Mountain Hike

Went for a hike last weekend (and the weekend before) along the mountain range above the city.  There's a pretty impressive system of trails along the ridgeline that separates Chinhae from Changwon.

Hiked to the peak that is at the top center of the photo.

Photos of the ridgeline.

 

View of Chinhae from the peak.

Me on the mountain.

These signs were not very helpful to me.

Nate

Day Off in Busan

So, I unexpectedly got Labor Day Weekend off since the ASW Exercise was postponed (thank you Tropical Storm 10W). I decided to get out of Chinhae and tour around Busan. I spent the morning at the UN Memorial Park. It reminded me of Punchbowl in Hawaii. It was a very peaceful set up in South Korea's second largest city. Pictures of some of the monuments are below. I also went to the Busan Aquarium. I saw some sea life that I have never seen before (rock fish, nurse sharks, a bunch of different types of eels, etc..). No pictures from the aquarium since 1. flash photography is not allowed and 2. I've never seen amateur photos of fish at an aquarium turn out all that well. After the aquarium, I walked around Haeundae Beach for a bit but then it started to rain some so I decided to call it a day (I'll be honest, it was also a bit muggy out and since the temperature is not below 75 degrees, it's too hot for me). I'll save the International Market for another day.

UN Forces Monument

Unknown Soldier's Pathway

France Monument with the Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africe momument in the background.

Wall of Remembrance

Thai-Korea Friendship Bridge

Memorial Chapel

Today, I clean my room and will try to stay out of the rain.

Nate

Finally some pictures!

So it has been awhile since I last wrote and I finally took a few pictures to share with folks. So much has gone on in the last few weeks I have lots to share.


Luau Fun

A few weeks ago the base had a “Luau Weekend.” Really, weekend should be in quotes since we really just get Saturday morning and Sundays off but good enough. It started with a 5K run on Saturday morning. A bit of humor—they called it the Sun Downer 5K but we ran it at sunrise because it is too hot to run it at sunset. However, they had already made up the t-shirts and posters so they continued to call it the Sun Downer. Also as part of the Luau Weekend the base put on a big event Saturday evening at the rec center. They had bingo and a bunch of random games (e.g. watermelon carving, putt-putt, giant tricycle races). I have not played bingo since grade school and boy have things changed since then! We played 10 rounds and each round you had to form a letter (e.g. instead of just a straight line, you had to from the letter “W”). It was actually a lot of fun. There were probably about 300 people playing and people really got into it. Here is a picture of us inside the rec center and one of me with my bingo cards and blotter. In case you were wondering about the beer/wine. We are allowed up to three cans/bottles per day. They keep tack of your servings with your coveted Beer Card.

Inside the Rec Center (aptly named 11 Degrees North)

Me with my bingo cards and blotter (and mini bottle of wine)

Bowling

Last week we went bowling. Yes, Djibouti has a bowling alley. I think they got the equipment from Germany. That is based solely on the computer equipment that is in the alley. This bowling alley is not as high speed as you might be used to in the states. The pins are actually tied to strings and when you knock them over the computer senses the tension in the string and you get credit for the pin getting knocked over. Sometimes, you will knock down a pin but it dangles a bit and then stands back up so you don’t get credit. Kind of funny. Also, the lanes are pretty warped so throwing the ball straight is a challenge. And, there are no bowling shoes. We played in our socks.

Bowling "dashboard."  It did not work but I thought it looked cool.  When was the last time you had to keep score manually in bowling?

Me, the epitome of grace, bowling in socks.

Moving Day

After six weeks of sharing a room and having to go outside to walk to the bathroom, I got my own room! My new home is about 10 minutes closer to the center of camp which is great. More importantly, I don’t have to share it with anyone and I have a bathroom. I share the bathroom with the girl on the other side. My new room is much homier than the previous one, simply because I can spread out a little bit more. I have a desk and some real storage. Here are some pics of my new digs.

My new home (it is the one on the left). 

The view from my front door.  Nothing says location like a power plant and fuel tanks :)

Standing in my door.  Bed is to the left, bathroom is through the doors past the lockers.

Standing at the back of the room looking towards the front door.   Isn't it homey.

My sink.  It is so nice not to have to put on shoes to go brush my teeth before bed.  Ahh, the little things.

