arrival

Well we finally arrived in Djibouti around 1130 at night. that is 2330 for military folks. Man was it hot. it is a whole new kind of heat. it was a mix of Phoenix (or 29 palms) dry heat with south Carolina humidity. it was 1130 at night by the way. After the customs at the airport we loaded on buses and we were on our way to camp. once outside the airport entering the streets my first impressions were not that bad. it seemed ok. the first place i saw was called Pit Stop Barbecue. wow could i be that lucky? (no by the light of day it is abandoned and doesn't look like it has been operating for quite some time). there were several people sitting out in chairs on the sides of the streets. i guess that is the cool time of day to be outside. then we turned down the road that leads to the base. wow. is this place poor.
in the shadows of the night i could see shanty after shanty and leanto's made from whatever trash was convenient. the trash that littered the road seemed infinite.

I later learned that the corner where we turn to go to the base is called Khat corner. that is where several people set up their khat stands. khat is an amphetamine that comes in the form of leaves cut off of trees in Ethiopia and is chewed to get high. every day a plane comes in from Ethiopia with its fresh load of khat to be delivered to the streets and pedaled at these little stands. it is legal ( not for us military) in the country. i have even read the president does it. by the way a great descriptive article of Djibouti can be found in esquire magazine. it is called "High in Hell". the author has a great way of enlivening what he saw with his words and it is informative of the khat culture.
anyway we finally arrived to base. we underwent a few short briefs then had to lug 4 seabags worth of useless gear to our living quarters. we live in Contained Living Units (CLU).

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as an 04 (lieutenant commander), i rate what is called a wet clu meaning it has a toilet and a shower and is a single. unfortunately because this base is growing there is a waiting list for the coveted wt clu's. i was number 33 on the list. the doctor that came in march was still on the list. it doesn't look good. the bright side of this is that although we didn't get a wet clu i was bunked with the other bryan that also came from san diego. he is an anesthesiologist. we went through all of the stupid processing, and army training together and we get to room together. so that was a positive. we didn't get stuck with random people especially those that snore.

so the two of us unpacked our stuff and even though it was 0200 in the morning we were not tired. that is 4 in the afternoon in california. so we walked around for about an hour exploring the small base. there is a bar/ all purpose room (we are allowed 3 beers/ wine per day), gym, large turf field, bball court, volleyball court, coffee shop, exchange, two computer centers, a makeshift movie theatre, a game room with xboxes and playstations. after exploration we decided to try and sleep. somewhere between 4 and 5 am i think i fell asleep only to be awoken at 0800 by the blaring Djibouti national anthem and the star spangled banner that resounds from the loud speakers near our clu. Then the French Mirage fighter jets started their parades overhead. at least they waited until after 0800.