So late late we arrived here at Camp Arifjan and were walked over to our housing. Inside we saw what was pretty much a large metal building with windows only on each side, of course I was set in the middle with one other guy. I was not concerned because it was one of the guys I had gotten to know over the last couple months and I knew we would get along for the most part anyway. We settled in made our beds and went to sleep. The next morning briefings and a tour by the Chaplain and Assistant we would be replacing.
We saw the wonderful defac (dining facility) and our Chaplain’s office. We were given a schedule of the events that would take place over the next few weeks as they were getting ready to leave out and go home. They gave us some warnings and things to look out for and pretty much dumped a whole bunch of info on us about what ministry and life would be like here at the Camp. They drove us around the base and took us to key places like where to wash the car and where to gas it up as well as our higher headquarters if we ever needed to go there. We saw the Zone 1 Chapel and were given the run down on what went on there. My Chaplain was set to take over the worship there for the 1100 service.
On the first Sunday we were here we went around and saw some of the services, it was interesting because the zone 1 “Chapel Next” service was calm and very systematic mostly older people attended and some generals and higher ranking personnel. Zone 6 Chapel service was loud energetic and a bit more laid back with the majority of the people attending being in their 20’s and 30’s……I knew which one I would fit into. So we saw those and heard about the different Bible studies that were offered, met about 50 chaplains and assistants in the process.
The last week the other team was here we took control of the daily happenings. We got to travel around the country up to the boarder where all the excitement happened when troop left one area and came to another in December, it was like showing up to a party of concert late. You could tell something happened but you missed it and all that was left was a couple things that showed you something had happened. We went around a couple times seeing where all our other units were working and how to navigate in a country with very little street signs and people driving about 100mph, something I was looking forward to when we did our trips.
naly56m 