February 8, 2011

Protests on the streets of Djibouti

The previous 3 mornings, students from the University of Djibouti have taken to the streets to protest their grades from the fall semester. These protests have taken the form of rock throwing, destruction of property, and general mayhem. The police have responded with arrests, tear gas, and though I have not seen this personally, I would assume beatings. The police carry large wooden sticks suitable for beating unruly students.

So most students have not shown up to classes even when the protests are not happening. I am scheduled to have a class this afternoon of about 75 students. However, the previous class period only 5 students came so I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Last night 4 out of maybe 100 students showed for my class and I canceled it.

One strange thing happened to me a couple days ago. The protests were happening a few blocks away and I was talking to another American guy on a street corner. The high school students had been sent home and were streaming through the city en route to the buses. A group of 8 or so girls stopped behind me and started playing with my hair. I turned around to look at them thinking maybe I knew them but nope. They told me they liked my hair. Thanks

Sorry i don't have pictures, also you will probably not find any news articles online about this.

5 comments:

  1. I was glad you called this morning, was hoping nothing happened when you went offline yesterday.

    Well...glad they like your hair. :)

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  2. does that mean you are growing it out again?

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  3. Did you dye your hair red again? =]

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  4. I need to see a picture of these wonderful lochs.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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