We were in America for a moment

We were invited by the US Embassy to tour the US Navy troop transport ship called the Fall River. It was in dock for a humanitarian project in the region. It brought supplies, technicians and Navy medical personnel.

The ship is only a few years old. It is made of aluminum so it is very fast and very light. It has a maximum speed of 50 miles an hour. It can carry about 350 personnel. It also has a very large equipment deck. It felt like being on a cruise ship inside. It had a nice big kitchen. It had comfortable lounging chairs. Everything was new and well-built. Of course all the personel inside we're all US citizens. It felt like we were back on our own soil.

Even though it is a Navy ship it is operated by a private Merchant Marine company. It was docked at the Port of dili for a few hours to unload and to give tours. Because the port can only accommodate a couple of ships it had to go back out to sea and wander around to clear up the dock after the tour. The ship will be here for about 2 weeks.
This is part of the bridge. It is all very modern.
Joining us on the tour were Navy Seabees that are permanently stationed here on the island but we're taking part in this program.
This is the helicopter landing deck.
This is the main transport storage area.
This is the main gathering area for the troops being transported. Lots of televisions and luxurious reclining seats it was nicely air-conditioned.
The three men in the back were visitors we had this Sunday. They are part of the naval project here. The one in the red shirt is a dentist. The shorter one in the back in the gray shirt is an optometrist. The tallest one in the white shirt is a oral surgeon. They all came in on the transport ship. They are here to provide care but more importantly to provide training to the local medical professionals here. They said that in this country there are only twelve dentists and one oral surgeon. Not many for a population of 1.3 million people.

We were able to get Cheryl signed up for Medicare this week. It was difficult. We had to purchase a temporary United States phone number that could reach us. They had to call us so the most convenient time we could schedule was 5:30 a.m. our time. We had tried to do it before but they could not reach us because of our foreign phone number. We could not wait until we got home to do this because of the penalty we would incur of being uninsured for a period of time. The whole process took us about 3 months.


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