Friday, September 12, 2008

135F in the shade.

Camp Lemonier, in Djibouti.

Maybe 85F just before sunrise. It pays to get up early.

We are under CJTF-HOA (Combined Task Force Horn of Africa).

Lots going on, though these 14 hour days leave me far too busy - and exhausted - to blog. A reasonably decent pizza joint in the Djibouti city square, should you ever visit. And you can't miss the camel drives down the main drag downtown.

8 comments:

chuck said...

Hi Skook, long time, no hear. Thanks for the update and thanks for doing your bit in Djibouti.

Barry Dauphin said...

But the important question is did you see the Palin-Gibson interview :>).

Anonymous said...

Hi Chuck. This is one of those places where we cooperate rather closely with the French. In a quiet way. :-)

Barry: No TV. Maybe some sports in the mess hall, but that is about it. All my news comes from reading blogs. So while I didn't see the Palin-Gibson interview, I certainly read all about it. My wife heard Palin's acceptance speech and thought it was "fantastic." I can see Palin has thrown a monkey wrench in the MSM works...

Oh - Djibouti actually has a bowling alley. And the sight of French Foreign Legionnaires bowling is, um, somewhat unusual.

Barry Dauphin said...

Djibouti, where Americans and French are like peas and carrots or something like that.

Have a good trip, take pictures and bring back some more blogging material.

Knucklehead said...

Heh, Skook! You are on an adventure, are you. I'm headed off on one in a few days. Post pics and I'll do the same. Y'all like elephants?

Anonymous said...

Knuck:

Naturally, I didn't bring a camera. They discourage photos here. But I think I may be able to blog eventually. The plan is to come back through Ethiopia and do some sightseeing.

And we all like elephants around here.

chuck said...

And we all like elephants around here.

They seem to be making a comeback here, new sightings in the wild have been reported. Maybe we can take them off the endangered species list in the near future.

Anonymous said...

Chuck:

It would be nice to get the elephants off the list...

An interesting conversation with a group of Legionnaires. They would much rather be in the American forces - because of the equipment and prestige in their words. Though "prestige" is perhaps not the right term. More akin to "societal respect." They say in France they still have the reputation as being dangerous and borderline criminals.

You see the occasional French officer in the mess hall. They invariably head straight for the burgers. :-)

There are wireless hot spots throughout the camp, but the CLUs (Containerized Living Units) aren't wired. Some guys rig up their own. You mail order a wireless antenna, go to the exchange, buy a mop, disassemble it, use the handle as an antenna pole, fasten the pole to the air conditioner bracket, and bring the antenna lead into the container. Through the door if you are lazy, through the air conditioner housing or via the fan on the container's side if you are enterprising. Everybody has tips on how best to accomplish this. So that is the next step. :-)