Day one BABY

Monday night I flew from Dulles to Qutar and then to Kawit. The first flight was 12hrs long but was able to sleep for eight hours (Thanks god for sleeping pills). Then Kawit took us a quick 2-hour. When arriving we were not able to get through customs without a visa..."I am American Let Me through". We went up and down the stairs before we finally found an American who could explain the process to us. We decided to pay extra to take the fast lane (10 fake dollars), where the short like looked more complicated then the DMV but only cost 3 fake dollars. After we go through customs we realized that we had just paid about $40 for 10 of their fake bucks…oops. The exchange rate sucks.

After getting our visas we went right through customs with out a question, stamp, or even an id check... They just wanted our dam money. We quickly found our bags to the right where men in a blue jumpsuit and a cart tried to help us. I ask them how much [money] 5 time and he kept saying you will like it you will like it. Then after some frustrating negotiation we figured out $5 US for my stuff and $5 US for Adrian’s stuff. We agreeded because we had over 200 lbs in just checked luggage and quickly we were on the way out of the customs zone. We found the SPS employee quickly and got out of the airport quickly.

We jumped into his Chevy Taheo and went driving through the city at 120 kph. I noticed that all the streetlights were wrapped in rope light and had 50, 20, and 5 hanging off of them. Our guide explained to us that they were celebration the three Independence Day. Which was for their freedom (40 years), out from under British rule (20 years), and the new rule they are under (5 years).

We then got put into a high-rise building with plenty of security, this place is like a 10 person condo…HUGE. It has a kitchen, tv, bathrooms even with Ball Washers, ever thing we need, just don’t drink the water. We will be sleeping here until we go to the base tomorrow morning at 7 (11:00 Pm EST). We should be getting our CAC (Military ID) first thing, after receiving that we will be waiting on a list for the next flight to Baghdad.