CULP Update

[RJE]

Heard from my son. They are having a wonderful time. Today going to Mostar to tour the ancient history. Yesterday, they were treated like dignitaries on a Bosnian military base, and learned how their military is working together. Glad things are working out for them.

[FinFan]

DS finally made it to Tanzania. He got there this past Sunday morning 2 am local time. He was delayed because he did not have the yellow fever shot (it was not on the shot list that he had received in January nor when he received his shots over Spring Break in March, nor did his ROTC unit know about it) and it had an incubation period of 10 days before he could travel. He and another one of his fellow ROTC travelers had to stay behind at Ft. Knox waiting for the days to count by. He will only have 2 weeks in country instead of 3 weeks.

So he left last Friday morning with just he and the other ROTC girl who didn’t have the shot either (I think that there are 5 others already in country from his CULP unit) and flew from Louisville to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. He said he was able to get out into the city of Amsterdam for a few hours but did not venture away from the airport in Kenya. He said it took over 30 hours to finally get there.

He is placed in an orphanage teaching English to little kids. I got an email yesterday with words like, "amazing," “awesome,” "incredible," "fortunate," "moving," "friendly," and "nice." How cool is that! I hope he can email me back again with more.

[Jcleppe]

FinFan,

Glad to hear your son has made it to Tanzania. I hear you on the shots, my son called while at Ft. Knox and said he had to have a coupe shots not on the list as well, his shots did not require any incubation period. Sorry your son had to spend extra days in sunny Ft. Knox. That 30 hour travel time sounds brutal, I bet he was glad when that was over.

Sounds like he is having a great time. The trip sounds much different then my son's, I guess each trip has it's own mission, they are all such great opportunities.

Keep us updated, great to hear how they are all doing.

[educateme]

I heard one team heading to one of the locations in Asia was delayed by 10 days due to some kind of administrative screw up between the Army and the State Department: paper work problem. (nt, I hear this is not Vietnam that was already mentioned in the post earlier)

I am left scratching my head: it's not like they just planned this. This has been in the works for months and months. the cadets are stuck in Fort Knox killing time. The actual length of the program in the country is barely 10 days,

What a shame!

[Jcleppe]

Unfortunatly this is not that uncommon. Between paperwork that does not get straighted out in time, host countries not ready for the group, or just an out right cancellation. Marist made a good point when CULP applications started going out, "Be ready for anything and don't buy that travel book too soon" A group headed to Angola was cancelled except for 4 cadets, the rest were lucky to be able to, in a short time, switch the trip to Romania. I can only imagine the paperwork, planning, and subsequent SNAFU's that happen when trying to arrange 1,000 cadets travel to several different countries, given that they are probably under staffed as it is.

I really feel for those whose trips were delayed or cancelled, my son was just lucky they were able to re-schedule flights for all the cadets so quickly.

Good luck to everyone.

[educateme]

My son's CULP trip was delayed by over 10 days. They stayed those extra days in Fort Knox. They looked for volunteers to stay extra 10 days in that assigned country. He volunteered. The rest of them will return on schedule, which means that the actual amount of time spent overseas is barely 50% of the original plan.

As such, the whole CULP became 6 weeks affair for my son start to finish. He is happy to have spent more time in the army base, so I am happy. Apparently he is taking to the army base life style like fish to water. good for him.

My son told me that it's extremely hot there: 105 degrees, something like that!

[Jcleppe]

Well the Bosnia CULP Team has made it back to the States in one piece. By all accounts it was a successful trip enjoyed by all. A few sunburns and some overstuffed luggage and a lot of stories to tell. Luckily the trip back went without a hitch, no missed flights or major delays. I heard rumors of a trip to Six Flags while back at Ft. Knox, a fun way to wind down. 4th of July at the US Embassy, River rafting in Banja Luca, and a 4 night trip to Dubrovnik just a few of the highlights. The Bosnian Army was as accommidating as they could be with what limited funds they have. CULP is a great opportunity for cadets.

Best of luck to all those still on their CULP assignments.

[Jcleppe]

HaHa, the fun never ends.

The boy was scheduled to fly home this afternoon, as luck and poor planning would have it they had only scheduled a 40 min. layover in Chicago and of course the plane out of Louiville KY is 1 hour late departing. Looks like an exciting night at the Chicago Airport before finally getting home.

Advise for future CULP participants, make sure your HR person does not book with United, and if they do, make sure you have long layovers to acommidate the inevitable delays.

Don't even want to think about when or if he will ever see his luggage again.

Just part of the Adventure.

[FinFan]

DS made it back from Africa....He had a blast!!!!!!

He showed us pictures of him teaching English and Math skills to the little kids--standing at the chalk board----giving high fives to the little kids who got the correct answer. He wanted to bring all the children home with him.

He truly came back focused, happy and made many new friends.

The only negative was the shot thingee where he was delayed for a week.

They hiked a portion of Mt. Kilimanjaro and flew to the island of Zanzibar. He missed the safari because of his shot delay :(

He said one AROTC girl in his group tore her ACL playing basketball the day he arrived and they flew her to Germany for surgery and she was back at Ft. Knox when he got back.

They flew Delta and really did not have any issues except for normal (I think) in Kenya. But he never missed a flight or had a delay.

Overall, a great success!!!

[philmont]

My son just arrived in Taiwan with his CULP program. I Have only seen a few pictures from FB but I am sure they will have a great adventure as well.