Lagos, Nigeria. 18 million people. Holy crap…
Lagos is enormous, one of the biggest cities in Africa, if not the world. For that matter, Nigeria is (population-wise) also one of the biggest countries in Africa, around 150 million folks. That’s half the US population, and more than most European countries.
Lagos sort of reminds me of Long Beach, California. Lots of commercial sea-going traffic (counted 75+ large ships waiting outside the harbor the other day), some skyscrapers, brown skyline. But the similarities pretty much end there. Yachts and hi-rises and clubs next to shantytowns and extreme poverty. The economic disparity here is plain to see. You either have the coin or you don’t. It used to be the political capital, but they moved it to Abuja about 20 years ago. So Lagos is the New York of Nigeria and Abuja is the D.C.
We don’t get to go out much here. Between the traffic and criminal elements, they keep us on the ship or the pier. But we do get to go to the US consulate (think embassy, light). They have a nice bar, pool, and other similar amenities. And the Nigerian Navy has a large presence here. Been to their shipyard and base. It’s good to get off the ship for a while, but it’s also nice to get back to our bit of the US. A dichotomy…
It’s also weird following the current Shuttle mission from the outside. Haven’t done that in quite a while. Good job on finishing the truss NASA-folk.
Fair winds…
Friday, March 20, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Skywalking at 40
If you have to turn 40, Ghana isn’t a bad place to do it. Great beaches and a walk through the top of the rainforest (or ‘jungle’…which sounds much cooler) were on the agenda.
First the beach. It’s the kind of place that folks pay thousands of dollars to fly to and stay by. There was a resort hotel with all the comforts of home (and lots of Europeans). Great bar, sweet views. Reminded me of Hawaii. Our van was late one night going back to the ship, so several of us went for a late night swim. That was an experience. Stars, fog rolling in, and small fish jumping in and out of the water near the surf line. Don’t Stephan King movies start like that….?
Then we found the only surf shop in Ghana, ‘Black Star’ on Busua beach. It’s run by a couple of New Yorkers (Pete and Katrina) that started out as volunteers and ended up as business folks. Something about ending up with a surplus of surfboards one day left by European musicians…funny story.
The waves were good and I managed to get up on the board a few times. The other times…well we amused the locals….I highly recommend the burritos there. They reminded me of the old El Lago Burrito Co. near JSC. Mmmm….football of food. Only thing that would have made it better is if the family was there to share the experience. They had a great hammock too.
Then there was Kakum National forest. Wow. It is the only place on the African continent (according to them) that you can pay to walk close to 50 meters (yes meters) above the jungle on bridges made of rope and boards. It’s the kind of setting you would expect in the next ‘Indiana Jones’ movie, or George of the Jungle (that’s for Ethan and Emmitt…watch out for that treeeee..whack). The views were stunning. Didn’t see many animals, and it was pretty warm, but wow. Amazing views. Highly recommended, unless you’re afraid of heights or shaky bridges, “it’s not the fall, it’s the sudden deceleration at the end…”
Hope you all are well. Next stop, Nigeria.
First the beach. It’s the kind of place that folks pay thousands of dollars to fly to and stay by. There was a resort hotel with all the comforts of home (and lots of Europeans). Great bar, sweet views. Reminded me of Hawaii. Our van was late one night going back to the ship, so several of us went for a late night swim. That was an experience. Stars, fog rolling in, and small fish jumping in and out of the water near the surf line. Don’t Stephan King movies start like that….?
Then we found the only surf shop in Ghana, ‘Black Star’ on Busua beach. It’s run by a couple of New Yorkers (Pete and Katrina) that started out as volunteers and ended up as business folks. Something about ending up with a surplus of surfboards one day left by European musicians…funny story.
The waves were good and I managed to get up on the board a few times. The other times…well we amused the locals….I highly recommend the burritos there. They reminded me of the old El Lago Burrito Co. near JSC. Mmmm….football of food. Only thing that would have made it better is if the family was there to share the experience. They had a great hammock too.
Then there was Kakum National forest. Wow. It is the only place on the African continent (according to them) that you can pay to walk close to 50 meters (yes meters) above the jungle on bridges made of rope and boards. It’s the kind of setting you would expect in the next ‘Indiana Jones’ movie, or George of the Jungle (that’s for Ethan and Emmitt…watch out for that treeeee..whack). The views were stunning. Didn’t see many animals, and it was pretty warm, but wow. Amazing views. Highly recommended, unless you’re afraid of heights or shaky bridges, “it’s not the fall, it’s the sudden deceleration at the end…”
Hope you all are well. Next stop, Nigeria.
