would be best to be in "High Sonservation Mode" for the remainder of the evening until we can verify the cause of the problem. We have decided to take alternate shifts to check on the generator every couple of hours to ensure she was still operational throughout the night.

The children enjoyed it when the generator went out. When the lights went out they were singing and enjoying the change in routine. As for the adults of the Crew, they are sluggish and are definitely learning new things when dealing with maintaining the functionality of the Hab. Many of us have taken on different tasks than we signed up for. For the veteran's of the Crew, this is nothing new. We actually long for the variation in duties in order to not only learn from our experiences but to break the routine a little. We all know what must be done, the hard part is finding the energy and time to do it. This takes discipline and patience. As CDR I have seen a variety of emotions related to what has transpired this week.

One thing is for certain, there is a certain bond between us. Especially when dealing with the children. Even though I have my own Crew Quarters I find myself staying up late with the children and watching movies or camping out with the children in the attic (its more fun up there!).

Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto
Commander, MDRS Crew 59