Even in Africa a girl needs her shoes.  I thought I did some creative "decorating" with the shoe bag placement.

Lake Assal

For Labor Day, we got Sunday and Monday off. What to do with TWO whole days off?!? Saturday night I finished setting up my new home. Sunday morning started with a Labor Day 5k. Yes, we do a lot of 5k runs around here. Added bonus, each one gets you a new t-shirt. At 8:00, 7 of us from our office took off on an adventure. We left with a very rough map to Lake Assal. Check out this link to Wikipedia which actually provides a good synopsis of where the lake is and all:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Assal_(Djibouti). It is the most saline body of water in the world (yes, even deader than the Dead Sea). It was about a 2 hour drive out to the lake. We drove through some interesting “countryside.” Along the way we passed many camels and goats along with a lot of small villages that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. The kids asking for water always gets to me. We stopped at the lookout to the Grand Canyon of Djibouti which was very pretty. As we drove to the lake we were not really sure where we were going. We kept driving and eventually found the salt flats. It looked like snow in the middle of the desert. As you walked on the salt it stuck to your shoes and began to melt. We piled back into the cars and drove back to a spot we had passed earlier where we could actually get in the water. A quick change and we were all in. The water was very warm and VERY salty. The salt made you so buoyant it was hard not to float. We only stayed in the water for about 15 minutes because it really was hot out there. When we got out we all had salt crystals on us. Thankfully, we thought ahead and brought several cases of water to rinse off with. We stopped and had our picnic lunch on the way back. The last bit of adventure was when we saw baboons on our drive back! Yes, I love wild animals. One of the girls with us had been told we might see baboons so she had brought a can of nuts to feed them (we stayed in the car and just threw the nuts at them). They were so cool to see, except when they started attacking each other when we dumped the last of the can on the ground. Here are some pictures from my adventures. I just spent 20 minutes trying to get these pictures in order and for some reason blogger is not liking me today so, my apologies these pictures are not really in chronological order, but I think you will get the point.

The sign on this place reads "Disney Land."  I have never seen anyone there.

Goats along the road.  Not quite sure who they belong to or where they are going.

Typical scenery along the road

Me standing on the salt flats (I would say it was like snow, but it was about 115 degrees out there)

I thought these were cool.  They look like Lilly pads but they are really salt.  This is where we eventually got in for a swim.

Mama Baboon and her baby

Mama eating an apple.  Yes, they do have red butts!

A little hazy, but we were on top of a cliff looking down into a lake.

Camel foaming at the mouth.  Not sure what his deal was, but he was very close to my window.

The salt literally melted to our shoes. 

More typical scenery along the route

The other side of "Disney Land"

Traffic Jam.

Refugee Camp just outside of town

Well, that’s all for now. This week should be a pretty routine week as far as work goes. Hopefully it is productive. Next weekend some of the other junior officers and I are going on a trip to Moucha Island. Check back next week for a new post!


Cheers,
Liz

One Month Down

I was looking at my calendar the other day and I could not believe I had already been here for over a month! Time sure does fly when you are busy.

So over the past month I have fallen into my own routine and have been quite busy. We technically work 6 days a week but I usually stop in on Sundays since I am up near the office anyway. Phone communication has been great. I have been able to talk with Nathan a couple of times a week and I usually call Mom and Dad once a week. I have received lots of care packages and sweet cards from many of you and they are all so appreciated. You guys rock!

Work is good. Something new every day. I won’t talk too much about work because I think most folks want to know what I have been up to outside of work. The folks I work with are great. In my shop (Public Works), there are several junior officers and we all get along very well. We also have a lot of civilian engineers and construction managers. Some of these guys have been coming back and forth to Djibouti for 3 years so they know some of the history of why we did things a certain way. Very useful.

