Diego Garcia- The Good Deal Trip

When we were on deployment in Diego Garcia the operations department made sure that everyone was able to go on three good deal trips. The first one was to S. Korea for a major shopping trip. Imagine yourself at a huge flea market where everything is new and you can bargain with the vendors for dirt cheap. We all went back to Diego with a haul, mostly gifts for our families.

The second trip we all went on was Oman. This is a small Arabian run country on the southeastern peninsula in West Asia. This place was a total trip and quite eye opening. There were three girls along with nine male flight crew. When we landed the females had to zip our flight suits all the way up to our neck and roll our sleeves down to the wrist. Now understand it was over 100 plus degrees in this place. We were hot as y’all can imagine, and not much we could do about it. Our male counter parts didn’t have to do any of that. The Arab men require their women to be covered head to toe, and because we were visitors in their country we had to respect the protocol for the country. Thank God we didn’t have to cover our heads and face. If that would have been the case I would have stayed on the aircraft.

As we started to walk towards the cafeteria we crossed the street in the wrong spot. Next thing we know we have three robed, turban headed males walking to intercept us. I’m thinking to myself, “What the fuck?” You would have thought we committed murder the way they honed in on us. I didn’t realize it was such a big deal to cross where we did.  I guess it was, maybe it was about control, I’m not quite sure. It was scary though. The big wigs conceded to their wishes and all went well. They were being good will ambassadors and trying to keep the peace. If I never step foot in that country again, it won’t be too soon. It was just a shock to be treated like that. More power to those women who endure it every day.

Now the trip I held out for was the one to Australia and I am so glad I did. This would be the last good deal trip before we went back to Hawaii. We spent a week in Australia  and I absolutely loved it. After this trip we went home to Barbers Pt. HI. This is one beautiful country and would love to go back again. We’ll save that story for another day.