Got to Dulles at 4:00 p.m. for my 10:00 flight to Kuwait City. Checked out the USO and met the Volunteer Coordinator (Pam) and a couple of the ladies/girls who worked there. Dulles terminals are one straight line so I walked the length for about 30 minutes. That was my activity for the day. Got a really good turkey sandwich and yogurt (not nearly as good as Golden Spoon) for dinner (1) and went to wash up. When I got back to the gate it was empty and everyone had pretty much boarded the plane -- 40 minutes before take off. I again had an aisle seat with the entire Buffalo Bills Chearleading Team across from me. Very amusing, since all these guys on the plane would walk by and flex their muscles. It might have been for my benefit, buy maybe not. The guy next to me (Tom T.) is retired from the army and is going to Kuwait as a contractor. That's the same story for most of the people on the plane. They are former or retired army/marine and are now going back to the Middle East as private contractors to assist the military and make gobs of money. Since we had been at the airport for so long, about an hour after takeoff they gave us dinner (2). We had one crying baby and one yelping dog on board. I watched one episode of "House" (the one where he takes a 25 foot tapeworm out from this young girl), took 3 Ambian and tried to rest. I was awaken by my seatmate trying to go to the lavatory -- 9 hours later! Ambian -- the only way to fly. Since we were arriving at 6:00 p.m. and would probably spend some time going through immigration they gave us dinner (3).
I was met at the gate by a 20 year old girl in a red jacket. These guides are arranged ahead of time to help people navigate immigration. We was very nice and took me without waiting (since she had gotten in line and pulled a number before I arrived) to the immigration agent, a VERY ADORABLE young man. The VERY ADORABLE young man asked me my name a couple of times and transliterated it into Arabic (I'm guessing that's the first time Bachenheimer has been changed to Arabic), checked out my orders from the USO and my passport and then things proceeded downhill very quickly. The VERY ADORABLE young man was nice, but this girl really gave me the evil eye. She took my papers to someone else, who took my papers to someone else, who took my papers to someone else. I asked her what was happening and she said that they would have to obtain approval from her superior to allow me into the country. She accused me of being born in Israel. She said if her superior did not approve my papers I would be deported. Anyway, this went on for a couple of hours while I hung around with John, another retired military contractor on his way to Iraq. The girl came back and forth a couple of times and try to deport me with her stare. Finally, she went to talk to the VERY ADORABLE young man and left. I asked him what was going on. He said, "It's OK. Don't worry." A couple of minutes later a nicer young lady in red jacket arrived and handed me over to a very nice young man who got my bags and then handed me over to another very nice young man who called the hotel shuttle and waited with me and then handed me over to another very nice young man who took me to the Radisson and then handed me over to a very nice young man who took my bags and me to the front desk where a very nice young man checked me in. Whew!
All the people I spoke with in Kuwait said that the weather had been very bad, which means that they had a couple of windy days of sand storms. It looked like beige fog. Many of the people working outdoors, parking cars at the airport, etc., were wearing surgical masks. The sand is very fine, like powder, and there's at least a thin film, if not more, on everything.
Anyway, I got settled into my room and then met with Jonathan Mathews, Programs Director for SW Asia. If you saw the DIY ManCaves show on Camp Virginia, he's the guy they were talking with all of the time. I recognized him right away. He's from Liverpool and sounds exactly like the Beatles. Jonthan gave me a rundown of my job, USO, etc. Since it was now about 11:00 p.m. and I had been "in country" for a few hours, he suggested I eat some dinner. I was hungry so I did (4).
Yes, it really was that much of a day. And I lost Wednesday altogether.
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