Friday, March 6, 2009
20 Meters to the Jungle
One night just before I left Texas, a friend of mine invited my wife and I to dinner. Never being one to turn down going out to eat (well, pre-Africa anyway), we accepted and hooked up with a few other friends at a place called T-Bone Toms in Kemah (mmmmm….BBQ). The usual chit-chat ensued.
Upon finding out that I was making a trip to Africa, one of my other friends of the Catholic faith (we’ll call him Mike T.) gave me his medal of St. Michael with instructions to ‘throw it into the jungle’. The idea being that if God willed it, some day someone would find it and put it to good use. To be honest I was a little overwhelmed.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Jungle…I met Florence.
At least I think her name was Florence. She was very shy, young, and didn’t talk much (and beautiful as you can tell from the picture). She is an orphan in Ghana. She was having a good day when we showed up with the band and donated goods, but you could tell she that she may not have had many before then. The orphanage was well maintained, and the staff took good care of the kiddos, but there were a lot of them. Hard to give them a lot of one-on-one face time.
I knew right then that she was the one. She also cleaned up with some of the candy I had with me.
The other kids were great. Some of the older boys just wanted to have someone to talk to more than anything (so boys, thanks for letting them borrow your Dad for just a little while). One of our younger sailors was telling me on the ride back to the ship that one of the kids asked him to adopt them. The sailor was maybe 20. He was stunned. He stated ‘I can barely take care of myself’, but in the emotion of the moment he was thinking about it. We told him just be happy with what you can do, bringing joy into their lives for a little while and I think he’s OK with that. No small kids running around the ship so far…
So anyway. Mike, your Medal made it to literally within 20 meters of the jungle. But I don’t think you’ll mind too much.
Upon finding out that I was making a trip to Africa, one of my other friends of the Catholic faith (we’ll call him Mike T.) gave me his medal of St. Michael with instructions to ‘throw it into the jungle’. The idea being that if God willed it, some day someone would find it and put it to good use. To be honest I was a little overwhelmed.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Jungle…I met Florence.
At least I think her name was Florence. She was very shy, young, and didn’t talk much (and beautiful as you can tell from the picture). She is an orphan in Ghana. She was having a good day when we showed up with the band and donated goods, but you could tell she that she may not have had many before then. The orphanage was well maintained, and the staff took good care of the kiddos, but there were a lot of them. Hard to give them a lot of one-on-one face time.
I knew right then that she was the one. She also cleaned up with some of the candy I had with me.
The other kids were great. Some of the older boys just wanted to have someone to talk to more than anything (so boys, thanks for letting them borrow your Dad for just a little while). One of our younger sailors was telling me on the ride back to the ship that one of the kids asked him to adopt them. The sailor was maybe 20. He was stunned. He stated ‘I can barely take care of myself’, but in the emotion of the moment he was thinking about it. We told him just be happy with what you can do, bringing joy into their lives for a little while and I think he’s OK with that. No small kids running around the ship so far…
So anyway. Mike, your Medal made it to literally within 20 meters of the jungle. But I don’t think you’ll mind too much.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A blog for the boys
One of the toughest things about any military deployment is the effect on the family. While one of the adults (like E & e’s Dad for example) is gallivanting around the world, the rest of the family is living their lives at home as best they can. It’s hard on the spouse (that would be Shawna in this case) who has to run the household, pay the bills, be the disciplinarian, and all the other things that are nominally shared by the couple….
But it’s hardest on the kids, in this case Ethan and Emmitt. Trying to understand why Dad isn’t home at night, missing Cub Scout meetings and holidays, playing games, watching TV, fixing the bikes and occasionally squawking at them. What did they do to cause this?
The answer of course is nothing. They are the best kids a parent could ever have and have done nothing to cause Dad to be gone for a while. It’s hard to understand when you are young (or grown for that matter), but sometimes Dad has to go away for a while. It’s for a good reason, we just hope it’s good enough to justify being gone. And it’s OK to be sad and maybe a little mad at Dad for missing stuff. But know he loves them and will call and write and chat when he can.
The fun stuff that I experience would be that much better if they were here of course. I think they would have liked the whale, and I know they would have liked the beach…especially the warm water for someone with cold feet ;). Probably try to bury Dad in the sand, I just hope they would dig me out. Ethan would like to try and surf on the board I think, and Emmitt would have liked the fish hopping in and out of the water at night.
I do plan to make it up to them in June on a vacation to Italy, but that can seem a long time away when you are 9 or 4 years old. Hang in there fellas, it will be here before you know it!!
- Dad
But it’s hardest on the kids, in this case Ethan and Emmitt. Trying to understand why Dad isn’t home at night, missing Cub Scout meetings and holidays, playing games, watching TV, fixing the bikes and occasionally squawking at them. What did they do to cause this?
