Lac Assal Liberty Trip

I took my first liberty trip with 3 other inmates of Camp Lemonnier out to Lac Assal.  This lake is the highest salinity lake anywhere except Antartica, and lies roughly 509 feet below sea level.  It is about 100km due west of the base, with the vast majority of the roads being paved.  We stopped at some overlooks on the way out, but unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting and those pictures did not come out, darn, I guess I will have to take liberty out there again.  But at these stops Djiboutians were selling a variety of items of which I bought some.  I would take pictures of them or describe them, but they are surprises for my wife. 

This is a shot from the road to the west across the lake.  The mountains to get to the lake are at about 2200 ft and then we drive down and down until we are 500ft below sea level. 

This is looking from the spot where we pulled our truck over and explored.  The white salt flat is about 2 feet deep out to that island.  The island is made of almost completely of salt.  The crystals stained the color of the earth.

This is the civilian filling a water bottle with water from the lake.  The only way to describe it is syrupy.  The water actually feels thick with the salt.  After swimming, when you stood up in the hot breeze the water dried very quickly and salt crystals formed on skin, body hair, ears, and clothes.  Shorts became stiff with a solid white layer of salt. 

This is a close-up shot of the salt crystals along the short.  The small cubes that you see are about 1/8 inch on a side.  They are growing all around the entire edge of the lake and on anything in the lake like sticks and rocks.  It looks fragile, but it is actually quite strong.  The entire bottom of this bay was similar, but much sharper.  Two others from the group put their hand down and it instantly sliced through their hands and feet.  Then the excruciating pain would set in from the hyper-saline solution and the burning that lasted the rest of the day. 

This is a shot of the deeper water.  The civilian and I walked out to the deep water and jumped in, though there were main waves, we floated upright like corks.  To give you an idea of how buoyant being in this water was, getting my teva sandal underwater was difficult.  To actually get vertical, I had to bring my knees to my chest and thrust them downwards before the wanted to go up to the surface. 

Here is another liberty group from Camp further to the east.  You can see the prior salt marks on the mountain behind them. 

On the way back to Camp we were able to see some good wildlife.  Here are a couple Antelope, which unfortunately ran before I could get stable and get some good shots, plus in the small canyon we were in , the wild was howling and I couldn’t stabilize the lens at all. 

In Africa are the Acacia trees, which have wickedly sharp 1.5 inch thorns.  The goats and camels love the leaves and often work against those thorns to get at the leaves.  These goats solved the problem by climbing on top of this tree and eat downwards instead of straining upwards from the ground.  These was just one group, there were probably 2 dozen of these goats in the trees in this area alone. 

The last of the cool animals this trip was a baboon.  They are normally not out in the heat of the day, rather I have only seen them on my early morning excursions to nearby towns.  This large male was out and about and ran out in front of us.  We all acted like idiots making noises to try to get it closer, kinda wish I had a video of us acting like morons calling it. 

 It was a great trip and can’t wait to get out there again.  I have other liberty trips planned in the upcoming weeks, including whale shark snorkeling and a dive trip, which I will fully employ the underwater camera I have.

Cheetah Preserve and Other Trips

These past 4 days have been very busy.  On Thursday, the morning started early with a run out to Chabelley to oversee more concrete pours.  This was supposed to be a day off for Veterans Day, but we had to go out and supervise this evolution since Djibouti doesn’t exactly stop work for US holidays.  This also meant that we couldn’t get a couple of SeaBees to help us out.  Unfortunately my fellow ED wasn’t feeling well, so he set down in a chair to watch the concrete mixing and I ran around directing the pouring and wetting the concrete as it baked in the African sun. 

As you can see the forms for the columns on the completed slabs were being erected.  One of them fell in the high winds and just barely missed LT Mietus. 

The afternoon was spent driving around Djibouti dropping of some equipment and our translator.  Driving in downtown Djibouti is a special experience… where road rage is a state of mind that must be maintained to fit into traffic.  I got back onto base and quickly closed out the mission so I could get onto the bus out to the Cheetah Preserve.  The trip was supposed to be from 1600-1800, but we didn’t leave base until 1635 and didn’t arrive until just shy of 1700.  That gave us only 35 minutes of daylight.  I ran around and tried to get pictures of what animals I could.  The MWR trip was so limited, so I am trying to get out there on another Sunday with LT Mietus since he speaks French and can act as a tour guide.  