Outside of work I have been keeping busy, too. I have been working out in the mornings before it gets too hot or the day’s “crisis” precludes me from going after work. Usually about once a week we will get a group together and go out in town for dinner. There are some great restaurants here in Djibouti. I credit it to the large French influence. So far I have been to 2 French places, an Ethiopian place, a pizzeria and a sushi restaurant. Do you know what they don’t have at Ethiopian restaurants? Silverware. The meats/beans/veggies are all in sauces and you scoop/pinch it with this crazy, spongy type of bread. The waitress could tell we obviously did not know what we were doing so she came over to show us. At first, we were like, “Hey, what’s she doing eating our food.” Oh no, she made a little “bundle” and went over to one of the other LTs and just shoved it in his mouth. We all had a good laugh. The food was actually really good. We also frequent the coffee shop inside the one nice hotel in town. The hotel is called the Kipinski and is gorgeous. Its marble driveway and lush grounds are such a stark contrast to what is just outside their property lines. There is a lot of poverty in the city. Everytime you park and get out of your car people will come up and ask for money. Very sad.

On camp there is also stuff to do. Camp Lemonnier is an old French Foreign Legion camp and when they had it they built a swimming pool. The camp still keeps the pool up and running and it is a nice reprieve from constantly sweating to just jump in for a short swim. However, as someone pointed out to me the other day, I am probably just swimming in other people’s sweat. Oh well. The camp also has movies you can borrow and a small movie theater where they show some of the newer films. There is wireless internet for folks to use but it is painfully slow and I am too lazy after I walk the ¼ mile from work down to my “house” to walk back up to a wireless hotspot.

Speaking of houses. I am number one on the waiting list for a “Wet CLU.” Imagine a shipping container or a box car. That is what we live in. CLU stands for containerized living unit. So a “Dry CLU” is 4 people living in one container; two per side with no water. The bathrooms and showers are a short walk outside. Typically, the junior enlisted folks live in these along with the senior enlisted and officers waiting for their Wet CLUs. A wet CLU has the same exterior dimensions but only 2 people live in the container; one per side with a bathroom dividing the container. It will be such a treat when I get my own CLU…can’t wait for moving day. I will be sure to take some pictures of my CLU all decorated once I move in.

Well that’s all for now, folks. I hope everyone has enjoyed their summers.

Love from Africa,
Liz

Welcome to Djibouti

After our sponsors met us once we arrived on camp, we attended a quick indoc session where we were told the basic rules and told such useful things as when meals are and where to be on Monday morning. I arrived on camp on Thursday, July 22nd and am finally writing about it on Friday, July 30th. It has been a busy week of turnover with the guy who had the job for the last year.

The base is surprisingly large with a million moving pieces. There is construction going on all over the place for things like a new galley (aka dining hall), runway repairs, power plants and the list goes on. I am the Assistant Public Works Officer. In that capacity, I am the #2 in our office where we manage the contract that provides all the day to day support of the base (e.g. cleaning, food, berthing, just routine stuff) along with other one time construction contracts for projects like repairs to buildings or water lines to major military construction like building a new galley or water distribution system around camp. I am still spending a lot of time at the office just reading through old correspondence trying to catch up on the history of what decisions were made when and why. I am dealing with a lot of funding issues I have never dealt with before which is interesting.

The base has a lot of quality of life type of things. There is a well air conditioned gym along with a turf field and volleyball court. There is a small store that sells things folks need like toiletries and electronics along with a coffee shop, rec center and 2 computer/TV spots. In future posts I will include some pictures from around camp so you get a visual of what this place looks like. Sorry no pictures this time, I have not taken my camera with me at all.

This post gives me an opportunity to brag a little on Nathan. He just the word that he was selected for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. I knew I married a rock star.

Unexpected Weekend Off and 24 Hours of Travel

While in South Carolina, we received our transportation brief, which was just that. The coordinators told each different group of people (Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Kuwait, Tampa or those going to additional training) how they were getting from South Carolina to their respective next stops. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that those of us going to Djibouti would leave South Carolina on Thursday, July 15th and not have to fly out until Tuesday, July 20th. With this unexpected weekend off I was able to attend RDML Mike Giorgione’s retirement ceremony in Annapolis, MD and spend the rest of the weekend with my parents. The retirement ceremony was great and it was so nice to be able to see the Giorgione’s again along with many other folks I have worked with. My parents also attended so it was nice to introduce them to so many folks. On Saturday, my sister Kate flew down from Boston to spend the weekend and the four of us had a great family weekend together (family minus mine and Kate’s husbands ). We explored Baltimore and then headed back to Mom and Dad’s place in Northern VA. On Sunday we went to mass and just enjoyed spending the day together. We had a great dinner at home and played an intense game of dominoes.


