Women's Clothing in Djibouti

Women in Djibouti wear the most beautiful fabric I have ever seen. The patterns and colors range from the most sublime to the most outrageous. All of the fabric is imported into Djibouti. The women tell me that most of it comes from Asia (in the past from Japan and Indonesia), some from France and more and more from China.

Many wealthier women in Djibouti travel to France or Dubai and now to China to purchase fabric directly from the manufacturers or designers and have their clothing made there. Traditional Djiboutian dress is mostly layers of lots of material beginning with a long skirt with lace on the bottom and a long or short head scarf and maybe even a tight head wrap under the scarf . The color and pattern combinations you see just in the layers is amazing. I would have never thought of pairing some of the pieces they put together. But, the effect can be stunning.

I have seen gorgeous solid colors in every color imaginable. And patterns ranging from geometrical to floral and freestyle. Some of the fabric is interspersed with intricate embroidery or lace. I have been in Djibouti now for 6 months and still am awed by the beauty of the material. I see something new everyday, even at isolated Lac Assal. Even the poorest Djiboutian woman wears bright colors. John's theory is that because the landscape is so drab, women choose to wear bold colors. This is in such stark contrast to Dubai where the women all wear black outergarments out in public and the men wear all white.

ADDIS, ABABA ETHIOPIA - Part II

Making the trip to Addis with us was our friend and colleague, Koffi and his girlfriend, Seaman. We were able to share some good adventures with them. They introduced us to the fascinating nightlife of Addis and to the traditional dances of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has a rich political, cultural and religious history. It is the only African country never to have been colonized. It has more than 80 unique ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups. It is the oldest Christian nation in the world, other than Armenia. Over 50% of the population is Ethiopian Orthodox. Amharic is the predominant language, but English is also spoken.

Addis itself is a bustling, smoggy city of 8 million people. It is clean by African standards and safe. It is much cooler than Djibouti and many Djiboutians find respite in Addis during the terribly hot months of the summer - especially July and August. There are 1985 vintage blue and white taxis to take you anywhere you want to go. We hired a driver for the day to take us up to Mt. Entoto, the tallest mountain above Addis. Addis is at 7500 feet elevation and Mt. Entoto is at 10,500 feet. It was difficult to catch your breath at this altitue. But, we experienced panoramic views of Addis and the surrounding farm land. Eucalyptus trees dominate the landscape and were brought in to provide firewood. Daily, poor women from Addis, walk up to the top of Mt. Entoto, harvest the eucalyptus, bundle it and carry the bundles on their backs down to Addis. An amazing sight to see.

Mt. Entoto is the site of the modest palace of Menelik II - stone structures with thatched roofs and many monastaries. There we visited the Old Stone Church, an Ethiopian Orthodox Church with 8 floor-to-ceiling panels of 120 year old murals inside it's octagonal walls. The many scenes depicted the life and works of Christ. The colors were brilliant.

One of the most intriqueing places we visited in Addis was the Ethnological Museum housed in the original home of Emperor Haile Selassie on the campus of the University College of Addis. Inside we were able to explore the many cultures of Ethiopia, its musical instruments and crafts. Weaving and silver jewelry are Ehiopia's prize art forms.

One morning we visited the Merkato, the largest open air maket in the world. It was a bustling place, teeming with activity and one could easily have gotten lost or been pickpocketed there. We bought a couple of items there and then, Amy, our personal guide took us to the Piazza, a quieter shopping area where we found beautiful silver jewelry and woven goods.

We look forward to returning to Ethiopia and exploring other parts of this beautiful country.

ADDIS, ABABA ETHIOPIA - Part I

At the end of November Salt Investment closed down our facility and gave all of our employees 4 days off to celebrate Eid, the Muslim holiday. John and I decided to go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, only a 50 minute air flight from Djibouti. The highlight of our trip to Addis was getting to know the family of one of our Salt Investment colleagues - Samuel. Because of problems getting him a visa to get back into Djibouti, Samuel was unable to make the trip home. Illegal immigration from Ethiopia into Djibouti is a huge problem. Even a highly skilled mechanic, like Samuel, needs to have all of the proper documents, or they will not let him return to work in Djibouti.

