from djibouti!

hope everyone is doing well!! just wanted to send a quick note and let everyone know everything arrived in one piece this time, luggage and all! after almost 24 hours (plus a 12-hour layover in paris), got to djibouti sun morning, with the hot sun and humid air to greet us.

the first thing to hit me was how much stickier this place is than ethiopia, which sheds light on why people here only really work from 7:00am to 3:30pm, since it's just too hot to be active at all in the afternoon. once things close up, most people spend the rest of the day chewing qhat (sp?), the local drug of choice, a plant with hallucinogenic properties that you chew for hours....guess they get any amusement here they can! and for those of you wondering, no i'm not going to try it!!

i have to say, traveling with a former u.s. ambassador is definitely the way to go, as the ministry of foreign affairs was on-hand to meet us at the airport, shuttle us into a private, air-conditioned room, take care of customs matters, and collect our luggage for us! and saying we're with the u.s. embassy helped secure some pretty decent hotel rooms in an otherwise completely-booked hotel. so, all in all, a good day's work....with some long (and early!) days ahead of us. we'll be meeting with opposition and governing political parties, media reps, civil society organizations, other international organizations, and whoever else wants to give us their opinion of how the elections here will go.

so far this place has a very different feel than addis, much quieter and more low-key. djiboutiville is located right on the gulf of aden, so is surrounded by water, and its port is extremely busy, with thousands of containers coming through every day. there's also the presence of numerous military forces: u.s. camp, french camp, and german offices in our hotel! aside from the smoking, the germans haven't been too bad, and think we'll be bumping into them quite a lot. haven't seen many u.s. or french soldiers yet, since they keep on-base most of the time, but there are quite a number of expats in the city, probably how the french supermarket and the few higher-end restaurants stay in business!

anyways, will send more updates as i get settled in... am glad it's only for two weeks, as this weather is waaaay too hot for me!!