The answer of course is nothing. They are the best kids a parent could ever have and have done nothing to cause Dad to be gone for a while. It’s hard to understand when you are young (or grown for that matter), but sometimes Dad has to go away for a while. It’s for a good reason, we just hope it’s good enough to justify being gone. And it’s OK to be sad and maybe a little mad at Dad for missing stuff. But know he loves them and will call and write and chat when he can.
The fun stuff that I experience would be that much better if they were here of course. I think they would have liked the whale, and I know they would have liked the beach…especially the warm water for someone with cold feet ;). Probably try to bury Dad in the sand, I just hope they would dig me out. Ethan would like to try and surf on the board I think, and Emmitt would have liked the fish hopping in and out of the water at night.
I do plan to make it up to them in June on a vacation to Italy, but that can seem a long time away when you are 9 or 4 years old. Hang in there fellas, it will be here before you know it!!
- Dad
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tales of Oscar and other sea stories
One of the things a US Navy ship practices over and over again is the 'man overboard' drill. Reason being that if someone falls over the side into the ocean, you want to get that person back as quickly as possible. Since using real people is not a great idea for practice, we use Oscar.
Who is this Oscar you may ask? He's a dummy. Really. Made of international orange cloth and floats, poor Oscar gets tossed over the side and we go an pick him up. Practice.
Well, yesterday we were practicing. Oscar goes for a swim and the ship turns around. We decide to lower one of our small boats for the recovery (this boat is a RHIB - Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat, about 7 meters long). Everything is going well and we're about to lower away, then someone sees a shark. Yikes. Since this is practice, we don't want to mess with a shark. So the ship circles around again to make the shark get board and go away.
Except that he doesn't get board, he hangs around. And he's not a shark, he's a whale! Big one too, at least 20 feet, probably more like 30 (the length will invariable increase every time I tell this in the future...but I digress). He's interested in what we are doing. But he moves off a little ways and we lower the RHIB. By now, poor Oscar is waterlogged and missing an arm. Then the dolphins show up. It's a party! In the end, Oscar is recovered and we have a whale of a tale to tell. The 'shark spotter' (our XO, or second in command) is teased mercilessly on his aquatic life identification skills.
The other story has to do with wierd things at night on the ocean. We had just left Dakar, Senegal and were heading out into opean water. Very hazy night with ships around us.
Then we see one on fire. That's a bad thing.
Haze makes the fire seem big, and it's flaring up occasionally. So we change course to render aid. We try to talk to him on the radio, but no joy. Then one of our partner officers from Senegal comes to the bridge and we ask him to translate.....
Seems it gets cold on thier fishing boats and they like to start fires to stay warm. We think he was telling us 'helpers' that no he's not on fire and please stop scaring the fish. LOL.
We sheepishly sail on, a little smarter to the local customs.
Who is this Oscar you may ask? He's a dummy. Really. Made of international orange cloth and floats, poor Oscar gets tossed over the side and we go an pick him up. Practice.
Well, yesterday we were practicing. Oscar goes for a swim and the ship turns around. We decide to lower one of our small boats for the recovery (this boat is a RHIB - Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat, about 7 meters long). Everything is going well and we're about to lower away, then someone sees a shark. Yikes. Since this is practice, we don't want to mess with a shark. So the ship circles around again to make the shark get board and go away.
Except that he doesn't get board, he hangs around. And he's not a shark, he's a whale! Big one too, at least 20 feet, probably more like 30 (the length will invariable increase every time I tell this in the future...but I digress). He's interested in what we are doing. But he moves off a little ways and we lower the RHIB. By now, poor Oscar is waterlogged and missing an arm. Then the dolphins show up. It's a party! In the end, Oscar is recovered and we have a whale of a tale to tell. The 'shark spotter' (our XO, or second in command) is teased mercilessly on his aquatic life identification skills.
The other story has to do with wierd things at night on the ocean. We had just left Dakar, Senegal and were heading out into opean water. Very hazy night with ships around us.
Then we see one on fire. That's a bad thing.
Haze makes the fire seem big, and it's flaring up occasionally. So we change course to render aid. We try to talk to him on the radio, but no joy. Then one of our partner officers from Senegal comes to the bridge and we ask him to translate.....
Seems it gets cold on thier fishing boats and they like to start fires to stay warm. We think he was telling us 'helpers' that no he's not on fire and please stop scaring the fish. LOL.
We sheepishly sail on, a little smarter to the local customs.
Monday, February 9, 2009
AFRICA!!!
Made it to Dakar, Senegal, Africa.
Wow.
Words are hard to come by to describe the place. It's exotic, mysterious, friendly, with much potential...mixed in with shantytowns, poverty, hustlers, panhandlers and the like. You will see Mercedes dealerships next to horse drawn carts. Third world meets first world. We are not in Kansas anymore Toto...
