Pictures

Some readers have complained that there are not enough pictures here. Well I found some sweet pictures of Djibouti on a computer in the internet cafe so check it out. these were NOT taken by me. See the skinny road across the water? look in the right rectangle. Ok now see the white rectangular building? I live right next to it. Its a giant mosque

Protests in Djibouti? nah

Some have asked if I think the protests in the Muslim world will spread to Djibouti. Let me answer in a word, NO. Allow me to demonstrate why I believe there will not be protests of any kind in the near future in Djibouti, I present to you the Djiboutian national past time.

khat

My Journey into Africa: You want your package?

My Journey into Africa: You want your package?: "Went to the post office yesterday because my wonderful friend sent me a package. I get there and go to the office for packages, but I went t..."


I got my package...

diverse readers

There is a nifty feature on blogspot that tells me the country of people looking at the blog. For this week alone, there were 10 countries covering 5 continents. Very cool. Some of these people I know, but some I don't know. Some countries were Spain, Argentina, Slovenia, the United Arab Emirates, Senegal, and Singapore.

Thanks for reading

Applause?

Today I went to the French cultural center to watch a movie. It was called "Asterix goes to the Olympics." Asterix is a cartoon character, maybe you've heard of him? Anyways, its a kids movie and the place was full of kids. Towards the end of the movie as the bad guy was vanquished, the hero was winning, getting the girl, etc, applause broke out 18 different times. I know because I counted. At that point it was almost impossible to hear the film because applause was starting up constantly. Interesting way to end the movie

some highlights

This is post #50 on Dan's Djibouti Journal. I'm shocked that I have been posting this regularly but thanks for reading so far.

 I saw another group of teenage girls fighting on the street, the girls had to be physically restrained by some men walking by. I have never seen teenage girls fight in the US in public but this is the 3rd one I've seen in Djibouti.

Rachel Jones baked me a loaf of homemade bread yesterday! The bread here is less than good and Rachel's bread is pretty amazing.

I started my 3rd French class this week at the Alliance Francais. I'm planning to take a certification exam in May or June in French so I want to take as many classes as possible before that.

I'm currently on a break from the university, i'm not sure when classes will begin again, what classes I will have, or what my schedule will be.

I decided to fast from watching movies & tv shows for awhile. I have a hard drive loaded with movies and tv shows and i feel like i've been wasting a lot of time watching them. So i gave the hard drive to a friend and now i'm trying to read more and play guitar more. so far so good

Irony

Sometimes these posts write themselves. Last night as I was walking home I saw an overweight/obese white man getting out of an SUV to go into a pizza place. I didn't think much of it until I noticed that on the side of the vehicle, was the logo WFP. In case you're not familiar with that acronmyn, thats the World Food Program.

Jack Sprat and his fat wife

There is an English children's story/nursery rhyme that goes "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean..."

This rhyme is epitomized in Djibouti. In general most of the men are thin or average. The women, however, are large. Starting around age 30 and going up women are "full figured" as we might say in the US. I often have to walk out on the street to get around women lumbering down the sidewalk, swaying back and forth and generally just taking up a lot of space.

On the bus this week, there was an especially large woman who took waaaaaay too much time getting off the bus. I wanted to just give her a push so I could be on my merry way but alas I waited patiently as she maneuvered her overloaded frame off the bus.

I'm pretty sure I know why the men are thin, many of them chew qat which suppresses their appetite so they don't eat. I only have theories on the women. It seems that it is expected that married women will become larger after marriage. Or maybe Somali women are just genetically predisposed to be overweight. I think men and women generally eat the same foods here so I'm not really sure why the women are so much larger.

I searched google images for pictures of large women in Djibouti but alas I did not find any. 

goats on a bus

I've heard a lot of stories about goats on the buses here in Djibouti but I had not seen it myself. Until last night. the men in front of me were sitting far apart which i thought was weird until I looked closer and noticed there was a goat standing in front of the bench. Now I have officially seen it all

fotos de espana

back in Djibouti

I have arrived safely back in Djibouti after 22 hours and 4 flights from Barcelona to Djibouti. I arrived bright and early at 3 am Jan 2. I'm now solidly into the final exam period at the university with the next semester looming in a few weeks. Life is pretty much the same in Djibouti. My house was NOT infested with cockroaches, the electricity still works, and my water is running so there is much to be thankful for. On my way home I bought a copy of The Economist and read it, all for the low low price of  €5.50  or $7.33.

I forgot my camera or i would upload some super cool pictures and videos from Spain but like always you will just have to imagine it.