Happy New Years!!!

Happy New Years everybody!
I officially completed a New Years Resolution! I have not had a SINGLE coka cola in 1 year!!! It was tough at first, then I eventually got used to not drinking them. I may have one tomorrow just to have one, but its a great habit to kick! I feel very good about finally completing a new years resolution, everybody says lose weight (blah blah blah) I wanted something different and I wanted something that was much more difficult, thus Coke!
Well, a year later no coke AND I lost 40 lbs hahaha. Its funny how things work out isnt it?

Anyways, tonight I spent my night with the troops, I had an overall good time...nothing spectacular! Afterwards I wandered around and walked passed the chapel and I heard those guitars screaming for me to play them hahahaha. So I went in and hooked into the amps and played the electric guitar as hard as I could...just because I could. Eventually I had to sit down and tune the guitar, so as I was sitting there and a man walked in, and he was looking for the Midnight prayer service....it had already been over for the past 45 minutes. I told him that I would be more than glad to leave if he wanted time for prayer. Then he smiled, and said "No, I get most of my meditation behind one of those." (pointing to the guitar on my lap). I smiled and told him to pull up a chair, and we got to talking. It turns out that he's an amazing guitarist that owns a guitar that was once owned by Keith Richards....which is cool. We had about a 2 and a half hour talk. It wasnt at all how I had expected to spend my first few hours in the new year, but that is a good thing. I really enjoyed talking to LTC. John, it turns out that he is a Military Intel turned Commanding Safety Officer for the CJTF HOA (Command Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa). What a great guy, hands down a quality person to talk to. In between talking he taught me how to play Little Wing by Hendrix, and I then in turn taught him Purple Haze haha. The more and more I talked with him about music it was cool to talk to learn that we had similar tastes in music...Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Jim Croce, Carlos Santana, John Mayer, and smaller band type deals etc....and agreeing that most music on the airwaves today is garbage. It was a great time, just noodling on guitar and talking. What an awesome way to spend the first few hours of new years...most people think that drinking and screwing are the best after new years...it might be for some, but in this situation sitting down with a complete stranger and talking about music and life is something much more awesome! Take it easy ya'll!
Happy New Years! 2008!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

Montezumas Revenge

I made an error in one of my recent blogs, I said that the Filipeno had fed me dinner Christmas evening. I was wrong it was actually a group from Guam.
For most of the people I talk to on a frequent basis through email, they have known that I havent been feeling well over the past few days. I was having some nasty syptoms, lets just say its not dinner table material, and the title explains it all. I walked into the clinic and I explained to them my symptoms and they laughed at me! Then they asked me if I went to Guam Christmas party and had their food. Note: remember me eating goat in the previous blog....bing bing bing! They said congrats you are case number 18! So apparently it was the food I ate. So they gave me a couple antibiotics and sent me on my way! Oh the stories I will take away from here.

Whale Shark Trip Pictures

Strange Tastes

I've been asked several times "Pat have you had any weird cuisines while you're over there?"

Christmas evening I found a cook out sponsered by the Philipino community here on base. I went through and they had a huge selection of fish, meats, noodles, and rice. So I tried some of each... and I had what tasted like steak tips. So I was interested in what it was, so I asked one of the chefs, and he was quite proud to tell me that I was eating goat. My reaction was similar to that senators face in Borat, when Borat told him the cheese he was eating was made from the milk of his mothers tit. But it still tasted good and I would probably eat it again if I had the chance.

Also, I have NO clue what is wrong with Lay's Chips over here, they have varying tastes over here. The most disgusting and strange flavor I have encountered over here is posted in the picture here, and of course I had to try them...NEVER AGAIN. The other type that I have seen around is French Onion... Its a little different over here. Thats all for now.

Chirstmas in Winter Wonderland

I fianlly realized that the song Winter Wonderland was written for Djibouti, because its a land full of people wondering WHERE IN THE HELL IS THE SNOW?!
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to go out to a private island for the entire day. We left at about 7 am to head out to Moucha Island. Moucha Island is a sort of resort type island if you want to call it that, but it was a great time. I got to hang with the troops and do some snorkeling ya know the norm for a christmas day and the scenery was amazing. I dont think I have seen so many colorful fish in one spot, it was an overall good time. When I got bored I attempted build sandmen and make sand angels but it really didnt workout. So I got to enjoy a good nap and relax on the beach.
I missed being at home with family but overall it really wasnt that bad! I did make the best of what I had and I think I did a really good job. I opened my presents the night before with permission from the senders! It was a surprisingly an amazing christmas! It was good to talk to family and friends, and I was most jealous to hear about the 3 feet of snow in Vermont. I didnt get that snowstorm I was hoping for here, it was just another sandstorm.
This morning I went to drop my laundry off at the fluff and fold, and one of the local workers told somebody Merry Christmas...todays the 26th... but I guess he didnt really understand it was for only one day. If you really want to get technical, I guess he could have gotten away with it, since there are 12 days of christmas...but we dont want to space it out like the Jewish, we want all of our presents in one day! Which is totally cool with me! Have you ever thought about that song "The 12 days of Chirstmas"? Well who ever the pompous prick is, that decided to make a song about their 78 gifts (if you do the math)...they are just a true prick, and on top of that they have to reiterate it 12 times!!!! hahaha. I was thinking about that and I thought I would share that with you all. Anyways, I hope you all had an amazing Holiday...you have to be PC nowadays and whats up with all of these acronyms people use I mean seriously WTF?! LOL.

