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.

Uganda

After hours and hours of trying to get a video on here, I have decided just to put one picture and the text up and try again later to get the video on here.....

It’s been a long 6 weeks in Uganda….but I’ve seen a lot of things, which is evidenced by all the pictures I have. I'm trying to download them as I write this, but there are lot of them, so it is going to take a little while. So keep checking back, because they should be up hopefully soon. But I'll try and do a little recap here before I get all the pictures up.

We flew into the airport in Entebbe by C-130, stayed in the capital Kampala for a couple of days and then we headed to Gulu where we did all our work. We had two different teams made up of U.S. military, students and faculty from the veterinary school in Kampala (Makerere University)and vets and technicians from the Gulu District Veterinary Office. Over the span of 4 weeks in Gulu, we went to 41 different sites and treated over 75,000 animals. (Which surpassed the estimated number, which was about 50,000) Our record for animals at one site was in Opit, where we did over 2200 cows (our usual average per day was about 1,000 cows or less per site) and probably 5,000 animals total-that was an extremely long day. Most of the trips out to the sites involved travel on what they called roads, but most of us would call them off-roading trails. The pictures do not even do justice to how bad they are. On our first day, it took us 4 hours to get to our first site, which was probably 20 kilometers away from Gulu. Thankfully it got better after that, but as our driver put it, we were able to get an ‘African massage’ every day because the bumps in the road threw us all over the vehicle. I thought we were going to get stuck more often than we did, but our drivers are very skilled at getting through the mud. They make driving through snow and ice look easy.

We stayed at a motel called the Acholi, which was not bad. However, we never knew if we were going to have hot water, or if the power was going to stay on. Every bed had mosquito netting over it, and you definitely had to use it. And I will never take a washing machine for granted again….I spent four weeks washing all my laundry by hand. It’s not fun trying to wash poop off a uniform in your shower. Another thing I will not take for granted…boneless chicken. Apparently my idea of boneless chicken and Africa’s idea of boneless chicken are two different things…..

As part of the VETCAP, they do radio advertising, so we even got to do a radio show where people could call in and ask questions. I said about two words, which was fine with me. The questions were handled by the district vet and one of the vets from the university since they spoke the local language. The radio host asked us our questions in English, and then the rest of the show was in the local language. I guess it was a good show, but since I couldn’t understand a word of it, they could have been making fun of us the whole time and I wouldn’t have known it.

We were also able to celebrate Uganda Independence Day while we were here. We went to a 'parade' which was basically a drill and ceremony type of demonstration by the UPDF (Ugandan People's Defense Force) and the other police units and prison security guards. They also had some local dancers and local dignitaries speak. Not quite the same as fireworks in Bangor on the 4th, but still very interesting.

By far the highlight of the trip to Gulu was the ‘safari’ we took to Murchison Falls one weekend. It was about a 3 hour drive from Gulu to the entrance to the national park. Once we got in, it was about another hour drive to the Paraa lodge. On the way we got to see a bunch of animals, and even drove through a herd of giraffes. Which, I think, are my new favorite animals. (Grandma Pralle…you had the right idea-I’m going to follow your example and start collecting giraffes now! :-) I tried to bring one home with me, but for some reason they wouldn’t let me…go figure!

The lodge was absolutely amazing. It overlooked the Nile River and had a pool with a swim up bar (which I did use). I would drive the 4 hours just to back and eat the food-can’t even begin to describe how good it was. Especially compared to what we had been eating in Gulu…The day we got there we took a small boat down the Nile to go see the falls. And of course we had to bring a cooler with us…so I was drinking a Nile beer while on the Nile River-I thought it was very appropriate. Along the way we saw hippos (and yes Jeff, they yawned at us!!), elephants, baboons, crocodiles, birds and warthogs. The next day we got up early and went for the actual safari. Our van had a top that popped up, so we were standing up, looking at all the different animals. I think the only thing we didn’t see were zebras (because they don’t have any there). We even saw lions, which was impressive, because they don’t have that many there and they are hard to find. But my favorite had to be the giraffes. They were impressive when I saw them in Kenya, but to see them in their habitat was just amazing. They look like rocking horses when they run, which is why I am trying to put that video on here, because I thought that was the coolest thing. And for how they big they are, you would be surprised how they seem to just appear on the horizon and all of a sudden you are right there amongst them. If anyone is looking to take a trip to Uganda, I would highly, highly recommend going to Murchison Falls.