But, to our suprise, he sent his brother, Amy a University of Addis student, to meet us at our hotel. Then we met Samuel's, wife and two darling daughters, who showered us with gifts, invited us to their home for a full-blown Ethiopian meal complete with injera, and took us shopping the next day in Addis.

Samuel's Aunt performed the traditional Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony for us. Sitting on a low bench in the living room of Samuel's home, she began with green Ethiopian coffee beans and roasted them over a charcoal fire until they were almost black. Then the teenage sister of Samuel's wife Marguesh, pounded the coffee to a fine grind. Samuel's Aunt poured the coffee grounds into an elegant slender black coffee pot and placed hot water inside. She placed the pot back on the smoldering coals and boiled the coffee until you could smell the wonderful aroma. She then gracefully poured the thick, rich coffee into small cups and offered that to us with sugar. Traditionally, the pot is refilled with water (same grounds) three times. Each time the pot is put back onto the hot coals to boil before another round is served. It was absolutely delicious! Without a doubt, the best coffee I have ever had.

The first picture is of Samuel's family. His wife is pregnant, with a baby boy expected in mid-January. The second picture is of Samuel's Aunt roasting the coffee beans and the third picture is John smelling the newly roasted beans. The tradition is for all recipients of the coffee to smell the beans after roasting, before they are ground.

FASHION and FABRIC IN DUBAI

Dubai is a mecca for Arab fashion and for exquisite fabric of all kinds. Women come from all over the Middle East and Africa to purchase fabric, have wedding and special occassion dresses made and to get the latest in jewelry, bags, shoes and other accessories.

The traditional regional dress for women is a black outer garment with flowing sleeves and a black headscarf. This is worn whenever the woman is out of her household or away from her family. But the black garment can have fabulous embroidery or jewel embellishments, especially on the sleeves, shoulders and the headscarf. But, underneath the black outer garment, the women wear very colorful clothing made from gorgeous fabric.

In the malls there are many, many fabric stores, each filled with fabric of all kinds. A lot of it, I am told, comes from China and the Far East. The colors, textures and patterns are just lovely. I've never seen anything like it. What seems strange, is to see women, dressed in their black outer garments, in the fabric stores purchasing lovely, colorful fabric to be made into the clothing they will wear only for their families.

Men, on the other hand, wear the traditional white tunic, with a white skull cap, covered by a red and white geometrically patterned piece of material held on their head with a black circular piece. Some men wear off-white or tan tunics. Most of the men sport some sort of facial hair, neatly trimmed. They all wear sandals.

OLD DUBAI - Dhows and The Spice Souk

John and I took a taxi to the older part of Dubai and right alongside the main road there were loading docks filled to capacity with all sorts of cargo - refrigerators, mattresses, cloth, foodstuffs. These were destined to be loaded onto the Dhows (traditional trading ships) headed for Iran. The ocean crossing was only a 3 hour trip we were told. The traditional Dhow uses only a sail for movement. Pictured here are the loading docks and the Dhows waiting to be loaded with their sterns topped by the covered cabin painted in the traditional blue and white. The water taxis are shown in front of the Dhows. They carry passengers up and down the Creek, which is the main waterway of the harbor.

Across from the loading docks there are a number of old marketplaces, called Souks. John and I visited the Spice Souk. It is a covered market with little shop after little shop filled with spices and herbs from all over the world. The aroma was intoxicating. Almost every shopkeeper that barkered us to come into his small domain assumed we were Germans and always began by speaking German to us. That alone made us smile. The Souk continued on and we were suddenly in another souk where there were lots of little shops filled with dry goods, bedding, dishware, toys, anything you could imagine.

