No students

Today I was up at 6:30 for my 7:30 class. I appeared bright and early and found that only 1 student bothered to show up this morning. This same class had anothe class with me this evening but I told my lone student it was canceled and spread the word if she saw any of her slacker classmates.

My next class at 9:30 was a fascinating one. It was 1st year English majors and we debated marriage, love, and Islam's views on these for about 1.5 hours. Many students were very vocal in their opinions of these matters and were able to express themselves very eloquently in English. I was a bit surprised by the comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary of many of the students.

I started studying French last night. That was pretty interesting, I have a very basic knowledge of French but many of my classmates had zero knowledge of anything French. The class was an interesting mix of businesspeople, diplomats, doctors, and teachers.

Weather Update. It's starting to "cool" down here and by that I mean I'm not sweating profusely every time I step out the door. Now I'm just sweating.

Rain!

This morning as I got to the university I noticed the ground was wet and I remember thinking that was odd. I went into the computer lab for about 20 minutes and when I left the building to go to class it was raining! Not a lot and the sun was still shining but it was still raining. It only rained for about 3 minutes but it was still amazing. I've had 3 classes so far. All of them are oral classes. I'm supposed to get a new class schedule soon so I will probably be moved around but for now I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

This week I went to a Yemeni restaurant to have a popular Yemeni fish dish with flatbread. Not much to look at but it was delicious. Unfortunately for you, I don't believe in taking pictures of food so you'll have to use your imagination.

Classes!

Today I finally received my schedule of classes. So now I have the class names and times they meet but nothing to teach. i have 5 oral comprehension classes and 2 pronunciation classes. So i guess tomorrow we will practice oral comprehension by talking about stuff. Should be interesting. I also have a meeting with the other American teachers tomorrow with the Dean of our dep't. Classes are six days a week and I have 2 classes almost every day. The bad news is that 5 days a week i have a class starting at 7:30 am. I'm about to become a morning person.

Pictures from Djibouti

1. a camel in the road
2. outside of the downtown in Belbala
3. the palace of the people. I live in the smaller building to the left

schedule? what schedule?

Today is thursday here in djibouti. Tomorrow is friday, the muslim holy day, so everything is closed down. school starts saturday. i was supposed to receive my schedule of classes today, but so far nothing. such is life here. In theory, i'm also going to be taking a french class here but I'm learning not to count my eggs before they hatch here.

Seems weird to think i've been here only a week. it seems like way longer than that. it will be good to finally start teaching and having stuff to do instead of just bumming around all day and sweating. i'd rather be doing something and sweating.

Last night, i walked out into the courtyard of the palais du people. It's a convention center next door to where i live. it was actually cool outside and the breeze was blowing off the sea. At about 430 or so it starts to cool down and it actually feels nice here. But then then its pitch black at 6:30 so that feeling doesnt last long. keep in mind that cool in djibouiti is still a relative term. i'm still sweating even when its cool.

someday i'll have my classes and then i will tell you all about those madcap adventures. until then you're stuck with this

Warm Djibouti

Hey guys

I'm in Djibouti now and starting to settle in and acclimate to the heat here. I spent the first few nights at a guesthouse and then moved into my apartment yesterday. My apartment is about 100 yards from the sea so thats kinda cool though I can't see it from my window. Across the street is a mosque built by the Saudis so I get to hear the call to prayer up close and personal 5 times a day.


Now to the heat. You can't imagine it. I've heard that Djibouti is the hottest country in the world and I believe it. Yesterday it was 46 degrees celsius which is about 115 farenheit and thats not taking into account the humidity. Any kind of physical exertion causes sweat. I was unpacking yesteday in the "cool" of the night and after about 10 minutes had rivers of sweat dripping everywher. When its the time of sweating, like right now 1:30 pm, I just stream sweat.

Classes at the University are supposed to start on the 18th though I still don't know what classes I'm teaching. Tomorrow there is a meeting but I don't have high hopes that i will know anything new after it. My liason with the school, Tom, who recruited me and is American shared with me that the classes consist of a name and that virtually everything else is filled in by the professor. Should be an interesting experience.

On the bright side Djibout is a very small city and I can easily walk about anywher I need to go in the downtown. As it is now the heat of the day I'll be spending the rest of the afternoon attempting to remain in air conditioning.

this is getting long so I'm cutting it off. leave a comment or email me

The journey begins this week

Friends

I leave for Djibouti this Tuesday and will arrive on Thursday afternoon Djibouti time. This will be close to 2 full days of traveling so hopefully I will make it over in one piece and perhaps my luggage will too. Please remember me and pray for me as this new adventure commences this week.