Since this is getting pretty long, I will continue it after I get all the pictures posted...to be continued.....

Packers 27 Seahawks 17

Well Jay,

It's hard to be humble when your from Wisconsin.

Sconnie Nation

Go Pack Go!!

Race for the Cure

In case anyone is interested in supporting fund-raising for breast cancer, Jay has started a team to participate in the Komen Denver Race for the Cure on October 5th. If you aren't familiar with Race for the Cure, I have copied the email he sent out and posted it below. Thanks in advance if you choose to give....I would run it if I was there...but maybe I'll run my own in Uganda

Dear Friends and Family,

I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support the Komen Denver Race for the Cure on October 5th in the fight against breast cancer. One in eight women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime and the more we raise, the more the Komen Denver Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure can give back to fund vital breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs in our own community and support the national search for a cure.

Please join me in the fight by pledging in support of my participation in the Race or contributing generously to Komen Denver. Your tax-deductible contribution will fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities in Denver and national breast cancer research.

It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make a donation online by simply clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to the address listed below. Whatever you can give will help!

I truly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress. Thank you so much for your time and support in the fight against breast cancer! Every step counts!

Komen Denver Race for the Cure®
Mullen Building., 4th Floor
1835 Franklin Street
Denver CO 80218

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://www.komendenver.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1509562&pg=personal&fr_id=1070&et=5RE-Lnq4lRMkLbL-rUbMeQ..&s_tafId=17990

July 9th, 2009

That's right....we finally set a date for the wedding: July 9th, 2009. It will be in Colorado, with the wedding and reception taking place at Christie's of Genesee ( http://www.christiesofgenesee.com/ ). Invitations will be sent out later, I just wanted to give everyone ample opportunity to plan if they would like to make the trip out. The 'honeymoon' right after the wedding will be in Hawaii....except that this honeymoon will be for at least 2 years as Jay will be moving out there and we will be there until I finish my tour.

I love you Jay.

Pictures from Kenya

I've been in Africa for over 2 months now, and I FINALLY got to see some exotic animals. Today consisted of going to the elephant orphanage, where people are allowed to go for one hour a day to see the baby elephants (along with a couple rhino) that have been orphaned. This facility raises the elephants, and then when they are old enough, they take them to Tsavo National Park and release them back into the wild. You can also 'adopt' an elephant, which means that by making a small donation, you get email updates on how your elephant is doing, pictures...etc. AND, the best part is, if you adopt one, you get to come back when no one else is allowed in and 'put your elephant to bed.' Which means you get to go and watch them come in from ranging out in the park and watch them getting their bedtime snack, and pet them and all that good stuff. That is what the above video is from-the elephants coming back to sleep for the night. All of those are under the age of 2, and they are all orphans. I adopted Lesanju, who was born Sept. 5th, 2006 and was 4 weeks old when she was orphaned. She fell down a sandy well dug for cattle in the seasonal river bed of the Milgis Lugga and was recued by the Samburu people. You will see some more pictures of her if you follow the link below to all my pictures.....

After the elephant orphanage, I went to the Giraffe Center, which is also in Nairobi. I can't even begin to describe how cool that was. You could feed the giraffes, and they would take it from wherever you offered it. Yes, I had to be cool like everyone else and put the feed pellet in between my lips and have the giraffe kiss me. I don't have a good picture of it, but I can say that I have 'kissed' a giraffe. And I found out the answer to a burning question asked by a 1 year old....giraffes hardly make any noise at all. They will grunt every once in a while, but they do not make noises like other animals do. None of them made a sound the whole time I was there. They didn't have any giraffes for me to adopt there, but I would have if they would have let me. I wanted to bring one home for Grandma Pralle, but sorry grandma...they wouldn't let me do that either.

