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.

Beach Adventure

We had a bit of excitement last weekend. Friday is our day off in Djibouti City. John, our boss Dan and I went to a great beach to spend the afternoon and early evening. They have covered cabana areas where you can sit in the shade and enjoy the ocean breezes, take a picnic lunch, some beer or wine, watch the kids play soccer on the beach, swim and generally just chill out. Now, that the weather is cooler, it is really quite pleasant out there. We were having a delightful time really enjoying ourselves. We decided to go into the water at about 4:00 or so. But, the tide was really out and the water was quite shallow with lots of seaweed and rocks.

As I was trying to swim out to deeper water, I felt a severe pain in the side of my left foot on the bony prominence of my big toe. I thought for sure that I had scraped it on one of the rocks. However, the pain didn’t stop and began throbbing and traveling up to the top and along the side of my foot. It was excruciating. We quickly swam back to shore and I hobbled out of the water. All you could see on my food was a little dark spot on the side of my foot just under my big toe, oozing a tiny bit of blood where the initial pain was. I was afraid something had broken off inside. It took us a good 45 minutes over really rough road to get back to town and to the Villa where we stay on the weekend. John took a look at the wound and it didn’t look like anything was lodged in there. I quickly showered to get all of the sand and seawater off.

By that time, I was in excruciating pain. My foot was not swollen, but it was red on the top and side and it felt like someone was smashing a hammer down onto it again and again. I asked John to take me to the French Army Hospital emergency room (this is the only place we even half trust going to for medical care here in Djibouti). It took 10 minutes to get there by car and about 25 minutes after passing through security and paying money to be seen, we saw the doctor and nurse in the ER. They put hot compresses on the wound and my foot, supposedly to help with the pain, while they tried to figure out what was wrong. The hot compresses and then almost boiling water didn’t work to ease the pain at all.

Their initial diagnosis was that I had been stung by a sting ray. They are here hiding in the sand and that is a prevalent occurrence. But, after consulting with their surgeon, they determined that the position of the wound couldn’t have been a sting ray. Sting ray wounds are generally on the top of the foot or the lower leg. They finally decided that I had been tagged by a sea urchin. They can be very large here. Their venom will not kill you. But, the agony of it all! The treatment was clean the wound topically with betadine, wrap the wound, and send you to the nearest pharmacy for 8 days of antibiotics and some painkillers.

They did not give me any medication for the pain while we were at the French Army hospital. So, by the time John was able to get the medications from the pharmacy, I practically attacked him for the pain medication. That medication took about an hour to take effect. Then, the pain was dulled for the next several hours. Then came the taser-like shooting electrical jolts that attacked my poor foot all night long. I would be sleeping and wham! Needless to say, I didn’t sleep too well until after 4 am or so.

But, next day , absolutely no pain, felt great. Everything fine. Good thing their venom doesn't kill you. Just hurts like .....! So, here is my advice, especially for you divers out there. If you are ever tagged by a sea urchin, you can expect about twelve hours of excruciating pain. Lesson - wear shoes in the water at the beach!!!!! And, if an one of those urchins jumps out and grabs you, pee on it as fast as you can, just like they taught you in scuba diving class. Your urine is warm, acidic and sterile. All of which helps sooth this kind of pain and clean the wound. Then, my advice, take the strongest meds you can lay your hands on to control the pain and do it fast.

GOLF IN DJIBOUTI

Golf in Djibouti is a new experience. The course is all dirt, sand, and a few trees. Oh, yes, did I mention that there are a few goats and camels wandering around. John and I went to watch our friend and colleague, Boris, the CFO of Salt Investment play in a tournament out in the country almost to the border of Somalia. The course is called Douda. The course is divided into two parts, crossing over at the club house and driving range.

To tee off, the golfer steps atop a concrete pad covered with astroturf and hits the ball down the fairway. Each time your ball lands on the fairway, your caddy pulls out a piece of astroturf which is placed under the ball so that you can hit it again.

Even though the whole place is dirt and sand, they have built additional sand traps on both sides of the greens. And, of course, the greens are a mix of dirt and sand. After you hit your ball up onto the green, your caddy carefully uses a small hand broom to create the smoothest path possible to the hole. But, alas, the ball invariably hits a small pebble and veers off landing to the left or right of the hole.

Here's a photoshow I created to give you the entire Djiboutian golf experience:
Go to http://www.photoshow.com/watch/re6Ve3kp

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) CLASSES

Salt Investment currently employs about 114 people at Lac Assal. But, there are an additional 150-200 contract employees living here during the workweek working for various companies doing construction on the project.

