Journal Entry: "The Poor Man's Opera"

We were discussing the organization of displaced civilian/refugee camps and reviewing a diagram of the layout of a five-thousand-person camp. It was noted that the “unattached males” section of the camp was diametrically opposed in location to the “unattached females”. The reasons were obvious. The instructor mentioned that sex was virtually the only form of entertainment in a refugee camp to which I interjected, “That’s what they call it the ‘Poor Man’s Opera’.” I got a lot of confused looks and realized no one got the joke, so I stood up and went “Ohhh, ohhh, ohhhhhhhhhhh!” parodying an operatic orgasm. The instructors pride themselves on their game-faces. He couldn’t maintain his this time. He had to go behind the projection screen for a full minute while the rest of the class recovered its composure. I’ve had to give a few repeat performances of that one up in the barracks since.