Orphanage Trip Once Again

So, on my day off on firday I went to the orphanage. I went in looking for my little friend, Hanan...the one seen in the picture below. When I found him he was in some ladies arms he made eye contact with me and raised his arms up for me to hold him. So I picked him up and played with him and fed him. I tried to set him down a few other times, but he would scream and cry and I'd pick him up again and he'd stop. haha. He wasnt such a slow eater that day it seemed that he was quite hungry. I spoke with one of the nuns at the orphanage, it turns out that Hanan is actually 12 months old. He was taken from his mother because she has tuberculosis, and they are unsure if is or isnt HIV positive. So I do take caution when playing with him. Its always a good time going and helping out. I plan on making a weekly visit to go and play and hlep, these kids are so much fun and I adore all of them. I hope all is well with everybody! Djibouti remains to smell like crap at night! Take it easy!
Peace!

The Kempinski

Since I've been here I have had the chance to go to The Kempinski many times. For those of you who do not know the Kempinski, it is a 5 star hotel in the middle of Djibouti. It is the most recent addition to Djibouti and was constructed by the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
The Kempinski puts most hotels to shame. The front driveway/entry is made up of marble, and that can only tell you what the rest of the hotel is like. A fountain in th emain foyer with fresh rose petals around the edge a grand piano in the back lounge with a live player playing for the better part of the day. There's an infinity pool in the back which over looks the Sea, and you can catch some of the most amazing sunsets ever. The pricing starts at around $280 a night, but they have offers where you can rent a hotel room for a day and use the pool and all other facilities within the hotel for $100. I havent done that, and dont intend to unless theres a group of people going and we can all split the room. The meals are a bit over priced, but decent. I think it would be worth the stay, but its sad that they construct such a place in the midst of all the poverty in the area.

Christmas in Djibouti.

Everybody has been asking me..." Pat, Whats it gonna be like for Christmas in Djibouti?!" and I tell them that I dont know, but I do know that it will be lonely, at first. As one of my favorite musicians puts it "We'll make the best of whats around", and I intend on doing that! Theres a first for everything, and you really have to think about it, I cant be pissy about it because I am surrounded by thousands of other troops and contractors in the SAME situation. Hopefully we'll rely on each other to fill the void. I just want to let everybody know that I will be fine this holiday season, and that I will miss being home terribly, but hey I'm over here and I'm gonna enjoy every minute with the troops. I must send love and thanks to my parents and family for sending Christmas presents here for me, I truly appreciate everything that I have. I'm not stopping my blog, but I wish everybody the happiest of holidays!!!
Peace!

Whale Shark Trip

Sooooooo, today was my big adventure into the Gulf of Tadjoura... to swim with the migrating Whale Sharks! Just in case you dont know what a whale shark is...it is the worlds LARGEST fish.

It was about a 2 hour trip to the designated area for seeing the whale sharks/ diving areas. It took a while to find the whale sharks, but after a while of searching, we found one pup. A baby...only 20 feet long! We jumped in the water and once you got into the water and you look down its like a bottomless area. You could stare down towards the floor in THE clearest water and still never see the floor...it was crazy. Anyways, once we got in the pup dove and we didnt chase it, because...well we were snorkeling! So I waited around in the water for a while and then apparently one was IN the area! So I look around and saw nothing... I yell out to the boat "guys where do you see it?!" and they responded "Its right in front of you cant you see it?!!!"

So I go back under and look to the front and there was nothing! So I come back up for air and then went back down and turned around to notice a 30 foot Whale shark 3 FEET AWAY FROM ME!!! 3!!! I had to move to get away from its fins! At this point I am screaming like a woman giving birth, and probably giving birth to a turd. I am not even kidding! So I got some pictures and swam with them for a while. It was very intimidating to swim with these mammals. After swimming with the whales for a while I turned into shore to swim on the reef and checkout the sea life there, which was also pretty cool to see the rainbow fish and clown fish and all that jazz. I am exhausted, but until I get my pictures developed and set up on the computer heres a picture of one of the whale sharks! take it easy ya'll!