On Monday I dropped Kate at the airport and headed back down to Norfolk. I spent Monday and Tuesday finishing my packing and just relaxing. The 30 of us that were flying to Djibouti caught a plane from the military air terminal in Norfolk. The plane was packed with other service members and families because before arriving in Djibouti, the plane made stops in Rota, Spain, Sigonella, Sicily and Bahrain. 24 hours after take off, we arrived in Djibouti and were quickly met by our sponsors and brought to base. That’s all for now, more to follow from Camp Lemonnier.

Training Complete

The 19 days of training in South Carolina went surprisingly quick. We were training 6 days a week and really did cover a lot of topics. We did a lot of weapons training on both the M16 rifle and M9 pistol. We were issued our gear and weapons on the 2nd day and had to carry the weapons with us from that point out. We often wore our “Battle Rattle” which consisted of about 60 pounds of body armor, helmet and pads. With the South Carolina heat, I have to say the heat was the toughest part of training.


We were trained by Army Drill Sergeants. They were nothing like you see on TV. They were there to help and they did a great job (think more teacher, less screaming person). Our class was about 180 people split into two companies. The Drill Sergeants really broke the training down to the lowest common denominator because we had people from all different backgrounds. Seabees and other brown water Navy folks were a little more familiar with weapons and convoys and land navigation, then say, a lawyer or aircraft mechanic. That being said, some of the training was really boring.

In addition to weapons training we learned very basic about convoys, land navigation, how to react if you become isolated, first aid, how to enter and clear a house, communicator via radio and then a bunch of classroom sessions about various administrative topics.

All of the women (with exception of the 4 Commanders who had their own little hut) were in one barracks. Think WWII movies with the long hallway of bunks and a locker between each one. Yeah. While the Junior Officers would have appreciated some JO berthing, we all survived just fine.

Here are some pictures of me during training.

All decked out in my “Battle Rattle”

Waiting on the bleachers. This was a common activity at the ranges while we were waiting to shoot. It was impressive to see how we all got better each day with the Army DSs coaching us. We did most of our rifle shooting laying in the prone position or kneeling on one knee. We did three different type of ranges. The first was everyone had their own corridor to shoot down and targets would pop up at various times and distances, the second was a “stress shoot” where you had to jump around to get your heart rate up and then run though a short course of laying, kneeling and standing shooting positions. The third was a “reactionary fire” where they told you which direction your target was and you had to turn and shoot from the standing position. While I did OK, I am just not a huge fan or shooting.

Here is my group learning how to enter and clear a house. We learned the very basic skills. I pray none of us every have to use this skill. You may wonder why I am on the only one in a brown camouflage uniform. Those going to Iraq or Afghanistan were issued Army uniforms. The 30 of us going to Djibouti were issued standard Navy Desert Camouflage uniforms.

Here I am driving during convoy training. 

Just a snapshot of our living conditions. I am in my rack with my locker to my left and my weapons on the end of my bed. The perk was we did have wireless internet :)

 
All in all the training was good. We were all glad to be done and ready to get to where we were actually going.

4th of July Celebration in Korea

The base in Chinhae held its Fourth of July festivities on 3 July. I took part in the 5k race on the ROK (Republic of Korea) navy base. It was moving to see so many Korean sailors show up to do the 5k with us. After the race, the U.S. base held a parade. Again, it was great to see the support from our ROK allies and the ROK marching band was top notch. The tenant commands on base were invited to create their own float for the parade. My guys did a great job in decking out our duty van in a patriotic motif. The cookout had some really great food. However, with the heat and humidity, I don't think the potato salad and kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage) sat well in my stomach and I missed out on the afternoon events (which included a dunk tank, watermelon eating contest, and martial arts demonstrations, just to name a few...). I also missed the base fireworks display but heard them from my room. It sounded like a great show and I heard that the base always did a great fireworks display for the 4th of July. I was told the day after that the base lived up to its reputation. Too bad I missed it.

4th of July Parade

Color Guard and Marching Band

Base Youth Center

Our Van in the parade

4th of July cookout in Korea must include potato salad and kimchi

Happy 4th of July! 

Nate