I am home!

What a poor job updating this blog I've done! In short, the last five months were so uneventful I really didn't have much to write about. Sad, but true. I've returned to the USA and appreciate it much more than I had before. Be thankful everything you could ever want is not more than a few minutes drive from your current location. In Djibouti, the main mission for the day for an average Djiboutian is to find enough water to drink. Everything past that is just a bonus.

While an interesting experience, my greatest lesson learned is that I can accomplish far more from outside the government than from within it. Also, the average person really doesn't care about politics, skin color, etc., but just wants themselves and their families to make it through to the next day. A tiny fraction of the world population creates trouble for the gigantic majority. Someone should try and stop them . . .

Five Months Left

Apologies for such a long time since an update. For awhile internet was almost non-existent, but laziness is most to blame.

I passed my half-way point in February as most of the people I'd arrived with hopped on a plane headed home after their six months was up.

Since December, a few things have happened. Namely:

I've switched jobs. Now I work in the office that schedules aircraft to come down from Germany and fly passengers and cargo all over East Africa.

I got to fly around in a French helicopter to see a live fire exercise put on by the Foreign Legion.

I got to ride around in a C-12 (small twin turboprop plane) and see familiar places by air.

Shot some machine guns in the desert

Flew around in a rescue helicopter and pretended to be a downed air crew while the pilots practiced their landings.

Spent many unproductive hours in the office.

Read "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

Visited Kenya

Rode crazy go karts that are faster than they should be.

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I was impressed with Nairobi, Kenya. Compared to Djibouti, Nairobi is 20 years in the future. Traffic and air pollution is horrible, but business is thriving and people appear to be leading productive lives.

I've fallen into a regular routine now. Djibouti is so small that once you've seen the sights, there's not much left to do. Some people go out every day but I don't have the energy or the desire to do that. Getting sacked by homeless people begging for money gets annoying quickly.

I wish I could say I'm doing more, but my job is very repetitive and predictable.