On October 5, I started teaching English As a Second Language (ESL) to the employees of Salt Investment at Lac Assal, Djibouti. I currently have about 35 students, with a waiting list. The classes are strictly voluntary and must be scheduled during their off time from work So, finding time in the day for the classes is most difficult. The work schedule here is usually 7am-12noon and then from 3pm-6pm (Sat-Thurs noon). Usually during the afternoon break period, people nap. However, my eager students come to ESL classes and also come in for the extra individual help they need.

The top picture is of my early evening class. Notice that this class has only one woman. I am the only professional woman working for Salt Investment at Lac Assal. All of the other women are maids, kitchen help or maid supervisors. The second picture is of Mouna, one of the women in my mid-afternoon class. I took mugshots of the students in order to help me memorize their names.

To meet their special work schedule, I have also added an extra class at 9am in the morning to accomodate the four kitchen staff who serve the meals at our expat compound. There are two women in this class. I am also looking to start some special classes for the security people - who have a very strange schedule. I am also taking special English lessons to the employees who work at our offices in Djibouti City. Some of the office staff are advanced English students and the security staff there are beginners. I am fortunate in that I have only one student who cannot write. She will need a lot of time and patience. Luckily she is part of the close-knit four person kitchen staff who have promised to help each other. Most of my other students have at least a 4th grade education. Some have graduated from high school.

My biggest challenge is to keep up with the lesson plans of all of the classes and special people. Since I only brought one master of all of the teaching materials, I must copy everything - texts, workbooks,flashcards, etc. I spend hours at our ancient copy machine that doesn't make double sided copies and doesn't collate. I did splurge however, and bought a paper cutter. The purchasing supervisor insisted that the company buy me a beautiful large double-sided whiteboard. I now have a newfound appreciation for the planning time and organizational ability needed by teachers.

I try to keep the classes relevant and fun. The Djiboutians like to laugh and they tell me that they love their classes. Oh, no, my husband, John, the COO of Salt Investment, just brought me a list of 8 names - people from the small Djiboutian village across from our compound - who want to learn English. Luckily, he told them that I was too busy now. But, maybe, in the future, we could set up some classes for them.

SALT ENCRUSTED SKULLS

Catering to the tourists who visit Lac Assal, there are several souvenir stands down at the salt deposit(the Banques). Among the souvenirs sold there, are the highly prized salt encrusted skulls of cows and goats. These two specimans belong to our friend and colleague, Koffi Azzome. He is pictured holding his goat skull.

In order to make these special objects, an animal skull is placed in the brine near the edge of the lake. After a few weeks, the skull is totally encrusted with hardened layers of salt. It is sad that we cannot take these back to the US. They are hauntingly beautiful and so reminescent of the area.

NOMADS & THEIR CAMELS COLLECTING SALT

John took this picture just yesterday, while building test ponds at the salt deposit(the Banques) at Lac Assal. The camels are seated on the salt deposit awaiting their 150-240 kilo loads. After using small pick axes to harvest the salt, the nomads will place the salt into 30 kilo bags and place them on either side of the camels backs. Then they will walk their camels out of the lake area and off to Ethiopia.

THE CAMELS OF DJIBOUTI

The camels of Djibouti have one hump and are called dromedary camels. They are very interesting and always around - on the road, by the road, in the villages, in the cities, in the countryside. Usually a nomadic family will have a herd of goats, a few camels and maybe sheep. The camel may be used to transport wood, water, building materials, food etc. But, most are sold to Dubai where they are fattened up and slaughtered for their delicious meat. Djiboutian camels are prized and much sought after in the Middle East. I am told that there are no large camel producers. Buyers of camels for the meat market, purchase the camels from individual nomads, consolidate them and ship them amass to Dubai for processing.

We see the camels hobbled at night and tethered to trees near the villages. The baby camels are many times seen enclosed in a makeshift cage around a tree for shade inside the village compound itself.