At both places there were also warthogs just running around like they owned the place. And if any of you would like a short Swahili lesson, here you go: pumbaa means warthog (even I knew that...thanks to the Lion King!), twiga is a giraffe, and ndovu or temba means elephant. I kept waiting for the warthogs to break out in a rousing rendition of 'Hakuna Matata', but they didn't. But, in case you were wondering, yes that is an actual phrase that people use here. They are very much like Hawaiians...very laid back...'no worries'.

Below is the link to the pictures from Kenya...I may end up taking just a few more, because we don't leave until Wednesday, but these are the majority of them. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/acstrat55/Kenya

Who Knew?

I still haven't been able to download all my pictures yet, but I couldn't wait to put this one up.

I hope the picture is big enough for everyone to read, but in case you can't, it says, "Alpine Inn...get your duff up the bluff...LaCrosse, Wisconsin". Yes, that's right. Someone in Kashmir, Kenya has a shirt from LaCrosse. (Now would be the appropriate time for everyone to start humming, "It's a Small World." You don't have to thank me for putting that very annoying song in your head for the rest of the day..... :-)

Kenya

They have storks all over the place here in Kenya. The stork and the cat were both waiting to get some food from the kitchen, and you can just imagine what that cat must be thinking. Apparently storks will eat kittens, but this adult cat doesn't have to worry about being dinner-just has to fight the stork over who is going to get the scraps for dinner.

As you can probably guess, I'm in Kenya right now. I went to Nairobi first, and now I am close to Lamu and Manda Bay (yes, I know, appropriate name :-). For this trip, most of our sites are on different islands, so every morning, we load everything up into speedboats and go cruising to our work sites. Sometimes we have to travel out in the Indian Ocean, and going over some of those waves in those little boats is quite the experience. All our travel is based on when the tides go in and out...there is a difference of about 9 feet. So usually in the morning, the water goes right up to the town edge and we can get right out. But when we leave in the afternoon, the tide is usually out, so the last couple of days we have had to walk about a mile through ankle to thigh deep water to get out to the boats. I made the mistake of asking if there were any crocodiles in the water and the response I received was, "You don't want to ask questions you don't really want to know the answer to." I don't know if there really were any crocodiles, but at least I didn't see any.

The base we are staying at also has a hippo pond, so I literally got to walk up to the water's edge and look at a group (herd? I don't know my proper terminology here, sorry) of hippos just hanging out in the water. There was also a herd of deer grazing nearby (sorry Dom and Pete, we aren't able to shoot them) and there were a bunch of baboons nearby as well. I have heard there are also lions and cape buffalo in the area, but I haven't encountered them yet. (I think I'm ok not seeing a lion as I'm walking around. I don't think I could stand that much excitement.) Hopefully when we go back through Nairobi, I'll get to go to a giraffe and an elephant orphanage, so I should have a lot of good pictures then as well.

Anniversaries

Since I don't have easy access to a Hallmark store or a mailbox, I wanted to use this as a way to send out anniversary wishes. Happy Anniversary Kaye and Wally (on the 11th) and Jess and Dom (on the 12th).

And one year ago today (as I type this, it is the 13th for me, but for all you normal people in the States it's still the 12th), after many close calls at the airport, Jay came home from overseas, so we count this as our first anniversary. Hopefully next year at this time we will be on the same continent, maybe even the same state....for good...I can't wait. Happy Anniversary my baby.....I love you.

Video

I took this video of cows going through the dip tank because I thought most people haven't seen it before, and I think it's pretty funny. Some had to be forced in but some of them got pretty good air...I think they should make this an Olympic event. :-) The nasty water does have a little bit of a chemical in it to repel tsetse flies and ticks, two major sources of disease for the cattle. When they were all done with the cattle, if they could catch the dogs they would throw them in as well.

I finally got all the captions put up for the pictures from Tanzania, so hopefully they help to clear up any questions.