Like all of Dubai, the Souks are immaculately clean. You never see anyone cleaning or picking up anything. But, all of Dubai is clean.

THE NEW DUBAI

Dubai is one of the seven emirates and the most populous state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was only a 3 hour plane flight on Fly Dubai from Djibouti. We flew across the Gulf of Aden,over the vast expanse of mountains and sand which is Yemen and the southern tip of Saudie Arabia. I met John there for a 3-day weekend, when he was returning from a short business trip to the US to set up some salt test protocols at a lab in New Iberia, LA.

It is an amazing place. Dubai has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833. Dubai's current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is also the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE.

It was the current ruler's father who truly had the vision that is now Dubai. Even though the city of Dubai is over 150 years old, the modern city itself has been built since 1968 when oil was discovered there. The vision of the late ruler was to take this original oil money and invest in education, health and infrastructure. Today the emirate's main revenues are from tourism, real estate and financial services. Less than 7% of their revenue is derived from natural gas or petroleum products.

The city is very modern, clean, civil and organized. Although there is an immense number of vehicles on the road, they all look new. The taxis are owned by 5 different companies. The cab drivers all wear uniforms, are polite, punctual and the cars they drive smell like new. They do not own their own cabs. They are paid commission for their work. We took the BIG BUS (hop-on hop-off)double decker bus in order to get a tour of the more modern parts of the city and to get a chance to visit all of the many shopping malls there. We took taxis everywhere else.

The malls are incredible. The largest mall is The Dubai Mall with over 1200 stores. One of the malls even has a ski resort right in the middle. We peered through large glass windows, watching ski lifts carry skiers, bundled up in their ski jackets up the snow-covered hill. We watched them ski down and watched little kids with innertubes on a little bunny hill. There was even a small tobogan run inside the resort. Amazing! All of this happening, when the outside temperature is 90 degrees.

Because of the remaining uncertain economic environment, there are many skyscrapers with cranes atop whose construction has been temporarily halted. Other building projects are going ahead as planned. There are still many guest workers in Dubai from all over, especially the Phillipines, Malasia, India and Egypt. All of the taxi drivers, waiters, maids and construction workers are guest workers. The human trafficing, sex trade and money laundering we hear takes place in Dubai is well hidden. I am told that this activity is due to recent Mafia influences, not the ruling family.

Dubai has absolutely beautiful beach resorts, tall, unusually shaped hotel buildings, even airconditioned bus stops. In the last picture above, I am standing in front of one of them. They are planning to build a theme park Xtimes larger and more elaborate than Disney World in the near future.

Dubai is a very international city. There is every imaginable restaurant type available. John and I stayed at the JW Marriott and enjoyed both their American Style Steak House and their lovely Italian restaurant. Both were delicious with excellent service.

I will do two more blogs about Dubai. 1. THE OLD DUBAI with its Spice Souk and Dhows.
2. Fashion

DONATIONS FROM AMERICA

Several weeks ago, I was asked to help distribute clothing, toys, school supplies and non-perishable food items to the families living in Laita, a small village near our compound. Because of the generosity of Superior Industries of Morris, MN, our conveyor belt manufacturers, we were able to distribute 28 huge boxes filled with donations to the area.

This was only 1/3 of the generous goods that Superior had packed into each container they delivered to Salt Investment. In all we were able to make three separate donations. The first were bikes and school supplies to our nearest school in Karta, a small village about 20 minutes from our compound.

The second set of donations, clothing, more bikes, and toys went to the little village directly across from our compound. THANK YOU SUPERIOR FOR YOUR GENEROUS SPIRIT.

The pictures show one of the three vehicles we used to transport the donations, the beautiful small children of Karta, and our Salt Investment employees with the chief elder from the area. As a special thank you, the chief elder gave me a very special gift, a baby goat, which I sadly petted knowing that our cook would roast him for us all to share. He was a tasty little thing and I was very suprised that there was quite a bit of very tender meat provided by that tiny goat.