At last!!!

a very tired and hot bear was able to call quickly this morning. he has finally made it to djibouti (safely, thank you God!). he said the area outside of the post is incredibly dirty like they have no waste management plan, so there is trash everywhere. but for now he has a bed. an actual real bed! he is staying in the conex's (it would be like half of a semi trailer and no wheels of course!) and even has an air conditioner! he said the chow hall is pretty nice and they will give you as much of everything as you want. last night they were serving steak and lobster, and some Soldiers were eating like 3 lobster tails a piece! but of course, he's not much of a seafood guy and was afraid to try it. goober, but ya gotta love him! as far as his mission, he's just picking up bits and pieces for now. they will be inprocessing over the next couple days and will get the rest of the details. he deployed with 9 other LPN's and that's it! what he knows so far is that he will be going outside of the base (he doesn't know if it will be day trips or to stay off permanently) with a civil affairs team, and will pretty much be treating that team for whatever comes around while doing their rebuilding projects (building schools, drilling wells...). he will be the sole medical care provider out there! each of the 10 of them will be out with their own team for the same purpose. things that make you say hmmm! but he does not have an address yet, darn the luck. at least he doesn't have to pay for his room and meals this time! back in qatar, he was told he had to get this eagle card (to be used like a credit card that you put money on from your own account to use) as it will be the only source of acceptable money in the area. well, go figure, he can't use it in djibouti! but they do accept other debit/credit cards. so now he has to figure out how he can get the money that he put on the card back into our account! he has been told that no matter where he ends up staying while he's there, every place has communication abilities of some variety, so that is a big relief! thank you for keeping my Soldier in your prayers!!!

back again soon!