Hello from Djibouti, Africa!

January 20, 2007

Finally.

We made it to Djibouti. And it was no easy task, but it was a great one.

We left the hotel at 8 am Friday morning and waited to be processed for clearance to fly.
While we were waiting, we noticed a VIP entourage and learned is was Sec of Defense Gates. We took a moment for a group photo op and to say goodbye to Manjou and Hussein and then went in to wait for our plane. We eventually loaded up into an Air Force C130



Here’s a group shot of us in the plane just before takeoff.



The flight crew was great, inviting us up for some time in the cockpit.



They had painted a logo on the ceiling and put up a license to kill terrorists:



So far, all the operations I have seen at both bases are noted as "Anti-terrorist", instead of "Operation Iraqi Freedom". There appears to be a lot more going on than just Iraq.


When we weren’t wearing the communication headsets we all had to wear earplugs for the entire 5+hr flight. Its an incredibly noisy plane but the leg room beats commercial liners hands down.

After landing, the crew asked for a group photo.



We were happy to learn they would be at the show later that evening, scheduled for 7pm.

After meeting our liaisons Chris and Will, we were taken to our tent barracks and given a quick tour of the compound. (I plan to take some more pics tomorrow and give you that tour myself)

We were informed that because the base was 20 miles from the Somalia border and Somalia was very volatile right now, that the whole camp was in lock down and we couldn’t go outside the base (we landed on the base). Too bad, because the normal routine was to take the visiting musicians into the city, check out the market and such and then go to a nearby orphanage and play for the kids.

In fact, the base had been in lock down since mid December and we found out that not only would we be staying an extra day, but the 7pm show was canceled and we would do the two shows the next two nights. That meant that we’d disappoint the flight crew who was counting on seeing the show (they were flying out tomorrow). We immediately decided to get the 2 guitars and mandolins and play an acoustic set for them.

It was an incredible experience to just show up, sit down, tune up in front of a surprised group of soldiers (all were there, Army, Navy, Air Force & Marines), announce who we were and then do a Nashville style guitar pull. They sooooo loved it!!

Here are some pics from that little show.







Just before 10pm we stopped for taps and everyone (including us) stood at attention to honor fallen soldiers. It was quite moving. Then Thom once again played “Thanks To You” and the entire audience stood up in honoring us. More tears jerking from me. In front of some bad-ass Marines, I might add.

Again, we were surrounded by thank yous and hand shakes and “this means so much to us that you would come here and bring us a little piece of home”. It is very very hard to describe how you just gotta love these guys (some women recruits, too) for who they are, their sincerity, dedication and heartfelt appreciation that someone - someone out there appreciates that they are holed up in this hot desert hell hole separted from family and loved ones, doing their job that we (yes, we) sent them to do.

It is also impossible to let you know with mere words how touched I am by all of this and how honored I am to be here.

Tomorrow, we plan on taking in the “sights” as they are here on the base, getting some laundry done and getting our computers cleared for internet. This is a very secure base and everything we do has to be cleared. We have no problems with any of that and are happy to cooperate.

So if you are reading this now, you know the clearance was successful and I was able to load this blog and pictures for you.

If you are enjoying it a fraction as much as I am, then we both are having a blast.

Thanks for checking in.

Tomorrow the tour.

Jerry