What an adventure....

Well as I mentioned in the last post, some of us set out headed for the US Embassy here in Nicaragua. It is located in the city of Managua. Our ride there was very comfortable. We made a pit stop at a Texaco gas station to use the potty and to fill up on some snacks for the evening after our performance. The total trip to the Embassy took about 2.5 hours and this time the driver was very conservative…unlike our last experience! We arrived at the Embassy and proceeded onto set up in the administrative building on the compound. The lobby area was beautiful. There were many national flags overhead, and very cool plastic opaque window treatments that looked as if they were illuminated by some sort of light; but actually it was the sunlight streaming through…it took me about 15 minutes of looking for the Trackspot lighting to finally realize that it was the sunlight filling the window treatments and not a Trackspot! DOH! During the setup I went over with our Captain and DO to the vacant house that we were to stay the night in. This place was HUGE! It probably had 20 bedrooms and probably 25 bathrooms. The kitchen had two refrigerators and stoves. There was a sort of party room equipped with a stage…where I’m certain bands probably played in the past. The dining room table probably had a good 20 seats. The living room where we spent most of our mingling time was about twice or three times the size of the main floor in my house; and that was just one room. So after deciding who was going to be in each room, we headed back to the compound to get the rest of the crew to head back up. We had a couple hours to spare so we all went back to the house and hung out. I brought my computer along and a workout DVD, so I did an hour of yoga before I joined the rest of the group. I walked around the house and snapped some pictures of the beautiful view of the city down below and also a few pics of the deer lurking in the back yard near the pool. I must say that even though no one lives in the house anymore and haven’t for about 2 years, the grounds were kept very nice. At about 1730, we had dinner delivered. PIZZA HUT! Man, I haven’t had Pizza Hut in probably 2 years. It was De-lish! Yum-o! After gobbling down the 11 boxes of pepperoni and ham pizzas, we all drug ourselves upstairs and got dressed to be back at the site by 1820. We all looked very spiffy in our career field’s new tunic uniform. We looked sharp!
Guests began arriving and soon the Embassy’s 4th of July celebration commenced. The combo played a half-hour jazz set, the Marine Corp detachment posted the colors, and the BQ played both our National Anthem as well as the Nicaraguan Anthem. After several speeches, the combo played more and mingling and conversation resumed. There were many varieties of finger foods available and what would a party be without a cake? But they never cut it! Boo! Since I didn’t have anything to sing and I didn’t want to be at that big ole’ scary house by myself, I went along a sort of ‘band photographer’. I got several pictures throughout the night, but I think the coolest one I was able to capture (or have someone capture for me) was this one where four out of the five services were represented (sorry Coast Guard, you guys weren’t there).
After the last note was played, we headed back to the house, changed out of our uniforms and hung out for several hours shooting the breeze, struggling to hear the music from my computer even though the sound was all the way up, and just enjoying each other’s company. The next morning came way too quickly. We were out of the door by 0700 in order to strike our gear and get over to the performance yesterday. It was a small sort of musical exchange. We basically played to show the folks there how versatile we are….in that we play classical, military marches, jazz, pop, rock, blues…everything really. Once again, the Nicaraguan Army band was there, and also in attendance were some local musicians.
The performance turned out very well, and we were on our way back to Chinandega by 1245. The Embassy once again blessed us with some local cuisine…well not really local, it was fried chicken! Oh my goodness it was so good. The ride home was once again very relaxing and I was able to take a nap to make up for the sleep I’d lost the night before….but that was the quiet before the storm! When we got back to the HLZ to catch our helo, there were 8 other sticks (groups of 11 per stick) waiting to go before us…that’s fine because usually the turnaround time between helo rides is about 15-20 minutes, not so bad at all. It was between 1430 and 1500 when we arrived. So I started reading a magazine. After about an hour goes by, I noticed that only one helo had come, and there were still a ton of people there. Well more time goes by, and no helo shows up. We are all starting to get antsy because the helos have to have us back by 1800, and time was a’ticking. After about 2.5 hours, we were told that we were not taking a helo and we needed to go to the BLZ to catch a RHIB boat. Great! So we took the half hour bus ride to the BLZ to wait. To make a long and irritating story short, we waited at the BLZ for about 2 hours only to be told that we were RON (remaining over night). We all piled back into the bus and took another half hour ride to the hotel. We get to the hotel and are each assigned a room that is already occupied by another member from the Comfort. I get to my room and there is a bed, and a cot. I got the cot. All I could do was laugh, because I was so tired by then…that was all I could do. I got some sheets and a towel from the front desk, and took them back to my room. I then changed my clothes and went and got some dinner. I got on the internet and chilled out for a while. My roommate happened to be in the same area I was in talking to some of the other shipmates. After a little while she gets up to go to the room and asks me “You don’t snore do you?” to which I answer “No, not usually.” To which she replied “Good because I would have had to kick you out.” I just laughed, I figured she was kidding. But later I wasn’t laughing when she was the one keeping me awake in the middle of the night as she was sawing logs. I just shook my head as I struggled to sleep in that stuffy room on my less than comfy cot. Priceless!

Thanks for stopping by….
Keisha

Wednesday, July 08, 2009 | |

 

1 comments:

Veleda said...

Well miss thang that was a mouthful i must say.When you see the person that asked if you snored tell her next time to check herself before judging. It is almost over and you will be home soon back in your nice comfy bed.Thanks for all the info and pictures they are nice and you guys look so spiffy in your uni.Take care and will check in on you later.

Love you
Mommie

July 9, 2009 at 11:08 PM  

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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

by Marianne Williamson
from "A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles")