getting caught up

04 May 2008

When I first found out that I had been selected to go with a detachment to Senegal in 1997, I had pictured myself working alongside giraffes, zebras, chimps, rhinos, etc. When we arrived and the only wild animals were donkeys, I was disappointed that my imagination had run far ahead of the reality. Western Africa in the region of Chies, Senegal is pretty boring. I have hopefully learned my lesson as we step of on another detachment to remote third world countries. I still have pictures of monkeys hanging out in trees watching us work, but don’t have the same level of expectation that I had all those years ago. I am of course sad to be leaving the family, but am also kind of excited that we are going to four places that I have never been to. I know that for anyone reading this on the website was promised some sort of amusing commentary. I can’t guarantee that this will be the case, but I will strive to do my best. If you are hoping for amusing, then you are hoping for me to encounter morons, simpletons, snafus, etc., etc.; thanks.

06 May 2008

The first full day of our deployment is done. We lost the fifth of May crossing the international date line and will hopefully get it back when we’re done. So far things have been okay, the flight over was typical; cramped, long, and boring. I was luckily by myself and was not accountable to or for anyone else until I met up with the others in Tokyo. For some reason we were split up into different groups and only finally all got back together this afternoon when the last group made it into camp. We are at Camp Shields in Okinawa for a few days, gathering supplies and tools. Today we inventoried all of the tool kits and tested the generators and electrical equipment that we will taking with us. Tomorrow we take all of our stuff over to the airfield and load it onto a C-130 for the flight to the Philippines. Apparently a few lucky chosen few (yup me) get to fly with it and unload whatever we need by hand to get the weight down to the point where a small forklift can pick up the boxes. I get to be first again, I hope all this being first doesn’t hurt my chances to come back early too.
So far, nothing really humorous or thought provoking has occurred. Part of that is because I am still too tired to think (only about 10 hours of sleep in the last three days), hopefully tonight I will be able to catch up on some of it. The internet here in Japan is kind of spotty, but I will keep writing and posting as I get the chance.