These are little snippets of his journal he has given me permission to share.
Enjoy.
Fri Jan 30:We left Ireland early this morning and flew to Souda Bay on Crete. After a quick refuel stop, we continued our flight to Djibouti. Finally, I'm here! I've been preparing for this experience for a long time, and it's finally started. It took a few hours to get settled. I hope I do well at the job I've been assigned to do. I also pray I'll be an instrument in God's hand for the good of His children in some small way.
Sun Feb 1:
I was finally able to connect via Skype with my wife and daughter today. I am so thankful for modern technology that allows me to talk to my family via the internet. What a blessing. Church was really nice. We had a group of seven of us there. I am so grateful that I can go to random corners of the world, and still worship with a group of Saints. I love feeling the Spirit, and love the feelings of spiritual rejuvenation that fill my soul.
Right after Church, we got quick a tour of Djibouti. The first thing I noticed, and it's impossible to miss, is that there is trash everywhere... It's even in the countryside where the population is less crowded because it just blows all over. Plastic bags are caught in barbed wire fences and in trees and are referred to as the Djiboutian state bird...My second observation: There are wild camels, and herds of goats and sheep that roam the streets. My third observation: There is some serious poverty here. Many people here live in some of the most squalid conditions I have ever seen. It's sad. Many of the shelters are small shacks made up of a few sticks holding up a tin roof along the side of the street. It makes it very plain to me how much privilege I have lived with all my life. I have little to complain about really. I am grateful for all the Lord has blessed me with, and pray I'll use those blessings for the blessing of His children.
For dinner, we (our shop) went out in town. When the opportunity presented itself for me to order camel, I couldn't refuse. It tasted similar to beef, but it was more chewy than beef. But it tasted good.
The official currency here is the Djiboutian Franc, but we call it Booty Bucks.
Mon Feb 9:The smells of Djibouti (this is in for Melissa's sake). So, the Djiboutians like to burn their garbage. I noticed this when I got a tour last week as people burned little piles of trash all over the place. You would think, that as much trash as they burn, there would be lots less of it. Also, they have an dump right next to our base where they burn lots of trash at a time. I noticed this as I was running this morning and got close. It smelled like a big camp fire. Sometimes in the evening, it gets pretty bad here, depending on the wind. Some people say that it gets really nasty when a dead camel is put on they pyre, but I haven't smelled that yet.
Sun Feb 8:This morning I woke up earlier than I wanted, so I got up and got Melissa and Olivia on Skype. Olivia was so cute, I could tell she was showing off for me. They seemed to be doing well, which is always nice. I sure love and miss being with my family.
Afterwards, I felt tired, and went right back to sleep for a couple more hours. Well, until the French took off with their jets at 0800 with full afterburners on. It seems that this is a tradition with the French on Sunday morning. From what I hear, sometimes they take off even earlier on Sundays. What we haven't figured out is if they do this on purpose to irritate us.
Tue Feb 10:Tonight, I volunteered with the English discussion groups hosted by the US Embassy here in Djibouti. These are held at local schools. My first impression as I left base was "Where did all the trash go?" I've been informed that there's been a serious clean up effort recently. They accomplished an amazing amount in a short time.
The Djiboutians are gifted linguistically. Most speak their tribal languages of Somali and Afar, their official state languages of Arabic and French, and here they are speaking English too, and some of them used bigger words than I expected. As usual, at times I struggled understanding their accent, but they said the same about mine. I feel a bit ashamed that I only know a little Spanish.
During the discussion group we talked about things they like and dislike about living in Djibouti, but then, they were really excited to talk about the newly elected President of Somalia. All were very excited and hopeful that he can bring stability to Somalia. (Note: most of the people in the room were of Somali heritage and have family/tribal connections there.) They are very politically aware, and are very animated in their discussions of local politics (local for them includes Somalia).
The students in the room are very excited about Obama as President. They really like him.
They are a happy people, at least they were all smiles the whole time. Toward the end, they asked me what my first impressions of Djibouti are. Up until that point, I pretty much just listened and observed their discussions (observed because some are very animated when they talk). I told them, it's hot here, it feels like summer in Florida here! They laughed at me because this is their cool season. Then one girl shyly asked if I like the girls in Djibouti. I responded evasively that I'm married. They pressed and asked if I was single, would I marry a Djiboutian women. So I responded that if I was single and met the right women, I would. It was funny how the girls in the Djibouti responded similar to how I would have expected girls in the states to have responded; they said in unison "Ahhh" like in "that's so romantic, Ahhh". They then asked if I would consider living here for a long time. Then, the scripture where Ammon responded to King Laman that he would "dwell among this people for a time" popped into my head. So I answered, I wouldn't mind living here for a time, which made the whole class, male and female, smile wider.