My short-lived stay in Djibouti is done...I'm off to Kenya now. Hopefully by the end of this trip I will have pictures of the exotic African animals that everyone wants to see.

Pictures from Tanzania

http://picasaweb.google.com/acstrat55/Tanzania

There are a lot of them, but I finally got them all up there. I tried to get them all in the right order, but if they get mixed around, I apologize... Also, check back for updates..it took me forever to download all of them and I still have some more to add and I have to add captions-it's still a work in progress.

********Disclaimer*******

There are some pictures in here that are not for the faint of heart. We saw a cow that had a complete fracture of her right hind leg, and of course I had to take pictures. If you don't like seeing legs that are not at the correct angle, be prepared to skip over those pictures pretty quickly. Veterinarians are generally most interested in the gross and disgusting, so of course I have pictures of it. :-) Also, you may have read that on one of the days they slaughtered a goat for us. Well, a couple days later at another site, they slaughtered a steer for us. Again, of course I took pictures of the process as they were doing it, so there are some pictures of the meat being cut up. I didn't take any pictures as the actual slaughter process was happening, but there are some after it had died. Again, that's completely normal for me to see, but I realize not all of you are used to that, so I wanted to make sure everyone was prepared.

******End disclaimer******

So as I mentioned above, I got to do meat inspection on a goat and a steer while I was here. I don't know if I will get used to inspecting the meat I am going to eat while it is alive and then 2 minutes later after it has died. Definitely a new experience for me. But it was very interesting to watch. They went from having 1 live steer to having a full-fledged fire, grill and barbeque in the matter of half an hour. No, I did not eat any of the organs (sorry grandma, no liver for me!), but the meat was pretty good (not as good as the steaks that Jay makes, but it was up there).

Also, in case you were wondering, the cow with the broken leg didn't make it-they had to slaughter her, but that was not at the same place where we had our barbeque.

The last day in Tanga we got to tour Tanga Fresh, which is their dairy processing plant. That is still a growing business here in Tanzania, because most people prefer to drink the milk straight from the cows, they don't want it pasteurized. They believe that they are taking all the 'good stuff' out of the milk, so they are working hard to educate people on the benefits of pasteurizing. Tanga Fresh is very much like a milk co-op that you would see back in Wisconsin-most of the same principles. They got a lot of their ideas and funding from dairies in the Netherlands. They mainly process fluid milk, yogurt and some mozzerella cheese. Someone needs to introduce to them the concept of cheese curds and they would be all set! :-)

That's about it from Tanzania....next up: Kenya. One final note: my good memories of Tanzania will always interrupted by one bad one....I was here when I found out that Favre was traded from the Packers. (you all didn't really think I wouldn't mention that at all, did you?) And that's all I'm going to say about that, because I'm still a little bitter. It could be a while before I'm over this.

Tanzania

Thought I'd give you all a quick update on Tanzania....I had a picture of a monkey all ready to put on here, but the internet is so slow, it's not letting me put it up, so you'll just have to wait. But yes, there really are monkeys all over the place. In the morning I can look out my balcony and watch them playing in the trees. They are very cute from a distance, but I'm content with just looking at them. I guess they get so populated and they all carry rabies, so once a year they go through the town shooting monkeys to reduce the population.

For the past week and a half we have been traveling to different villages and vaccinating and deworming animals. In the past three days alone we saw over 3,000 cows. It's quite a site to see all those cows gathered in one spot, and they can tell which ones belong to which herd. Most of the cattle are a mixed breeds, but the majority look like Brahma (they have the hump over their shoulders) but much smaller. And for all of you familiar with the song "Away in a Manager" (which I realize is probably everyone), I got to experience firsthand what they mean by 'the cattle are lowing'. I don't think I've ever heard the dairy cows back in Wisconsin make this sound, but gets pretty loud once they get going. I haven't gotten to see any of the 'exotic' animals yet-that might have to wait until I get to Kenya next month. We've mainly seen cattle, chickens, goats and some dogs. The cows are our main emphasis right now-Tanga is to Tanzania what Wisconsin is to the United States...this is their dairy region. They don't quite have the same production results though...one person I asked said their cows usually give about a liter of milk a day.