Peace!

Random Djibouti Pictures

The Wreath says "Think Snow"....trust me I'm thinking BLIZZARD!

THE nicest hotel in Djibouti...trust me its amazing!

The speed limit is on base is 6 mph... how much slower can we go?

Thats just not right... somebody should tell this guy.

A great sunset!

You too Ron!

OK since I'm not gonna be here for tomorrows blog I thought I would post some pictures of Djibouti until I return later in the day tomorrow.

Early morning at the airport

Lately I have been waking up early, but this morning was an early wake up to go to the airport to pick up another worker for the project.
Yet again, the whole language barrier thing is getting to me. Everytime a Djiboutian comes up to me he mumbles something and then asks "ok?" and he does it a bunch of times not just once. So, I eventually just say "ok" and they pat me on the back smile and walk away. Now when they do that I begin to worry, that I might have just sold my soul to a gypsy or some voo doo witch doctor. I havent felt any strange pains...yet.
Anywhozer, you know...back in the states everybody seems to get a little tense if they see a middle eastern person get on a plane with them, which is sad, because for all you know it could be a mexican! But, this morning at the airport I was probably the only american there, and getting a TON of stares (so I felt the return on this side of the world)... mainly from the the muslim extremists, but I just smiled and nodded to them as they walked by.
Luckily, I arrived at the airport early enough to hear the Muslim prayers...or chants. The muslims use a loud speaker, to broadcast the prayers. Not to be disrespectful to the muslim religion, but to me the muslim prayer sounds like a drunken man who stole a bull horn and started shouting "sha la la la la la sha ma la la la alah", it was interesting to hear, and at 5:00 in the morning my brain is thinking "WTF?!".
And once again Daallo airlines was LATE once again! about 2 and a half hours late, and they lost one of our guys bags, like normal. Daallo is notorious for that, do not fly Daallo. The mosquitoes and flies once again were horrible. That Djibouti International Airport for you!

Breaking the Language Barrier

So I just returned from being out in the sun for about 12 hours today, and it reached the mid 90's today. Not a cloud in the sky, so it was HOT, of course I got burnt and I am as red as a tomato. Luckily my brain decided to function around 3 pm and I thought "hmmm maybe sunscreen is a good option". I ran down to the Navy Exchange and bought some SPF 60, which feels like the consistency of glue. It was already too late, my sunglass tan, watch tan, and bracelet tan are here to stay, it really looks good on me...
I spent a majority of my time in the field with a handful of Turkish men and a whole lot of Djiboutian men. Trust me there was enough sign language used today!
I never realized that until today, Djibouti has its personal language, you may read that the primary languages are French and Arabic and they are fluent in both, but they have their own tribal language that they use that I have been trying to pick up on and try to figure out what language it is, but now I know. One of the laborers tried to get me to talk french with him but I had to shake my head and say that I didnt speak a word of english... but I tried. I went back to my backpack and grabbed my "Let's Talk French" book, that my grandparents bought me before coming over here. It has 1,001 different every day phrases. So I found one, and I told them in French that I was hungover. They found that to be THE most hilarious thing in the world. So I kind of broke the ice with the workers, which is kind of cool in a way, but now they wont leave me alone.
You know, I never realized how difficult it is to try to speak PROPER english to a foreigner, because they are trained on proper english. Think about it...we would say something like "I'm gonna go sit in the shade are you comin?" now translation to the foreigner "I am going to go sit in the shade, are you going to join?" or something along those lines. Its funny because you know when you are speaking to a person that knows little or no english, like this afternoon a Turkish man came up to me and I said "Good Afternoon" and he replied "Im good thank you" I wanted to laugh but I couldnt. Needless to say it was a short conversation. Well I'm running on little sleep and no dinner so I am going to go to the Cafeteria for some food would you like to join me? Translation...Take it easy ya'll I'm in the mood for like some food, with like a salad, want to tag along?

Weather in Djibouti

As I sit here this morning with the AC blasting in the office, the temperatures outside continue to rise into the mid 80's and occasionally low 90's.
There are three seasons here in Djibouti...I wish there was a 4 seasons...
We have Cool season, Rain Season, and Hot Season. We are currently experiencing Cool Season, which you can imagine isnt so cool but its not to incredibly hot either. Sometime around January we'll start to get some much needed rain for a couple months. To be honest I can't wait for May-September! HOT season...I love how its not called something pleasant like summer or spring, just HOT season. I'm talking about heat you'd only experience in Africa. I was talking to some people around base about the hot season and I've never seen anybody laugh with a grin on their face, but they were, and I had asked one of them "What? does it get up to about 130?" he laughed again and said "nope, thats in september.", at this point I really began to sweat, and he then explained that the temperatures around here on base get up to about 150 degrees. When it gets to be about that time and temperature, look for a video of me tryig to cook and egg on the sidewalk...I'm seriously going to try. The guy also warned me that when you wake up in the morning it will already be in the 120's... Oh boy!

