CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti—What a week. Originally, this week, I was supposed to head to Kenya to cover a veterinary civil action program, or VETCAP, sponsored by Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (http://www.hoa.centcom.mil/), the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, and USAID. Not only was I going to cover it as a journalist, but I was going to get to assist a civil affairs team in vaccinating some of the animals as well. I was super excited about getting such an opportunity, but with all the violence that erupted in Kenya recently, the mission was scrapped, for now anyway.

With the Kenya mission scrapped, a new really cool mission came up for me in its place. I was going to cover a school dedication that that would have put me in two other African countries this week, Ethiopia and Tanzania (another joint CJTF-HOA, USAID, embassy project). But alas, the doggone security folks at the airport wouldn't let us in and I nearly got myself arrested for cross-examining the police officer who claimed we arrived too late for the flight (and I kind of took his picture so that I could report him to his bosses too—probably the real reason I almost got arrested). The flight wasn't scheduled to leave for another hour and it didn't even end up actually taking off until an hour and a half after our arrival. It's a long story, but let's just say that I had to make nice with the police, agree that our little 'exchange' was a big misunderstanding and shook hands profusely—this was all mutual—despite the fact that they just couldn't admit that they gave our seats away and weren't owning up to it, or they were just blatantly discriminating against us (however, most locals seem to like Americans).

Other than the runway, Djibouti International Airport isn't much bigger than Vallejo's Baylink ferry terminal—it takes all of five minutes, if that, to get to the doggone gate, maybe even the plane too, from the front door. There were four of us. Being there only an hour before the flight shouldn't have been a big deal, especially since the airport is notorious for not even opening the departure entrance until only an hour before the flight!

The joke here at the office is that I've been on more canceled missions than anyone, and that I'm the only one here with a passport that can't seem to ever get out of the country (several here have been waiting on their backlogged passports for awhile now—the same backlog that all the folks in the States are experiencing right now due to the all the new passport rules in the States).

Later this week we had some Army Reserve journalist folks show up with, seemingly, two tons of video equipment (and missing three bags to boot) for a little video shoot, and almost no money to speak of for their brief stay in Djibouti—a stay consisting of days, not weeks. I didn't even deploy for 15 months with that much crap! Anyhoo, they looked at us like aliens, when WE looked back at them like aliens, when they asked where the ATM was, where they could get a cash advance from their credit cards and where all the 110v outlets were (we're almost exclusively 220v here). What!? WE can't use our credit cards here in Djibouti?! These folks had somehow NOT anticipated/believed that Djibouti really was a Third World country and that Camp Lemonier really IS NOT a built-up military base. Far from it.

We may have some luxuries like bean dip in the camp store (though most of the time there are not even any chips for the doggone 500 cans of bean dip on the shelves), but we certainly aren't a built-up base. We don't even have an ATM. In fact, you can probably count on one hand the number of ATMs in the country of Djibouti—and they're probably all broken or out of money—I don't know, I've never even seen one here, though someone told me a few weeks ago they'd finally seen one. I'm sure none of us is brave enough to try to use it—our ATM cards would probably get sucked in and never spat back out, thereby eliminating the possibility of ever purchasing any of those 500 cans of bean dip (I think they even come in three appetizing flavors).

You can get cash back at our camp store, most days. Sometimes they run out, so it can be hit or miss if you want to get some cash to go downtown. The lucky few that brought personal checks on their deployment can get up to several hundred dollars a week if they really wanted to by cashing checks here—I can't say that it occured to me to deploy with a checkbook. I can't even recall the last time I wrote a check that wasn't to pay a bill, at least if we hadn't already paid said bill online.

The female that arrived with the Army Reserve folks, a smoker, better have packed her favorite brand of ciggarettes for her time here. Or else, she'll be forced to think about either quitting while she's here or buying Pall Mall by the carton. As an ex-smoker, I can appreciate how miserable of a choice it'll be for her to decide. In all those years of smoking, I can't recall that I ever actually met anyone that smoked that brand on purpose. Maybe it's the military's way of getting more servicemembers to quit. Maybe not. Thank goodness I quit for good back in 2000 so that it's not a choice I'll have to make.

If I haven't already bored you to tears, here's a funny little article about Djibouti that I came across on the Internet today (below). Please note that it's a bit dated, but most of the desription of Djibouti rings true from what I've seen—except for the part about land mines. I don't know if that part used to be true, or if it's a rumor. Just know that that bit sounds ridiculous to me and if we had to worry about land mines here under the roads, I'd probably know about it by now.

A Tourist's Guide to Djibouti (5 FEB 2002)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A682463

Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008 in Permalink