Last weekend I went to Amboni caves, which was pretty much what it sounds like-a bunch of caves. And of course had bats flying everywhere around my head. (For those of you that are wondering, yes, I did the Goonies thing and started screaming, "Rabies, rabies!" I'm cool like that. :-)

Today I went to a place called Tongoni ruins, which are ruins from the 14th-15th century. Again, it looked like it sounds...a bunch of falling down buildings, but apparently they are somewhat famous.

Tanzania is very beautiful this time of year-it reminds me of Hawaii in the winter. It has been around 80 degrees, there are palm trees everywhere, oranges, pineapple, you name it. I can't say what it looks like in country, but here on the coast is very lush and green at the end of the rainy season.

Like I mentioned before, the internet here at the hotel is pretty slow, and I only get online on the weekends, so I will probably have to wait to post pictures up here until I get back to Djibouti in a couple of weeks, but they are coming.

Update

For those of you that are wondering, the creature in the picture is a roadrunner. Don't ask what the stream of 'water' is that it's sitting next to. And you really don't want to know what I was doing outside of camp that day (it's not a story for the faint of heart or stomach).

I discovered last night that it does indeed rain in Djibouti. I also discovered that the seal under my door is not very good, because the small amount of water that actually came down all went under my door and onto the floor of my room. Apparently God was telling me I needed to mop. :-)

And, for the big news, Jay and I each are proud owners of the new iPhone. He waited in line for hours to get them (thank you baby). So that means my cell phone number has changed. I'll give that to everyone a little later after I actually get my phone (yes, it works in Africa, unlike Verizon. However, it's like $4 a minute, so don't call until I get home. Unless it's really important....like they finally figure out the whole Favre situation! DON'T get me started on that one!!!!)

Last but not least, I'm going to be headed out to start our vet missions in other countries soon (I could tell you exactly when, but then I'd have to kill you :-). I have heard that the internet capabilities aren't really dependable, so it may be a couple of weeks before I'm able to email or add any updates. But as soon as I am able to, I will add new pictures.

"Keeping it in the Family"

As this site has had some success, I have undertook a new project for the entire family. Since it was Joleen's idea, I have to give credit where credit is due! For the latest News, Scores (maybe?), and Weather (who knows, it could happen!) turn no further then this great new website:

www.thestratmans.com

It might not look like much now, or even anything at all (?!?!), but I will be slowly plugging away at it and assigning everyone (for the most part) Author permissions. I think I will use the same type of site as this one here, so as to minimize confusion with the technology. Further updates will be posted to the site.

For Jay

I don't know if it worked or not, but I tried to put a link on the right to Jay's website. He does a much better job at playing webmaster than I do with pictures and videos and making it look nice, but I'll do what I can. This is one of my favorite pictures of us, and I wanted to share. I love you and I miss you baby.

Happy 4th!

So since I don't have any good pictures of Africa or of fireworks for the 4th of July, I thought I would put up this picture of Eliana, since it looks like a good example of what I wish I was doing on the 4th of July! Instead, I get to work (at least the office is air conditioned). It's nice and humid today, so I guess that's typical no matter where you are for the 4th (except maybe Colorado...it's NEVER humid there. I miss CO!) Nothing too exciting happening here yet. I spent all this week in different classes for orientation, so it's been pretty boring. The real work starts when I go to Tanzania soon for a 3-4 week VETCAP (Veterinary Civil Action Program). Hopefully then I'll have lots of good Africa pictures for you all to look at. Anyway, hope whatever you do to celebrate you have fun. And Jeff......Happy Birthday!

