Touristy Activities

This week has been quite eventful. A successful move to a new apartment, thanks to all some man muscles and two lovely roommates who did huge amounts of work to make it possible.

Between the stress of moving (which I should mention led to the discovery of many bugs in the wood of my old closet) and writing my first midterms for my two small classes, I was invited to visit Lac Assal. It is a salt lake something like the Dead Sea. It is the lowest point in Africa and the second lowest point in the world, second only to the Dead Sea.

And it is beautiful! The floor is white salt crystals, covered in beautiful water and surrounded by mountains. Here is a photo for you to see. Quite remarkable.

Happy Eid!

Today is Eid-al-Ahda, a two day celebration of God providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son. The festivities start around 5 am, when people wake up to pray. Everyone gets dressed up in new outfits (similar to Easter) and they go to a large public space to pray in a group. Then families who are able sacrifice a goat or a ram for their lunch. Families and friends visit each other and the phone lines are crammed with people calling to wish each other a happy holiday. The local family hang outs have games set up (similar to a Fall Festival). It is a great day of celebration!

I did not partake in the goat killing or the early prayers, but I did have the opportunity to visit a friend's home! It was splendid. She brought us to her house, made us Ambabo (a savy pancake/crepe), and salad. It is a lovely day spent with a new friend!

Holidays are a beautiful part of culture....it seems like every culture loves a good excuse to celebrate!

Baby Shower

40 days after a women has a baby, they have a coming-out party!

The baby stays inside for the first 40 days of its life to protect it from sickness, while the mother fasts and prays. Then it is time to celebrate! Women and children bring presents, bless the baby, dance and eat. So much fun!

The opening procession of the party consists of a older child carrying the baby while everyone shouts blessings. If the baby is a girl, a girl will carry her and if the baby is a boy, a boy will carry her. The goal of this is to have the baby grow up with the character of the person who holds them. It is a great honor to hold the baby.

Here is a photo of the opening procession:



Then the party gets going with old women dancing and singing. It is a hoot!

A Djiboutian Lady

The qualities of a true Djiboutian Lady:

She can remain graceful while climbing over four people to get out of a 12 passenger bus that contains 16 people.

She remains poised while 10 men holler at her in four languages.

She walks with her head high, without tripping in the dusty potholes created by who-knows-what.

She can politely shove her way out of a bus that has sweaty-desperate people pushing their way through the only door.

Her heart is never hardened toward the poor children, old women and old men who relentlessly ask for money.

She can stop chaotic-traffic coming from two directions, so that she can successfully cross the street.

She can eat spaghetti and rice with her right hand, without making a mess or using silverware.



This is what I aspire to be one day. Today however, I failed at all of these.

Life-size Barbie

I had the privilege to attend an Arab wedding. I was invited by a friend and didn't even know who the bride was (apparently it is fun to have as many white people at the wedding as possible). The evening started with getting dressed up. Me, and two other foreigners were given a selection of beautiful local clothes. And then were informed that the sister of our host wanted to do our hair and make-up. I truly felt like a life-sized barbie.



It is important to note that all the dressing up and make-up was done by all the women at the wedding, knowing that the only man at the wedding would be the groom. Women do not dress up for men, they dress up for women. Walking into the wedding was like walking into a sparkly fashion show, it was impressive.

The wedding was held at a local police station, which sounds odd, but was actually quite nice. The wedding was more like an American reception than wedding, but there were many similarities to an American wedding. Dancing was first on the agenda. The Arab music filled the room and women danced holding their long dresses in their hands so as not to step on them. Followed by the bride and groom entering with great fanfare, confetti and followed by two women holding swords. The bride was dressed in white and out-shined everyone. The bride and groom cut the cake, danced to their song and the bride danced up and down the aisle. It was an exciting spectacle.

My Beach is Target Practice

For a weekend adventure, I went to the beach! So fun!

This is not however a Florida beach, when you enter the beach area there is a sign that reads, "DANGER CHAMPS de TIR" (Danger Shooting Range), there are no bathrooms, there are rocks and mountains (more similar to a California beach in this aspect), in the place of seagulls there are donkeys, and in the place of palm trees there are old buildings.

Highlight #1: There was a coral reef! This was a first for me and was quite a wonderful experience. From above the beach looked arid and desert-like, but under the water there was a colorful world of fish, urchins, octopi and many other little creatures.

Highlight #2: Military Presence. The beach is part of the French military base, so it was interesting to see Frenchmen swimming and playing in the water, with their guns lined up by their cars. This was in stark contrast to the American military who were using the base for some sort of maneuver and needed to have their guns with them while they peed. The Americans did a drill with tanks while tourists in speedos snapped their pictures. And several Black Hawk Down type sky machines flew overhead. Interesting, interesting.

Delightful Drinks

After walking ten steps, I am so sweating that it appears that I have run a marathon. Actually, I don't even need to exert energy to break into a sweat that soaks through my shirt. I was observing a class last week and a student handed me a napkin because my perspiration was so exorbitant.

Now that you now that (and I'm sure you really wanted to), it will be quite unnecessary to tell you that having a cold fruity drink is one of my new favorite activities.

Djibouti has wonderful juice bars. I had my first mango juice with ice cream(jus de mangue glacee) on Saturday evening, it was beautiful! Even better than Rita's Italian ice!