While my first noise memory in Ethiopia was the hyenas, here it is the scrawny feral cats that are everywhere. I choose not to wonder what they are screeching about, when I hear the blood-curdling cat screech. The cats are pretty, but really, really thin. We have lizards of some type all over our property. I can’t decide if the lizards are nocturnal or if they only come out when it is a bit cooler at dusk. We also seem to have predatory birds that live near our compound. When I hear them squawking I again, choose not to wonder if it is the cats or the lizards they are after.

The kids have enjoyed the few shocked shrieks I have let out when a lizard has scurried around me, particularly when I am walking outside to the washer and dryer and a lizard is RIGHT there.

The ocean air greets you every time you exit a building or a car. It is moist and salty. The neighborhood we live in is called Heron, but I have yet to see one. The ocean views from our house are of flat water, the landscape changes very little with the tide. There is a beach, not far from our house that is used by the Djiboutians. The kids feel it is only a matter of time before I expose my white flesh on the beach, when I do; I will let you know how it goes. I will probably be the only person NOT there to poo and bathe.

Slow Food

For those of you who have jumped on the “slow-food” concept, that is the story of my day to day existence. For example, today I have made pesto pasta, cooked chicken breasts to put on top of the pesto pasta, cut up mango, apple, papaya and oranges, have bread dough rising, and have made deviled eggs and it is just 11:00 a.m. Not that this is a crazy amount of cooking, but it is more than I was doing in Virginia, and I cook a lot. I had forgotten how long it takes to clean and bleach all of the produce and we currently have ONE cooking pot in the house, which makes cooking take a bit longer ---- of course only one burner on our stove top works, so at this point extra pots would do no good!

I am getting up in the morning and making breakfast before the kids and EJ leave the house, usually around 7:30. I clean the kitchen after that and then mosey around, putting things away and organizing and alphabetizing the few things we have here, then start lunch prep. Kids and EJ come home around 12:30. Max is done with school every day at that time, and half of the week Olivia returns to school at 3:00 after coming home for lunch and rest/siesta. After everyone feeds, it is back to clean up and unfortunately I am still at the stage; one week in, of worrying about what I can make for the next meal that everyone will eat.

The grocery stores have everything that you could want, however, they all close from 12:30 – 4:00 or so each day (except one, that happens to be the furthest from our residence), so planning ahead is important. And, while there are all of the ingredients you could want to cook from scratch, you can’t just find the ingredients to make typical American dishes. Sure, you can find all of the ingredients to make lasagna – but then you have to “find” the two hours and desire to assemble the lasagna and just like in Addis, while one grocery has ricotta cheese, the other has the good ground beef, so you make multiple stops to get the ingredients for one meal. Not complaining, just the facts. Food is quite expensive as everything is imported; I paid $25 for a kilo of sliced ham the other day. There are two French grocery stores that have very normal items and incredibly expensive cheeses and meat and there is one “Arabic” grocery store that has a large selection of some scary and some normal products and then various other stores that have a little bit of everything, including one that is open 24 hours a day. There is a bakery downtown, Tom Thumb Bakery. The bakery has fluffy croissants and pain de chocolate and pain de raisins, which the kids devour as if they are brownies.

Arta Beach

September 21, 2009
Yesterday we went on our first adventure, out of the city. We went to a beach on the Gulf of Tadjoura that is located about 45 minutes from our house. It may have taken us longer to get there as the last 15 kilometers were unpaved road and we caravanned in with three other families from the community.

The scenery was what we expected as we left the city, rocky, sandy, red-dirt with camels and baboons along the way, groupings of goats eating garbage and swarms of kids brandishing their post-Ramadan toy weapons. It is going to take me awhile to get used to the kids aiming their toy Kalashnikovs at us when we drive by.

We drove by a couple of military installations on the way, a Djiboutian installation, French and a French Foreign Legion. The French Foreign Legion installation has a zip line and rope course to be envious of; we are going to try to figure out what it would take to be able to use the zip line that goes straight into the ocean!

If you look on a map of Djibouti, the name of the town where the beach is located is Arta.

The beach is on a cove, pebbly with ledges around. The view from the beach is of the North side of the bay and includes the hills in the distance. The water is a beautiful green color. The best part of the beach is that when the tide is high, you walk out 100 yards and there is a drop off onto a coral reef. I couldn’t tell how deep the first drop off was, but the water temperature changed by 15 degrees or so and it was clear down to the sandy bottom. The reef was an amazing surprise, as I had been told that there was great snorkeling at the beach but I couldn’t really fathom that we were going to see tropical fish, parrot fish, angel fish, anemones, sea urchin, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish… When the tide went out, the reef was 10 feet from the beach, simply amazing.

I have been told that the whale sharks come right up into the reef area where the drop off is, and I can’t wait to go back when they will be there, they usually arrive in the Bay sometime during October.

The kids had a great time; Max used his newly acquired in Pensacola, snorkel gear. Olivia worked through here fear of the fish touching her! The day was a nice reprieve from the house, school, and the city, we picnicked.

We are looking forward to the arrival of the rest of our snorkeling, scuba equipment and our camping gear, so that we can drive out there and stay for the weekend. Am going to get the kids snorkel vests, though, as it is so clear and beautiful that it is easy to be floating and looking at the little fishes and all of the sudden realize you are hundreds and hundreds of feet away from where you started, which can make adult, accomplished snorkelers feel panic.