June 9th
Taxiing was an experience. There was only one place to go and the controller instructed us to park in front of the tower. He didn't tell us exactly how and there was no follow me vehicle to direct us and no one to marshal us in. The aircraft commander just decided to whip around and shutdown right where we were. Of course the tower said nothing.
That's when the goat rope began. We had one pallet of "stuff" for the personnel on the island and no forklift to offload it. The Senior Chief in charge had a group of islanders pull up in a beat up truck and we all offloaded it by hand. Then the air "service" people came out and grabbed our copilot whom we refer to as "G money" 'cause he carries a large sum of cash gangsta' style!! The next trip we're going to get him some bling!
Man are the people of Comores good at graft and corruption. 200 dollars, American of course, for navigation (absolutely no radar services available). 400 dollars for parking; I can't imagine what they would have charged if someone actually HAD parked us. 300 dollars for customs even though they never even got a general declaration and we weren't the owners of the cargo. After G Money paid the bill they came back out and said that three of the hundred dollar bills had "suspect" serial numbers and that he'd have to exchange them. Once he pulled out the bank roll they realized that they had forgotten to include something in the bill and charged more money. I can't really blame them. Their economy isn't strong and if our government wants their assistance in the war on terror then it has to be willing to pay. It's just a reminder that our perspective differs greatly from those of other nations and we just have to roll with it. I was suprised they actually didn't stick it to us more. 2000 dollars versus the 10 grand it costs for us to land in Prestwick, Scotland. I'd say that Comores was much cheaper. Wouldn't you? Don't think I've gone "UN" soft though. I'm firmly of the opinion that these people can suck it when it comes to calling us imperialists. I'm not in disagreement, but who would you rather have on your island: A few "good" men or a bunch of Somali pirate rabble f'in your little nation up? Yeah, I thought Somali pirates were good for business as well, but I've been wrong before.
Then off for a night in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; ranslated it means "the House of Peace". It is the economic powerhouse of Tanzania and of the eastern half of Africa. And of all the places we'd been so far, it appeared the most modern and prosperous. Of course the airport was fracked up as usual. Same taxi experience. Actually, this one was better. The controller told us to taxi to parking via taxiway Victor. So we're cruising down a crossing runway looking for a V and we see T, then U, then W....WTF?!!!? Finding out that the alphabet is lacking in this former British colony, we turn into the ramp area adjacent to the tower and look at the satellite imagery to see where we were supposed to park. It turns out we needed to be on the opposite side of some buildings in front of us, but on the airfield diagram there was no taxiway depicted that would get us where we needed to be.
We requested to back taxi, or backtrack as the Africans like to call it, on the active runway to the end and found a taxiway that led to where everyone was waiting. We were greeted by the "users" and once again were informed that no capabilities existed to offload us in the manner to which we're accustomed. So off we went downloading the pallets by hand, which was actually easy. What's so cool about downloading everything by hand is you get to see some of the equipment they have. Night vision goggles...check...scuba gear (spanky military kind)....check.....soccer balls.....WHAT? Of course what they were hoping for most didn't get on the pallet: Beds. Man the guy in charge was one unhappy camper. In C-130's it's more of a crew airplane. We help the loadmasters push pallets, configure the airplane, and offload pallets by hand if need be. Of course no one helps the engineer, but I'm okay with that.
The ride to the hotel was crazy. We went through every red light and there were tons of them!!! It seemed that everyone did it and traffic still managed to get where it was going. Dar es Salaam seemed to be like every other city of a former colony. Lots of colonial throwbacks mixed with modern business ties. Here we saw signs that the economy is robust: Mercedes dealerships, a shopping mall, well dressed pedestrians etc.. It wasn't all roses though. Lots of people riding in crazy little vans. People walking in and out of traffic selling really guady stuff (Brittany Spears memorabilia). Shacks lined some of the streets.
The hotel was absolutely fabulous. If it's good enough for Brangelina (they actually stayed there) then it's good enough for the US military!!! I went straight to my room and took a shower under my big shower head and then proceeded to enjoy the view of the pool and ocean outside my window:) Then it was off to a sumptuous dinner of lamb kebabs washed down with a coke light. What was really great was I could finally Skype the wife with some success. Not everyone was so lucky. Some of the crew got stuck outside away from the hotel in another building. It smelled, had public access and one guy opened his window blinds only to find he was staring into a book store a foot away!!! All ended well as the hotel manager moved them to the main building. I wonder if ole' Brangelina new that the "other" half was staying in a considerably lower standard just across the way.
Next post: Ethiopia, the land of my birth.
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