Dakar is an enigma. Looks modern from a distance. Harbor had a cruise ship in it yesterday and there are skyscrapers downtown. But mixed in are folks trying to sell you anything, and some are pretty aggressive. Imagine border towns in Mexico, then turn up the gain x20. I'll never have trouble buying a car again after interacting with some of these folks.
But the overall experience is amazing. We went south out of Dakar (the capital) to deliver humanitarian goods to an orphanage and a school the other day. The pic above is with some of the students and teachers of the school. They were very happy to see us. They sang and danced and played futbol (soccer) with us. We held the babies and unloaded the supplies and all that good PR stuff. That for me was a very rewarding experience. If you ever wondered if your charitible donations make it to Africa, recommend using Project HOPE or Project Handclasp. They do, I've moved the boxes ;) The Mormans also donate lots of stuff. Thanks guys and gals from up Utah way. I also handed out lots of candy, some toys I've collected along the way and NASA stickers. They really liked that stuff. I've never seen kids so grateful and happy (and I have some happy kids myself, hi guys ;)
More later. Hope you all are doing well...and keep those comments coming! I read every one of them.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Viva Espania!
Our first port is Rota, Spain. It’s nice to be off the ship for a while, although it took a couple of days to realize the ground wasn’t moving anymore. There is a joint base here utilized by the US and Spanish militaries, and it’s not too bad. I had no idea Spain had an aircraft carrier (Google the ‘Principe De Asturias’…Prince of Asturia which is a region in Spain I think). They frown on us taking pics on the base, security issues, or I’d show you images of her (or is it he? Hmmm….). Ironically, the Spanish Officer we have on board is not a big fan of the ship, takes too much Euros away from his submarines. Different Navy, same complaints. Ha!
This is our last major opportunity to on-load any items we think we’ll need for the African part of the mission. That includes stores and personnel (I didn’t look for transfer lists or an IMS equivalent, but I’m sure they have one). After that the mass and opportunities are limited…kind of like ISS in a way…We have added Italians, Portages, more USN (two room-mates now in my stateroom) and one US Army guy. He’s actually a National Guard guy, Captain-type, who catches a lot of good-natured flak from his new squid buddies. See Dave, you could get stuck on a ship next tour!!
Rota is a smaller town and very European from what I’m told. Narrow one-way streets (made of bricks too…that’s for you Tulia folks), lots of corner café’s and cantinas, little shopping areas, etc. It has a church that is somehow involved with Columbus and a very nice beach. Too cold to enjoy properly at this point, but we’ll be back when it’s warmer.
Food and drink are good. Had the local Sangria (sp), which is a sweet wine-punch type concoction. We went to a small restaurant that made some up special for us, bueno! They also had fried ice cream, and that totally rocked. How do you fry ice cream? All in the timing they say.
My two years of high school Espanol are hard pressed to keep up, but it’s fun to practice. I think I could be pretty fluent in about a year or so. I get by with the help of one of my shipmates who’s pretty fluent, and the town is used to the Americanos being around.
Hard to believe it’s already been a month. We leave soon for the main event. Received a care package today from the family. Thanks for the stuff and drawings boys! Very cool. And Sponge Bob has arrived. Thanks Shawna and Kristi, I think.
Next stop Africa!
This is our last major opportunity to on-load any items we think we’ll need for the African part of the mission. That includes stores and personnel (I didn’t look for transfer lists or an IMS equivalent, but I’m sure they have one). After that the mass and opportunities are limited…kind of like ISS in a way…We have added Italians, Portages, more USN (two room-mates now in my stateroom) and one US Army guy. He’s actually a National Guard guy, Captain-type, who catches a lot of good-natured flak from his new squid buddies. See Dave, you could get stuck on a ship next tour!!
Rota is a smaller town and very European from what I’m told. Narrow one-way streets (made of bricks too…that’s for you Tulia folks), lots of corner café’s and cantinas, little shopping areas, etc. It has a church that is somehow involved with Columbus and a very nice beach. Too cold to enjoy properly at this point, but we’ll be back when it’s warmer.
Food and drink are good. Had the local Sangria (sp), which is a sweet wine-punch type concoction. We went to a small restaurant that made some up special for us, bueno! They also had fried ice cream, and that totally rocked. How do you fry ice cream? All in the timing they say.
My two years of high school Espanol are hard pressed to keep up, but it’s fun to practice. I think I could be pretty fluent in about a year or so. I get by with the help of one of my shipmates who’s pretty fluent, and the town is used to the Americanos being around.
Hard to believe it’s already been a month. We leave soon for the main event. Received a care package today from the family. Thanks for the stuff and drawings boys! Very cool. And Sponge Bob has arrived. Thanks Shawna and Kristi, I think.
Next stop Africa!
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