It's Payback Time!

So I had a lovely Christmas here in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, because of my splendid new friends who are quickly becoming family.

On Christmas eve, the mother of my roommate (who is here to visit for two weeks :) made an American feast with pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, chicken. It was wonderful!

So naturally, we invited over some of our closest Djiboutian friends and made them eat it!

Djiboutian friends will invite you over and then stuff you to the brim with foods that are normal for them but strange to us. We invited friends who we thought would be interested in seeing our culture, but sometimes curiosity isn't enough for your palate. They were all gracious and willing to taste. It was great fun!

After that dinner, we had an American feast at the military base on Christmas day...this was down right overwhelming. ESPN and FOX news were playing, while hoards of Filipinos in shining shepherd/wise men costumes served 5,000 troops via 6 buffet lines. Needless to say, I brought home a box of strawberries, mini-wheats and a few extra pounds.

For these extra pounds I have decided that if extreme measures become necessary, I will follow the example of Uncle Nematollah, who after massive amounts of fast food in America gained some unacceptable weight before his return to Iran to find a wife. His full story can be found in the book "Funny in Farsi" which is a memoir of an Iranian woman who grew up in America during the Iranian revolution. It is absolutely hilarious, if you like to laugh, you MUST read it.

So here is a snippet of Uncle Nematollah's story:

"Uncle Nematollah's next shortcut to sveltness consisted of a specially constructed exercise outfit, advertised during The Newlywed Game,that promised to help sweat away those pesky pounds. The outfit was constructed of a thick silver material, a cross between aluminum foil and vinyl, something perhaps left over from a failed space mission and purchased at a NASA garage sale. The instructions stated that the outfit had to be worn for twenty minutes before each meal, during which the wearer was supposed to engage in some form of exercise. My uncle decided to speed the weight-loss process by wearing his moon suit all day. He thought nothing of circling the block endlessly, leaving neighbors wondering whether perhaps he was looking for the mother ship. Dressed for a jaunt on Venus he strolled to the supermarket, the hardware store, and everywhere else he needed to go. Unable to understand English, he had apparently forgotten the international meaning of stares as well. Kids at school asked me about the strange guy who was staying with us. In terms of weirdness, my family and I were now off the charts."

What is your name?

So my roommate and I are a similar height, we are both white, and with our baggy-clothes and head coverings we look similar. This seems to be very confusing to Djiboutians.

It is exam time! The students are freaking out about their grades (especially the ones who didn't come to class and are going to fail) and the teachers are trying to avoid all the student complaints.

So students are coming to my roommate and I to talk to us about our classes. But they can't tell us apart! This one set of students came up to my roommate convinced that she was me. Her response was, "No, I'm Hannah, there is another teacher who wears the same clothes and looks like me, but isn't me."

The same students approached her the next day and said, "Are you still Hannah?" bahahaha!

Thomas Edison, You are my fave

Oh man, oh man....

So there is this rumor that a generator at the electric plant exploded, killing two men a few weeks ago. Not only is this a tragedy, it is a great inconvenience.

With one less generator, the electric plant has even less power with which to supply the city. So there are general power sweeps each day for at least two hours.

It isn't so terrible since it is nice and cool, but it is inconvenient. Especially at night when you have to light candles or hold a flashlight to get anything done.

So Thomas Edison did us a huge favor. I'm sorry I ever took him for granted.

To Never Have Enough

I crawled into the bus and picked a window seat. While I was waiting for it to fill, a poorly-dressed man carrying a cane came to the window and stuck his hand near my face. He was saying something in Somali which I didn't understand, but it doesn't take a genius to know when someone wants money. I made a motion with my right hand to show that I didn't have anything. But he was persistent, so a well-dressed man on the bus next to me said in English, "He is asking you something." I didn't say anything, but I wanted to say "I know, but I'm not going to give him anything, are you?." My heart was already hurting because this man didn't have enough, and then to know that the whole bus was watching and waiting for the white girl to give a hand-out made me feel inexplicably worse.

This is a pretty common episode. Poverty is common in the US, but at least in our town, I mostly see homeless men on street, so I simply write them off as being caught in addiction or something (which is sinful and shows my ability to simply judge and move on), also the US has an abundance of food pantries, churches, homeless shelters, and government handouts (not that these fix the problem, but at least these people are not without completely without resources).

The poverty that I see here everyday is women, children, the old, the blind and the lame. How do you know if they are truly in need? How do you know how to help them?

Everyone I have talked to has a different conviction.

Some say they will not give money because they believe strongly in development work, over relief work. (ie Give a man a fish he will eat for a day vs. teach a man to fish. Along this line: Micro-finance and Asset-Based Poverty Alleviation are some of the best ideas in relational/system driven help to the poor. Truly helping them, not enabling them. But these do not necessarily help when one is approached by beggars they will never see again.)

Some say they only give to the old men and the women with babies, because the children will probably be forced to give the money to some kind of pimp.

Some say they only give to children, because women with babies will buy their babies formula, which is actually less healthy for the baby then buying something for themselves and breastfeeding.

Some just tell them to go to a mosque or the french protestant church.

To discern if the person is truly in need, or just looking for free money. My friend developed a clever test, in which she asks them if they want water. If the response is yes, then they are in need and she will give them water. If the response is no money, then they are not in truly in need. (However, whenever I am prepared with water, no ever asks me for anything, it is always when I am unprepared.)

So with so many convictions, it is difficult to decide what is the best way. This is not something that can simply be ignored. Poverty is a disease that eats away at the soul. I was reading a book about poverty alleviation which interviewed a person who defined poverty as "never sleeping until you are no longer tired, never eating until you are no longer hungry, never having enough."

Language Learning

Three days a week, I study Somali with my new dear friend, Zeinab and her "assistant" (her 6 month old baby girl, Marwa). It is so much fun! We are trying to do the "Growing Participator Approach" to language learning. The goal of GPA is to learn language like you would as a child. So you start out just listening and pointing at objects to learn their names and get familiar with the sounds. Then you move on to speaking. I started speaking Somali on Tuesday! I carefully listed the body parts with possessives attached (in Somali the word ending changes for feminine/masculine and for who possesses it) and Zeinab practically cheered. She was so excited that because of her, I went from knowing zero Somali to being able to say a whole list of things.

We make videos after she teaches me a new thing so that I can study, otherwise I would just forget everything from our lesson. Here is one of my favorite videos, because she talks to Marwa in the beginning. She is teaching me the conjugations of "to Have".

Crazy Toothbrush Lady

So the other night, I was at my new apartment by myself. I was brushing my teeth, when some girls stopped by looking for one of my roommates. So I went to the door to tell them that she wasn't here, but to see if they just wanted to come in and sit for a little while.

[Side note: the door is a sort of chain-metal, so you can talk through it, and you need a key to lock it from the inside and the outside.]

However, I didn't have my key handy to open the door and in my attempt to pull out one of the five Somali phrases I have learned, I got completely confused and couldn't think of anything to say in French. So in frustration I just said in English "I don't speak Somali, I'm sorry, she isn't here." And they all looked at me and went away. During this whole episode, I still had the toothbrush hanging out of my mouth!

It is culturally appropriate to randomly stop by to see your friend or neighbor.

It is not culturally appropriate to go to the door with a toothbrush in your mouth and never open the door!

Oof, they must have thought I was completely insane. But its pretty normal for people to think I am crazy here.

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.