At this time of year, at the end of the hot season, the camel is without much fur. But as the season gets cooler they will get furrier. The group of camels you see pictured are contained and awaiting transport via ship out of Djibouti City to Dubai. They are brought here in open trucks, from as far away as Ethiopia, traveling on their knees for 2 days or more. This website gives some interesting information about the dromedary camel: www.garden-city.org/zoo/animalinfo/Mammals/dromedary_camel.htm

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL - A UNIVERSAL THEME

In Djibouti city this morning, it was nothing but gridlock surrounding each Djiboutian public school, especially the big one downtown. Cars were parked everywhere, with traffic going nowhere, as students returned to school after the long summer break. Anxious parents lined the dirt walkways nearby and held the hands of young ones crossing the street. And, all of the children, from the smallest kidergartner to the oldest secondary school student, was dressed in their newest school clothes. The scene was just like in the US and I would think almost everywhere else in the world.

The 1st day of the Djiboutian public schools had been delayed this year because of Ramadan. We were told that they started back to school 21 days later than normal and will make up the days with shorter breaks at Christmas and elsewhere. The French school here has been operating for three weeks already.

As we made our way back to Lac Assal, John and I saw the shutters finally opened on the small rural schools near the outskirts of Djibouti City. But, to my sorrow, as we got closer to the compound and Lac Assal, we saw the many, many children, who have no school to go to, playing in the dirt or herding the goats. We must do something about providing clean, sustainable water here, so that these kids will have a chance at an education! Until there is water here, there will be no school.

THE BANQUES

The Banques is the large salt deposit that has formed around the western edge of Lac Assal,Djibouti. Lac Assal (Lake Assal) is the lowest point in Africa - 550 feet below sea level and is the saltiest lake in the world. It also gets extremely hot here during the summer with temps of over 135 degrees. John and I were here yesterday and it was a cool 101.

Salt Investment is building a large salt production facility at the Banques. The first picture above is of a part of the Banques as it looks naturally. The salt runs up to 40 meters deep and is so hard that heavy Astro trucks and trailers can easily traverse it. The other two pictures show John testing the temperature of the water in one of the crystallizer ponds and that pond itself which was formed by removing the top 35 centimeters of salt and forming a long rectangularly shaped box. This pond rapidly fills up with water from the lake,the wind and sun evaporate the water and salt remains. They took the salt which was removed from the pond area and formed salt roads which surround and allow access to the ponds. John is crouching on the side of one of the salt roads in order to get his sample water temperature.

THE PEOPLE OF RANDA

The people of Randa were as fascinating as the beauty of the countryside. Like in Djibouti everywhere, there are old men with henna stained beards and mustaches. The henna is said to make them more viril. Children are children everywhere, laughing and playing - always welcoming strangers. And, with water always the first priority in Djibouti, there are women with their donkeys carrying water to nearby hamlets.

TRIP TO TADJOURA AND RANDA

For our 41st wedding anniversary John and I took a special trip north of our compound at Lac Assal to Tadjoura, a coastal town. We stayed overnight and then traveled inland, on a mostly 4-wheel drive road to Randa and then beyond up into the mountains on the road to Di Mountain. It was a lovely trip. Driving inland from Tadjoura, we went up the right hand side of a huge wadi (wash). We went up and up until we came to the town of Randa. On the way we say villages with houses made very differently from those around Lac Assal or Djibouti City. These structures were made of wood and other materials. These are called das. These houses were always in a compound with fencing all around. The fencing was usually made of wood and then some thorn bush stems. All of the farm animals in these parts are kept in the enclosures at night because a predatory black panther-like cat lives and hunts in this area.

AFTERMATH OF SHOPPING FOR EID

The evening before the start of EID (the 2 days of celebration after the end of Ramaden)is a shopping frenzy. The downtown marketplace is filled to overflowing with shoppers buying shoes and clothing for the celebration. The next day, the streets are littered with trash - mostly shoe boxes and plastic sleeves which previously held the desired celebratory clothing.

PICTURES OF EID

On Sunday, September 20 we feasted with Souleiman Rirach, our colleague, at his home in Djibouti City.

EID -2 Days of Celebration at the end of Ramadan

On Sunday, September 20, John and I celebrated Eid Al-Fitr at the home of our colleague, Souleiman Rirach with his family and friends. They served us a delicious traditional Djiboutian meal of goat, rice, potatoes, salad and pudding. We wore our traditional Djiboutian clothing. Because I am not muslim, I am not required to wear the head scarf. John put a belt around his skirt (foutour sp?) just in case. The skirt is a tube of material wrapped at the waist to keep it on.



Eid Al-Fitr means "Feast of Fast-Breaking." In Djibouti, it is celebrated for two days beginning the day after Ramadan ends. Because the month of Ramadan is all about fasting, Eid-Al-Fitr is all about NOT fasting. During Ramadan, Muslims have not eaten while the Sun is in the sky. On Eid-Al-Fitr, they celebrate the end of Ramadan with a sweet snack and then get ready for 2 days of celebration.



