My trip so far

As most of you know, I had the opportunity to come over seas with the military for a year to help minister to the troops who are fighting and dying for our freedom. Today is the 26th and I've already been gone for over a month, but still haven't made it to my final destination. I really wish I had a solid internet connection up until now but unfortunately that is not always a convenience that is available. This first post is just gunna be a overview of my travels up to this point, and i'll try to skip over the boring parts :)


I was at Camp Shelby in Mississippi until 16 Dec doing training and getting ready to be sent over. Those days did go by quickly, but Shelby was beyond boring. I had gone there assuming that since this was a major deployment location for the military that there would be some sort of entertainment for us, but I was mistaken. There was a little store that we could go to, a very nice plasma tv with maybe 10 channels (not including sports...), and computers from 1993. So I pretty much spent those days texting/calling, and reading books. The traveling began on the 16th at 4 am. There were 8 of us that were leaving that day and we were waiting for the bus to come when this tiny little shuttle bus came and we barely were able to fit in to it. So for 7 hours we were cramped up in a shuttle on our way to Atlanta.. not fun! The best part of the trip was that my friend Ben and his family came to the airport and we all had lunch together. 


So the traveling from MS to Kuwait took about 3 days, but for me it felt like it was basically 1 day. We took a plane to Germany, stopped there for about 2 hours, and then got back on and flew to kuwait. I think the total flight time was about 14 hours, and then the time difference is 8 hours so it really threw me off. We landed around 930 local time and ofcourse waited OUTSIDE of the airport for 3 hours (who knows why). Once we got on the buses' we headed to camp ali al salem, which wasnt too far away since kuwait really isnt that big of a country, and thats when we all went our separate ways. I checked in at 130 am on sat the 18th, and then me and the chaplain had to catch a bus at 5am. So we didnt go to sleep that night either, caught a bus to another camp, and then when we got there they told us we didnt have to be there, so then we got back on a bus and headed back to the camp we had just left! after 3 days of traveling and very little sleep, i was extremely exhausted. 


Thankfully we were only in Kuwait a couple days and i was able to rest and get use to the time difference. We took a military flight (C-130) into Baghdad International Airport on the 20th where  we were picked up by a Chaplain who took us to Camp Victory. We were only suppose to be here for 1 night, but we found out that we had to be stuck here for a week. So that's where i am now, sitting in a small room near Saddam's old palace, just waiting for a ride to the camp that i will be working at. 


That was alot of info and not much detail, but like i said i didnt have internet until i got to Iraq so i'm just skimming over everything i've done so far. Yesterday was Christmas and was probably the most eventful day so far for me. I was able to spend a few hours on skype with my family and skyped w/ some friends too, it was awesome! I appreciate all you who sent me emails and facebook messages as well, it means alot knowing that people back home still remember me. Tomorrow I'll be heading out to my permanent assignment and hopefully start work tuesday.