Donations

One of the main missions of the USNavy here in Africa is community assistance. There are quite a few programs that we are involved in, from volunteering at the english discussion groups & baby orphanages to donating a wide variety of supplies to the locals.

These people here are extremely poor. At an unemployment rate over 60%, the majority of people here just sit on the side of the road, where they also sleep. It is quite sad to see.

Therefore, I wanted to post an opportunity for any of you to feel free to mail me donations to give to the locals. There a many ways for us to get materials out to them, and below is a list of guidelines for items that we can give.

If you are interested, email me and I can get you the mailing address. Thanks again for your support.


Donation Guidelines:

Acceptable Donations:
- Clean, civilian outergarments in good repair
- Shoes (all sizes, including flip-flops)
- Baby supplies (for example, diapers & wipes)
- School supplies (paper, pens, pencils)
- Educational materials (magazines, books, DVDs, dictionaries)
- Personal hygiene items (for example, soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste)

Death Fog & Mice

So, an update on the ever-evolving "death fog:" I'm not sure if I had mentioned this before, but the Djiboutian dump is located right next to our camp, and let's just say that the Djiboutians are under the impression that if you burn something, it disappears. That being said, they burn trash, feces, dead animal carcasses, etc.

Last night's "burning" was RIDICULOUSLY potent! I don't even think that I can find the words on how to describe such a stench. As soon as you step outside a building, you inhale just once, and it's enough to make you sick. I seriously cannot take another night of that again. It truly is horrific.

I also wanted to mention that there are large mice scurrying about all over this base. It makes walking around at night somewhat annoying, because you never know which way they will flee, and mostly they will run into you. And of course, where there's mice, there are snakes. Now for me, and my extreme fear of snakes, I have not had the misfortune of seeing a snake, however something to keep in mind is that there isn't one species of snake here that is NOT poisonous.

That's all for now, more to follow........

New Job

Well, as I'm sure that you have all heard, I don't do hardly anything ALL DAY while on Camp Lemonier. Seriously, we sit around, swapping digital versions of movies, tv series, and music, read magazines, etc. while maybe training on operating a radio for a half an hour a week. It's ridiculously boring. I've had a photo taken to give you a good representation of how I roll in the shop.

Here's a shot of my desk, which I just kinda made mine, so that I could set up my MacBook in an attempt to continue my creativity.

This is the other side of our shop!

And the side opposite the pic above (note the hard work going on).

Now to get to the topic of the post, my new job. At the beginning of last week, I was informed that I was moving from radio operator to AIS, which is like a side job, but should still take up plenty of time. With this new job (and me keeping Operational Security in tact), I will get the opportunity to travel to several countries here in Africa anywhere form 1 to 3 weeks a trip, instead of just one country for 3 months. I will also not be allowed to wear my uniform, which means that I will be working in civilian clothes all day, every day. This is because I will be considered a foreign dignitary, and yes, my team and I will be meeting with VERY high up foreign military officials, briefing them on what our mission is while there. In other words, this is one of the highest visibility jobs here in Africa, and it is exactly why we are here. Without too many details, I will be involved with installing a particular system and training the operators on it's operation. This is pretty cool, because I will get to see a lot more of Africa, and it should also break up the monotony of the pics above.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that on some of these trips, I will unfortunately have to stay in 5 star resorts. God is GOOOOOOOD!

- BACKDATED - Celebrity Meet & Greet

So I'm sure that you all remember how these few celebs came to Djibouti to visit, and I'm sure you all remember how I erased the pics of me meeting them, well I have some of the new pics that I took for your viewing enjoyment.

This is Zach Levy who play Chuck on TV.

This is Joel Moore from Grandma's Boy (he wanted us military folks' autograph. Can you see where I signed?)

I'm sure that you recognize Christian Slater from Gleaming the Cube

And Kumar from Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle

Where I lay my head is home....

Well, I know that you all have been asking for pictures, and this past weekend, I resized a slew of them for your viewing enjoyment. So, as promised, let's kick it off with some pictures of where I sleep and my daily trek to breakfast & work.

These pictures are of my lockers iside my CLU. CLU stands for Containerized Living Unit. It's pretty much a trailer that has been converted into a 4 man dorm room, but it's divided into two sections, so I have just one roommate. As you can see, I have plenty of storage space.

This is the back of the CLU where my roommate sleeps. As you can see, his bed is supposed to be where the lockers are, because there is a desk in the back for oth of us to share, but he leaves in a few weeks, and I go to the Rec Center whenever I need to jump on the computer, and it's not too far from my CLU.

Here you can see that my rack is next to the front door, but also is right underneath the AC. As you may or may not know, I like the room to be freezing, so this is a big plus in a place where the temp averages 115 degrees.

You can also see that I am representing the STEEL hardcore with the hand-made Steelers quilt that my beautiful wife gave me for Christmas (ain't she grand?). I also have a few pics of her on the wall, and a shelf above where I can put whatever I need.

Directly across from my rack is a row of hooks that come in handy for hanging up my sweaty clothes so that they can dry out. I also have a chair, which gets utilized for drying my towel.

Here's an external shot of my CLU, just so you can have a visual. We have a lovely welcome mat, and an AC unit that is entirely too big for the size of the space, but I'm not complaining.

And finally you can see that this is the long walk from where I live to half way (the building in the far rear) to the Galley, which is half the distance from where I work. I believe it's a 1/4 mile walk, but don't quote me on it. Either way, the walk gets old very quick, and I have a tendency to plan my day around walking to & from my CLU as LEAST as possible.

So there you have it, I apologize for the lack of postings, however expect to see many more photos as I have resized them all (at least what I have taken so far). See you soon!

Frocking Ceremony

I apologize for the lack of entries to date, but now the internet is up (knock on wood) so you should expect to see more. Also, I'm still working on on the photos, so please bear with me. Last Sunday (we work 5 1/2 days/week), I went back to downtown Djibouti to procure some great pics, so I promise that they're coming.

As for my frocking ceremony, I was frocked by a 1 star Admiral, which is pretty big. He slipped me a command coin as well when shaking my hand, and it's a pretty nice coin. Not too many people get a command coin that actually states that it was presented by a 1 star, which is pretty significant. Also, as the Command Master Chief was congratulating me, I told him, "Steelers Rule" and he was like, "Absolutely" and laughed. He wasn't expecting that I knew he was a Steelers fan, so it was pretty funny.