On the first day of Eid , Muslims are encouraged to dress in their best clothes and attend a special Eid prayer at their neighborhood mosque. Before the prayer begins, Muslims make an alms payment (the Zakat al Fitr) for the month of Ramadan, in the form of food or its cash equivalent. This food and/or money is then distributed to the poor. After the special religious service, the focus turns to gift-giving. Children are given many gifts. Women get gifts from their loved ones. Also on this day, people are encouraged to settle feuds or disputes, especially those between family members



The streets of Djibouti City are alive with people on the first day of Eid. There are lots of proud fathers walking through the streets holding the hands of their little girls with bows in their hair, new outfits and big grins on their faces. All day the first day is spent visiting friends and family, feasting and gift giving. It is much like Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. The next day is more subdued. Most businesses are closed both days except shops dealing in food items and restaurants.

TRUCKS, TRUCKS & MORE TRUCKS

Trucks are the lifeline that holds Djibouti up and is the umbelical cord for Ethiopia. There are only two paved roads in Djibouti. The most important, National Hwy #1, which is only partially paved, runs from Djibouti City and its port to Accra, Ethiopia. Ethiopia is landlocked, so all of its imports, which are many, come through Djibouti. There are many truck accidents on the road and so, we don't drive at night. And,damaged trailers, are often left along side the road forever.

THE GOATS OF DJIBOUTI

In Djibouti there are goats everywhere, in the city, in the middle of the highway, along the countryside and on top of trees. Yes, on top of the trees getting at the tastiest bits of new green growth. The Djiboutians are traditionally nomadic goat herders. They still are. And their goats are fine looking, healthy and happy.

Goat is the country's traditional dish. I have eaten goat and it is really delicious. Although, it is very fatty. So, you have to go through a lot of fat to get to the meat. It is very hard to understand how these goats can get fat living on lava rock. But, they do!

MINIBUSES OF DJIBOUTI

The minibuses of Djibouti are famous for their decoration. Some have huge plumes arising from their front or rear bumpers. Most have a flower-like covering surrounding their sideview mirrors and all have special colors or emblems painted on them. There are minibuses in all levels of repair, from dented, falling apart to new and well cared for. They are on the streets in town and in the countryside.

They are almost always crowded with people, some hanging out of the doors on the more popular long haul routes into town. Luggage and other goods can be carried on top. Minibuses are everywhere. Most Djiboutians walk everywhere they want to go. If they can afford to ride, a minibus is always nearby.

OYSTERS

Down by the beach, below our house at the compound, where they will be storing the salt and building a jetty where the large ships will come for loading, there is a fabulous bay called the Goubet Al Kharab. It is filled with fish and seafood. We can see many colorful fish and teaming schools of fish just from the shore.

Two of Salt Investment's Phillipine contract employees go often into the water and bring back pink mussels, clams, fish and even oysters. Last week they encountered a huge eel. John is holding one of the oyster shells from an oyster they found and ate. It is a special oyster, the kind seeded to produce pearls. Legend has it, that someone many years ago wanted to start a pearl production facility here and planted these oysters. Long abandoned, they have just multiplied on their own. Have you ever seen such a large oyster shell before?

When we come back in February, after our leave home, we are bringing our snorkels, fins and throwaway underwater camera so we can see these wonderful creatures up close. We will try and take some great pictures to share on our blog.

KHAT

KHAT - the drug of choice in Djibouti. Legal and even grown by the Prime Minister, khat is pervasive. It is sold every afternoon on every street corner, on every road inside Djibouti City and out in the countryside. Most of the khat is grown in Ethiopia and brought to Djibouti in trucks like the one above filled with armed guards. This truck has a lead car also filled with armed guards.

Khat is a stimulant. There are different grades - but it all looks the same to me - a handfull of twigs with medium size green leaves. It is chewed by men, rarely if ever by women. After several hours of khat chewing, the men are basically in a daze. No work can be done and the whole economy comes to a halt. It is really a debilitating drug. Djiboutians can spend up to 1/3 of their meager incomes on khat. But, it is a part of their culture.

Salt Investment is attempting to be a KHAT FREE workplace. We have so much heavy equipment here that it is dangerous to be drugged and working. This is a very difficult concept for the Djiboutians to grasp. Wish us luck.