Lake Asal Trip

Last friday we loaded up a couple of cars with a cooler full of lunches and drinks and headed out to Lake Asal the lowest point in Africa (500 ft below sea level), and the saltiest body of water in the world. We're going to probably go back there when it gets really hot, like 130 and go see if we can float hunks of metal on the water. Plus it's like one of only a handful of trips to take in Djibouti.

Lake Asal Trip

Goat Rope - aka Giving stuff to the locals

Last week my boss and his translator went out into town and bought a pile of supplies with money he had raised through his hometown church. The Marine's patrol between our base and the Somali border (11 miles to the south) and find local villages in need of some American compassion. They then worked with the town chieftain to setup 10 families that needed a helper gift - a goat and a wheelbarrow, and 10 families that needed a food charity gift - a bag of rice, a bag of tea, a bag of sugar, a cooking pot and a thermos. Then after that we handed out toys, flip-flops and balls that the XO had collected from his family and friends. The kids there were very excited to see us, the adults were initially shy, but came around when they realized we were giving them stuff. One of the kids came up to me and said, "Sir, Mr. Allen, water, water please, please give me water Mr. Allen." He had read my nametag. Smart little kids! One of the teenages gave me one of those long MTV handshakes with the slapping, and knuckling and the whole bit. We'll probably go back out in a few weeks. If you want to send stuff for us to hand out, e-mail me and I'll send you my address. If you want me to buy a goat or something, the prices are :
$ 6.75 - bag of sugar
$ 16.88 - bag of rice
$ 7.32 -tea kettles
$ 10.13 - thermos
$ 6.03 -bag of tea
$ 28.14 - goat
$ 33.76 -wheelbarrow
The kids liked the flip-flops and sports balls the best, especially soccer balls. Maybe even super colorful rolls of cloth. There is no color other than dirt and leaves except for the clothes people wear, and the women seem to make their own robes.

Goat Rope

Its been a while...

The Easter bunny also made a stop in Vermont (after he went to Kansas City, maybe?LOL) and the boys were able to get there picture taken with him. Bruin was trying to "tickle" the bunny until he realized that he gave him candy. Then he calmed down and was able to focus for the next task at hand.....the great egg hunt!!

Bruin and Logan did a great job and collected dozens of eggs...Logan getting less (it was naptime, so he was tired). As you can tell by the amount of eggs in their baskets.
Bruin even found a "super duper huge egg" that the bunny left with a little green bunny inside and he has been sleeping with it ever since!! I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter too.

A photo tour of Djibouti City

I took a guided bus tour of Djibouti City. The poverty here is hard to capture with a drive by camera. Lots of people just sleep next to the road, bathe in the ocean and leave there waste where the urge finds them. The guide told us how Dubai is buying up lots of the area to build it into a great trade port like Dubai. The base gets 90% of it's supplies through Dubai, because it is the only modern shipping/warehouse area around that is fully stocked. Djibouti sits at a very strategic geographical crossroads, so Dubai is trying to build it up. Everyone around Djibouti has long histories of fighting each other, but Djibouti is seen as the neutral middle territory, like Switzerland. The goal is to develop Djibouti as a launching platform out into the rest of the neighboring countries for trade and resource development. The Chinese have been dumping a lot into this area while we have been busy in Iraq, but they have only focused on resource extraction, and not at building up the local populace. So the US is trying to push humanitarian missions to buildup the populace to prevent the area from becoming an Al Qaeda sanctuary, and help them become our allies. Part of this is to skew them away from the Chinese, or at least prevent them from being the only dominant party in the area. Click on the link below to see some of the pictures of the city.

Tour of Djibouti City

Africans making french food, and frenchies preserving African cheetahs

I went on two adventures into Djibouti. Last night I went to a French restaurant run by Africans. The food was good. My sponsor Dawn brought me with a bunch of her Marine friends. The Marine's are required to patrol the city and all areas around the base on a random basis, meet with locals, and build relationships to enhance security. So they know the areas pretty well. Plus they're Marines, so they're a little nuts. Not the best conversationalists, unless you like PT, standing watch, breaking hummers, drinking lots of Fanta, that sort of thing, but hey they took me out into town. Then I went to a local Cheetah Reserve run by some French ladies concerned about the local cheetah population. It was pretty cool, and very cheap. I got to walk around in the African shrub. It seems that in order to survive as a shrub in Africa, you need to grow long sharp thorns. I won't make a good shrub. Anyway, click the picture below to see the photos.

First excursions