Moving

All of my stuff is packed now except my computer and a few random pieces of clothing. I'm moving out of this apartment either today or tomorrow. Can't say I will miss this place, theres really nothing about it that makes it home. I just sleep, eat, and store my junk here.

I won't miss the call to prayer coming in the window at 4:30 am
I won't miss the thrice daily power cuts.
I won't miss listening to the guards horrible "music."
I won't miss the all day prayers from the Ethiopian Orthodox church.
I won't miss all the neighbor kids running around and yelling until midnight when I have to wake up at 6:30 the next morning.

I will miss my friendly security guard who is the only person in this neighborhood who talks to me and doesn't ask for money.
I will miss the ringing bell signalling the return of electricity.
I will miss my super nice landlord who provided ALL my furniture and is super understanding.
and thats about it.

Is a house a home? Not this one.

out of Africa

In less than a month I will be in the US for the summer. I have been contemplating how to describe what I am feeling but luckily someone else has already put it into words.

My friend Rachael is also leaving Djibouti here are her reflections.

My Journey Out of Africa

I don't know what to think

As part of my blogger account, I can see search terms that bring people to my blog. Today I discovered the best one yet. I don't know that anything will ever top this. I also don't quite know what to make of this. The search term is....


fat naked somali women

How Long?

How long does it take to print 8 pieces of paper? A minute? Maybe 3 minutes if you run out of paper or have to change the ink cartridge? This morning it took me almost 2 hours. Using our state of the art printers and computers at the University of Djibouti, I printed off 8 pages in only 2 hours.

After those fun filled hours I went to submit my corrected exams. They were given to me in alphabetical order but when I turned them in I was told they must be put in numerical order. No big deal. Just 149 exams for one class and 139 for the other.

Why did I decided to teach here again?

I'm Arab?

I think I've mentioned this before but people continue to think I'm Arab. Tonight I was walking to the bus and a man greeted me with the Islamic Muslim greeting "asalam alaikum" to which I replied "walaikum salam." He then proceeded to chatter away at me in Arabic. I stopped him and told him in French
"I don't speak Arabic, I'm American."
At that point he switched to excellent English and told me he was from Mogadishu and needed food. I told him I didn't have any with me but told him to go to the mosque which was like 10 feet away. He told me thats where he was headed when he saw me.

(5 minutes later)

I'm walking down the street because buses apparently are not running at 7 pm. A guy comes up to me and asks me either if I'm Arabic or speak Arabic. I told him in French that I don't speak Arabic but I can speak English and French. At this point he was speaking a strange mix of Arabic/French/English/an Ethiopian language.

He told  me he didn't speak French but kept dropping French phrases into his speech. He told me he was Ethiopian and kept pointing to himself and then to me saying "50-50." Since I was and still am unaware of what he was talking about. I ignored him. Eventually he asked me for 50 dollars. I asked him just to be sure if thats what he wanted and he said "yes, 50 American dollars not Djiboutian or Ethiopian." Of course I didn't have 50 dollars in my pocket and told him so. The end.

This is something that baffles me. There are Djiboutian Arabs who live here in Djibouti. Everyone has come into contact with them and Arabs are a normal part of life in Djibouti. I don't understand why I am constantly mistaken for an Arab. I don't dress like them, my skin is much lighter, and I have blondish hair. The only thing is my beard which is nowhere close to as dark as the beards of any Djiboutians. I might mention that only African Djiboutians think I'm Arab, I have yet to have an Arab speak Arabic to me.

What I see in the mirror:

What others see;

New Painting

Here's another painting a friend of mine made for me. This one was a complete surprise. A few weeks before he gave it to me he was asking me about what my favorite color was and what I liked. So the painting is orange and  music. Pretty cool. If you missed the other one, you can see it here

we have power!

Great Scott!

The power has only been out for 2 hours in the last 4 days! It is simply stunning. I have heard that Djibouti is buying electricity from Ethiopia and also that there is a new generator at the power plant...but its true!

Also, I should reveal that Wednesday and Thursday there was rain and it wasn't miserably hot. Friday and Saturday were also much cooler than normal. Soooo as soon as it gets hot again the power will probably start to go out.