2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 8: Camp Lemonaire Day 2

Alright, get ready because today was a wild one. Djibouti has been one of the craziest experiences of our lives. We’re going to let the pictures do most of the talking but we’ll try to walk you through as much as we can.

We got to sleep in, woke up around 10am, ate lunch, and then went to the “Ammo Unit” where we got to “play” with all kinds of guns including 9mms, M-16s, other crazy machine guns, 50 caliber guns, and finally a fully automatic grenade launcher. We looked like kids in a candy store.

We received some “training” on Call of Duty 2 (this is a video game for all of those not familiar with it) and then played with more guns. This was a pretty unbelievable experience for all of us.

From the Ammo Unit we went over to the Airfield where we got the tour of our lifetime. “VQ-2” gave us a couple hour tour of their EP3 plane and explained as much as they could about what they do. They operate a “spy plane” so we could not take many pictures and most of the information cannot be talked about but they basically explained what they do and how they do it. We got to try on their gear and parachutes, sit in the cockpit and much, much more. We need to thank all the guys from VQ-2 for showing around and just being amazing.

If that isn’t enough for one day, after the airfield visit, we left base for a trip to a “Cheetah Refuge”. We drove through the outskirts of Djibouti that contain the poorest and dirtiest terrain most of us have ever seen. We spent about an hour at the Refuge looking at cheetahs, hyenas, turtles, gazelles, ostriches, and lots of other animals.  After that we headed back to the base to play our second show.

We took some amazing photos in the ammo unit but we are unable to post most of them. We were given very strict orders not to post certain things so these are the photos that we were given the OK.

This is an automatic grenade launcher. It weighed about 4 million pounds.

Brothers in Arms.

Waiting to be taken to the airfield.... we do this alot on these tours

Apparently Malaria is a "thing" here.......

We were not allowed to take pictures in the airplane except for in the cockpit. 

Frey decked out with the flight gear and a parachute

Cant we just stop and ask for directions?

Thanks to all the guys from VQ-2 and CRC-26. This was an experience none of us will ever forget!

After the tour of the airplane we left the base for the Cheetah Refuge. These are pictures of Djibouti. It is definitely a third-world country. We saw lots of camel and trash.

Welcome to the Cheetah Refuge.

This is what the branches of the tree above looks like up close.

BIT with James.

It only took us traveling half-way across the world to find people more stupid than we are.

Hyenas

Gizzlettes (Baby Gazelles)

Chrissssssss and James

The one, the only, Mr. James Hawkins.

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 7: Camp Lemonaire Day 1

Our morning wake up call came around 7:30am and we walked to the Galley to eat breakfast. After breakfast we just walked around the base for a while getting more familiarized with the place. We had a few hours to kill so we did a little shopping, drank some coffee, and took in all the sights and sounds.

After lunch we had a meet and greet with the Commanders of the base. They gave us a quick “briefing” of the whole operation, the history, their purpose, etc….. The meeting took place in a“war room”, literally. It was very surreal to imagine the heated conversations that have gone on in that room. We had a very informative meeting, took some pictures, and were presented with gold coins recognizing our trip to Camp Lemonaire. These guys are very good to have on your side so it’s nice for us to be able to go in and talk with them when we have a chance.

After our meeting, we went back to our CLU to relax for a little bit before heading to the venue for the show.

Overall, the show went great. We had a great crowd, met lots of amazing people, and got to hang out afterwards for a few hours. We are keeping today’s blog short and sweet because we have some HUGE ones coming

James showing us around the base

Us and the "head honchos" of the base

Commander Finn and Frey... This is kind of scary isn't it?

Merry Christmas

Yea… we know. Thank you for all the emails reminding us to write more blogs. During the last few days we have just been having too much fun to sit in front of a computer for more than a few minutes at a time. We have to do stuff in order to have something to write about otherwise we would just be blogging about writing a blog, and who wants to read that?

So... we are writing and organizing pictures as fast as we can…. It’s currently 3:30am and we have to be up at 7am but we are still up working so that hopefully we will have 3 or 4 new blogs up in the next 24 hours…… check back soon! 

Merry Christmas!!!

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 6: Travel to Djibouti

Some of us went to bed at 3pm, others at 6pm, and some of us didn’t sleep at all last night. Hussain picked us up at the hotel at 1am in order to catch our 4am flight.  We got to the airport got all of our equipment through security and then proceeded to the ticket counter. 

We think the airlines are reading the blog too because the guy at this ticket counter could smell fresh blood coming. He had a blast telling us all the wrong things and messing with us any way he could. He told us they only took cash…. he told us to go here, here, and here, and then started laughing really hard before he said he was just joking. We have often talked about how easy it would be for someone to just screw with us because we have no idea what we are doing and this guy got us good.