Play time at the Orphange

The chaplains on base set up a weekly trip to see the children at the local orphange here in Djibouti. I'm glad I had the chance to go there to interact with the children. That has to be the most eye opening experience, just to be there and see what it is like in an orphanage in a 3rd world country and to see how they live. Our group went to see the infants and toddlers.

When we first pulled up all of the toodlers came running up to the fence to see who arrived, but there were no smiles on their faces, they just blankly stared at us all as we approached. Once we were inside the gates we were informed to grab an infant a bottle and a bib and start feeding... I laughed but they were serious, so I did. I found this little boy named Ali, he was actually about 14 months old but was a little bit bigger than an infant, I was later informed he was born HIV positive, which struck a chord in my heart because you can only imagine what his life is going to be like. After feeding him we were instructed to grab a toddler or 2 and play with them for a while, while they prepared dinner for them. I found an 18 month old boy names Hanan, he was over in the one of the corners in his push cart. When I signaled to him that I wanted to pick him up he raised his arms and so I picked him up in the air and he enjoyed that. Feeding time rolled around...Hanan was not the kid to pick for feeding, he took about 45 minutes to eat everything, it was crazy. I was later informed that Hanan also was born HIV positive.

Early when I was walking around the orphanage it was sad to see 10-12 babies per crib, and the flies were HORRIBLE, but it seemed after you'd pick up a child the flies would go away. It was extremely hard to see some of these children, and it hurt to see what it was actually like here. It was also interesting to see some of the marines who had been going there for a while had bonded with some of the children, because when they walked in you would hear the mutter "wheres my little boy...or wheres my little princess". I will be making it a habit of going every friday to the orphanage, because I knew that if I were one of those children I would want somebody to play with and give me attention.

Visiting Djibouti (late night)

Camp Lemonier has a curfew of 10 pm so bare with me when I say "late night".
So going out to dinner in Djibouti turned out to be a mistake...
We walked into one of the local bars to grab a bite to eat. Let me tell you something, I've never been hit on by so many women at one time....and then I realized "hey wake up these are hookers!". Have you ever had the full body shivers, and im not talking about warm fuzzies. Well I felt like I was going to have seizures FULL of the full body shivers...and I did, it was at that moment I knew I had contracted a VD, just kidding, I'm serious this place would KILL a hypochondriac! Needless to say that I was in and out there faster than you can imagine. I thought it was just one bar...NO ITS EVERY BAR! We cant drink off base either...so I went home without food, and feeling the dirtiest I have EVER felt in my entire life.

Visiting Djibouti

I made my way into downtown Djibouti recently with a few guys from work, to be honest I was not culture shocked. It is everything you would expect to see on TV and in the newspapers. It was interesting to see and cough cough smell where they lived. It's a very smoggy city, and don't expect to see many people actually working after 3 pm, because most of them are high off their asses, and on a 4 hour siesta, I'm not kidding.
The Djiboutian Government hands out Khat (cot- like in cotton)( a narcotic similar to marijuana), mainly to keep the people calm and rumored to keep them from revolting. I was nervous at first to go into the city considering that Djibouti City is mainly comprised of Somalian refugees. I only had one hostel comment made to me and that was from an older muslim man who came up to me yelling "You Americans are HORRIBLE, you kill women and children!!!" referring to the war in Iraq. I kept walking to get away from him, mind you, that apparently this happening was a rare occurance. It ammuses the hell out me that the people here give NO mind to cars, I dont think they could care any less if they saw a 2,000 lb. car speeding at them, and dont even think about using a horn, it doesnt work, TRUST me, they just stare...almost like a deer. They dont even notice you! I assume its the khat.

Arriving in Djibouti

Well hello from 7,281 miles away (according to Google Earth)! What a new experience for me, to be spending the next 9 months in the Horn of Africa. It took roughly 24 hours to get from Norfolk, Virginia to Djibouti, Djibouti. Although I have been traveling and flying since I was an infant, this was my first trip across the pond. I spent about 6 hours in the Dubai airport, which was pretty uneventful, but I made the best of it, luckily they had WiFi so I shot out a few emails letting people know that I had successfully landed in the desert. From Dubai it was only about a 3 hour flight down to Djibouti...
Do not fly on Daallo! I was scared to get on that plane, I just waiting for people to jump start the propellers...not really, but you get the idea. The best part about this trip is that I caught a cold, so on top of jet lag it wasn't the best feeling.
Finally arriving in Djibouti I was greeted by...mosquitoes, goats, cats, and stray dogs. I knew I was in heaven.