Korea

I just returned from a week-long trip to South Korea for a military medical conference, so I thought I would share some of the pictures. I knew next to nothing about the Korean war, so it was very interesting to go to the war museum to learn more about it. Was also able to visit the 3rd tunnel that the North Koreans made to try and invade South Korea and the DMZ (demilitarized zone). I was also somewhat adventurous and tried the kimchi, seaweed and even eel. Far cry from fish and chips (aren't you proud of me honey? never ate that or a burger once!) but not too bad actually. All in all, a nice place to visit for a short time, but I will take the good old U.S. of A anytime.

Check out the pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/acstrat55/Korea#

House Pictures

It only took about 3 weeks, but I finally have everything unpacked, put away and the pictures posted. Slowly but surely it's starting to feel like home...there's just one thing missing, but he will be here in July, and then I will have everything I need.

Here is the link for the rest of the pictures...enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/acstrat55/House#

I'm Back....

Just thought I would put a quick post up here to update the last one that Jay did.  I made it to Fort Benning on Monday morning, and was flying out of there by Monday afternoon and I made it to Colorado Monday evening to the coldest weather they have had in years.  Nothing like going from 130 degrees to -7....I will be here with Jay for a couple of weeks, then it's back to Hawaii after the New Year's.

I'm not in Africa anymore, but I will more than likely keep updating this website from time to time.  Can't wait to talk to everyone again!  

Merry Christmas!

www.captainamandawasinafrica.com

Just so everyone knows, after two separate delays, Amanda is on her way home from Africa.  She left early this morning and landed first in Qatar, then in Greece, next is Italy, then the Azores before landing in the U.S.  Her final stop will be in Georgia to drop her gear off, she should be there Saturday night.  I have double checked her cell phone and it should work when she gets into the country.  She is very excited to talk to all of you, I even upgraded our minutes :-)    

It's Raining......

No, a water line did not burst....this is what happens when it rains in Djibouti (It's true! It does rain in Djibouti!). It also likes to leak in everywhere, including my room. Just thought I would share with everyone....we all here in camp were impressed the first time it rained. Now it can stop, because I'm sick of mopping my floor and washing my towels every day.

We leave this week to go to Tanzania one more time. This will be my last trip before I head home. :-) (Jay has the countdown...only 39 days to go. )

Happy birthday Amanda

If we all lived in Africa, not only would we be miserable and most of us eaten by lions, but it would also be Amanda's birthday!!!!!  Unfortunately she doesn't have Eli there, she doesn't have Joleen's special birthday angel food cake, she doesn't have Trixie or a slew of packer related presents.....but she does have this, the cooooolest post ever.  I love you Amanda, happy "year after your golden birthday" birthday.  :-)

Uganda Pictures

It took a while, but I was finally able to download the video of the giraffes on here and get all the pictures downloaded. Here's the link to the pics from Uganda:

http://picasaweb.google.com/acstrat55/Uganda#

After arriving in Kampala, we drove to Jinja, which was about an hour away, to go whitewater rafting on the Nile. It was an all day affair...we got on the river at about 10:30 and didn't get done until 5pm. We did get to stop for lunch, and they provided a very good meal. We went on class 3, 4, and 5 rapids (for those of you that are unfamiliar with the classification scale, class 6 is the hardest). We only flipped once but we came very, very close to flipping a second time. You will be able to see in the pictures, but the entire left side of the raft was dumped (except me). When we first started out on the river, they took us through all these drills and even practiced flipping so that we would know what to do. And for all of the rapids, their instructions were to, 'get down and hang on'.....so we did. :-) In the calmer part of the river, they let us jump out of the raft and go swimming (yes, we had life jackets on the entire time), which was very nice, since the water was about 80 degrees. Well, I thought it was nice, until a couple of days later we found out about all the snakes that live in the water....thankfully we never ran into any of them.

Overall, it was one of the best rafting trips I have ever been on. The same company had a place where you could also go bungee jumping over the Nile....but we were told we couldn't do it (ok, we were commanded not to do it), so I had to content myself with just looking at the platform. Maybe next time....Anyway, here are the pictures from the rafting trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/acstrat55/Rafting#

That's about it from Uganda...hope you enjoy the pictures. Next up.....back to Tanzania.