After we got all the bags checked and got our boarding passes we said good-bye to Hussain. We are going to miss him; he really helped us out a lot, and basically became part of the band for a few days. We’ve run into a bunch of good people that take care of us on these trips but he is definitely at the top of the list.

From there we got through security, grabbed some food, and went to our gate. The flight was fine and we got to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) around 8am. We had a few hours to kill so we found our gate and then wandered around for a bit. About 10:45 we decided to head back to our gate for our 11:30 flight. When we got there, the gate was empty and everyone was wondering where we had been. Apparently in Ethiopia when a flight says it leaves at 11:30, they mean it leaves the ground at 11:30, not the gate. We were definitely the last people on that plane but we made it.

After a quick 45-minute flight we landed in Djibouti. We got off the plane to sunshine and 90 degree weather. (We are not missing the terrible weather in Iowa if you were wondering.) We proceeded to customs where we encountered our first “problem” of the trip.

There was only one guy issuing visas to get into Djibouti and once again he was screwing with us only not in such a playful way. On our other stops our paperwork usually tells us what the fees and visas will be. Usually they aren’t very much and it’s not a problem but here our paperwork said nothing about the cost and when we arrived we found out the visa cost everybody $60 each. This was a problem because a lot of our money was still in Dinar and they wouldn’t take it. Collectively we had $435 US on us that in theory would cover the $420 visa cost for 7 people. However, he refused to take our $100 bills because they were not “new enough”. This really is a third world country so they didn’t have an ATM or credit card machine and we thought we were just screwed. After about an hour of going back and forth with this guy, while he laughed at us, he reluctantly took the $100 bills and we got out of there as fast as we could.

We were met by James and Tammy, grabbed our equipment, and took off for the base. We arrived at the base and this base is definitely another one of those “real” bases. It’s a little bit more developed than Sheik Isa but it’s along the same lines. We were issued security badges, grabbed some lunch at the “Bob Hope Galley”, dropped our equipment off at the venue, and then headed to our “rooms” to get situated. We are staying in CLU-ville (Container Living Units). They are old shipping containers that have been converted into living quarters. They are air-conditioned and fairly comfortable.

After unloading our bags we went on a quick tour of the base before heading back to get some rest. Some of us crashed at 5pm for the whole night while others met back up with James and headed to 11 Degrees North (The Venue - The base is located 11 degrees north of the equator, thus the name of the bar). They met some troops, had a few beers (3 drink max here), and then called it a night.

Another trip to the airport......

This is the guy that had some fun at our expense.... at 2am.

One last picture with Hussain.

Killing time in the airport.

The sunrise over Saudi Arabia. It was amazing!!!

This was our "living quarters" in Bahrain.

This is our "living quarters" in Djibouti.

Getting a tour of the base

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 5: Day off in Bahrain

Today was a day off so this morning Hussain picked us up from the hotel and took us all over Bahrain. We visited a Mosque. Unfortunately, it was closed due to a holiday but we still had a chance to walk around and get some pictures.

After that we went to a market where we were hounded to buy anything and everything. Fun Fact: There are more watches per capita in Bahrain than anywhere else in the world…… we made that up but every store in Bahrain is a watch store and everyone wants you to buy one. None of us bought a watch but we did buy lots of other things including t-shirts, rugs, jewelry, spices, etc…. and we only got screwed once. Chris spent about 5 minutes negotiating with a shopkeeper and eventually got the shopkeeper to come down from 4 dinar to 2.5. (actually Chris decided he was going to look around a bit but they refused…. They are very aggressive) The shopkeeper really wanted 3 dinar, he hesitantly came down to 2.8 and then finally very reluctantly came down to 2.5. Here is how the transaction went:

Chris handed the shopkeeper 10 dinar.
The shopkeeper handed Chris 7 dinar back.
Chris: “We agreed on 2.5 dinar.”
Shopkeeper: “We agreed on 3”.
Chris: “no, 2.5”
The shopkeeper then gave Chris .2 more dinar and said “we agreed on 2.8 dinar”.
Chris: “no, 2.5”
Shopkeeper: “no, 2.8”
Chris: “Well, that’s just mean.”

We continued to walk through the market, tried some very delicious deserts, and ended up at the Golden Souq. (Souq means “market”.) We spent an hour or so there before heading back to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel we got some food, did some last minute “shopping”, and then most of us went to bed around 5 or 6 pm. We have a 4am flight and Hussain is coming to pick us up at 1am. It is sure to be another interesting day navigating airports as we head to Djibouti, Africa.

More Fun Facts: The stop lights have a yellow light before both the red and green lights.

The Mosque.

Other downtown buildings

World Trade Center

The market

A delicious dessert.... its a sweet warm jelly with nuts.

Kelly experimenting with new food..... this is rare!

nuts 

spices

The Gold Souq

In 1923 dollar bills were made much larger.

This is the back of a 1914 $10 dollar bill. Andrew Jackson is on the front.

Front