What's that smell?

Travis has been sending home boxes of stuff that he doesn't need any longer in preparation for coming home. Being the lucky recipient, I get to try and find ways to get the heavy boxes into my house and then go through them. I can't believe how bad all of the stuff smells and how dirty everything is. Ruby didn't know what to think about it all and she had to sniff everything to check it out. There's not really a good way to describe the smell, it's dirty, musty, sweaty, and a bunch of other things all at the same time. The clothes smelled the worst by far so, just to make sure, I had to ask Travis if he's been doing laundry since he's been gone. He assured me that he has and went on to explain that the whole country smells nasty-there's no way to avoid it. I suppose that would explain why even the books he sent home reeked. Everything also had a nice layer of dust on it. I had to wipe down all of the books before I could do anything with them. I know it's a small glimpse into what it is like actually being there, but I don't think I could take all of the smelly, dirty stuff. From what Travis has told me, everything they have is covered in and sand. When the sandstorms come it gets even worse. The sand blows through their clothes and buildings and there is no escaping it. I can't even imagine living in circumstances like that. Hopefully Travis can get used to being clean again and the smell wears off quickly.