Kurt's Pics

Mom sent me almost 400 of Kurt's senior pictures on disc, and I have narrowed it down to my favorite ones and put them in the slideshow. Sorry if you didn't want me to do it Kurt, but I asked, and you didn't say anything, so it's fair game.....Besides, I thought everyone would want to see how cute you are. ;-)

"Outside the Wire"

Yesterday I got to go 'outside the wire' into downtown Djibouti City. Just on the ride into town I saw camels, burros, a pack of dogs and goats (who were just hanging out on a window sill of a building. That was rather odd.). This picture shows you what I found while waiting for them to change the battery on our truck at the Toyota dealership. I have some more pictures, but I am awaiting my technologically gifted cousin Jeff to tell me how to get all of them on the website. I don't have many pictures of the actual city itself...but there was garbage and dirt everywhere. Hardly anything green grows, and it's not hard to see why...it's just too hot. I'll tell you what our translator told me, and you can believe it if you want, but they said he was being serious, "It gets so hot, that birds die mid-air and just fall from the sky." Now that's hot. The whole city shuts down between noon and 4pm because that's when they take their 'khat' breaks. It's some plant that they chew and I guess they all get high from it. Apparently it's so hot you can't do anything else besides get high and pass out. (And before anyone asks, no, I haven't tried it, and no, I probably won't try it).

How to Leave Comments. (A Tutorial)

So, I figured I would post a little tutorial on how to leave comments to Amanda's (or another family member's) blog posts. I see that there have been a few comments left already but I have a feeling that there might be some family / friends (more so family) that might not understand how to leave a comment. And since I do not want a whole mess of emails asking me how to leave them, I thought I could put a post here for all to see!

Here goes. When you read a post there will be a "X Comments" link towards the bottom of that post. See picture:Notice the round, red circle covering the "Comments" link. This is where you click if you would like to leave a comment!

After clicking on that link, you will be brought to a page with all (or none) of the comments on it, as well as a place to post your comments. See picture (This is on the right side of the page, underneath where you would type your comment:Now, you need to identify yourself somehow if you wish to post your comment. If you have a google / gmail account; Fantastic! Google owns blogger.com and has "synced" all Blogger and Google accounts. Google will likely rule the world one day. So just log into Blogger.com using your Google / Gmail account name and password and click "Publish your Comment".

The Open ID is for people who have a Wordpress and other blog related sites usernames and passwords. The Open ID also accepts anyone who has an AIM account. I am guessing that anyone who has one of these accounts does not need to read this post in order to leave a comment, so I will stop discussing this one.

Now the Name/URL will be the one most commonly used, that is why this paragraph is in BOLD.....to catch your attention! If you do not have or want one of the aforementioned accounts, simply use the Name / URL button to post a comment. It's the third one down, and the one that has a red circle around it in the picture up there. See it? Good. Now after you type in your comment in the text box directly above click the Name / URL button and enter your name. First name and Last name, or just First name, maybe a nickname? Be creative, but not crazy. Just a name so Amanda can know who is leaving her a comment! Then, simply click the "Publish your Comment" link and your comment will be posted!

As far as the Annonymous button goes; dont even think about clicking that one. That would be like crossing the streams with the Ghostbuster's Power Packs. Don't do it.

If anyone does run into anymore problems with the site, then you may email me: jparr021@gmail.com

I'm here

Not sure how this exactly works yet, because Jeff set it up for me, but I'll do my best. Just to let you all know, I finally made it to Djibouti. After an 8 hour flight to Atlanta to Fort Benning, then a 2 1/2 hour flight from Atlanta to Bangor Maine, then a 6 1/2 hour flight to Leipzig, Germany, then a 4 hour flight to Kuwait. From Kuwait it was a 2 hour flight to Qatar in a C-130, and then finally a 5 hour flight from Qatar to Djibouti. For those of you keeping track, that's 28 hours in an airplane (with NO frequent flyer miles!!!). And yes, it's hot here. Not as sandy as Kuwait or Qater, but still 'warm'. Apparently there are two options...the wind can come from the east off the ocean and make it 'cooler' (100 degrees), but then it's very humid. Or....the wind can come off the plains from the west to make it 140 degrees (but it's a dry heat). When I landed it was 'cooler' but more humid. Kind of like Hawaii weather on steroids I guess. For those of you that are wondering, my address here is:
CPT Amanda Coenen
PSC 831 ATTN: 354 FxSp
FPO, AE 09363