  

A couple of shots of the cheetahs.  I didn’t know that we were actually allowed into their cage, cause I wandered off on a hiking trail.  When I got back the MWR group was in the cage.  I missed out on that, but I will get back there and get some close-up shots without the fence.

Here is a young antelope in a pen.  There were a handful of very young ones in a penned off area.  I have seen them on my drives around recently in the wild.

Here is a tortoise, they didn’t need a fence to hold them, just closely spaced rocks kept them contained.

Unfortunately due to the setting sun, I didn’t have good light for the rest of the shots.

Work in Chabelley

My job here in Djibouti is Country Engineer, where I facilitate and oversee construction projects.   I work in J-34 which is one of the shops within the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA).  HOA is a command made up both of all 4 US services, plus individuals from other countries. 

The plan for me is to inherit Kenya projects in the January timeframe when the AF Officer currently working them rotates out.  In the meantime I am assisting the Djibouti project officer, who is juggling many projects, and not all of them going well.   Specifically I have been assisting with a town called Chabelley, which is about 11km southwest of the base.  About a year ago a medical facility for the birth of children in the town was built.  The project was started without any real supervision by J-34 and a contractor who really doesn’t know how to construct a building.  The first attempt resulted in a concrete structure that could be broken apart with bare hands.  The entire structure was torn down and the contractor is starting again, but with much more careful supervision.  I have quickly learned that quality (and safety) on the jobsite are nearly nonexistent here. 

The road out to Chabelley is actually National 5 (N5), which is nothing more than gravel.  Even in the nice Toyota Land Cruiser diesels we drive, it’s a rough and tough road.  For the first couple of miles outside of Djibouti City, the road is lined with trash piles which include cars, cows, camels, food waste, home waste, and industrial waste.  The smell is pleasant.  

My first trip was to only verify that the depth of the slab areas was dug out to 35cm.  LT John Mietus (a fellow ED) is measuring the depth of the survey lines.  The guy in the middle is the foreman and the other guy is one of his regular workers who we have affectionately named ‘pink pants’.  

We verified that there was a consistent 35cm depth across all of the spaces where they were to put in at 20cm deep layer of compacted rock.  Here is a view of the majority of the worksite.  The base is just barely visible on the horizon on the left side of the photo. 

The town is very interested in what we are doing, and often sit on this embankment and watch it.  They are very confused why there was a building built, then torn down.  Through our interpreter we try to explain that the building would be a nursery and that the first one wasn’t safe, but they don’t comprehend that.  They think that if the walls could stand up, it would be fine.  

On the return trip we experienced the true essence of Djibouti driving.  This is a taxi, it is not stopped, but trying to merge with us.  We are doing about 60-70kmh and the just moved right in on us.  Yes the door is open, all the taxi buses go around with the door open, with people hanging on.  The best are the ones with groups of people on the roof.  They really look like they are about to tip when they enter a roundabout.  I always wonder if someone will just come flying out.  LT Mietus says they do sometimes, but its normal. 

                                          

Our second trip out there started well, an early morning start on a day when they were to pour many of the slabs.  When we arrived this lamb was parked in front of our Toyota. 

At about 0900 this lamb was unhappy escorted out of the work area, ‘baaing’ all the way.  Then the ‘baaing’ stopped.  

We had all named the lamb “Dinner”, but we should have named him “Lunch”. 

On this trip we brought 3 Seabees with us that really assisted in this job.  LT Mietus and primary inspected the batches of concrete as they were turned and ensured a proper mix and consistency.  The Seabees taught the workers the proper way to lay it down and finish it. 

Our main mission here is partnering with the nations to accomplish our goals, one of them being providing the basic needs for the people.   The Seabees did a great job working through our translator, Abdallah, to show them how to correctly lay a slab and make it look good.  

During the day, I noticed one of the big issues was the bags of cement.  They were from Pakistan and someone smart decided to make them 50kg bags, which almost outweighs the workers.  I would see 3 or 4 of them struggle the bags over to the cement mixer, then try to cut it open with a disassembled razor blade.  I couldn’t stand to watch this inefficiency anymore and started hefting the bags for them to the mixer and then quickly slice it open with my Gerber tool. 

The children from the town would gather around, often time coming right to the fence and poking in.   The workers didn’t want them down there and would often throw a handful of rocks at the corrugated metal fence, and scare both the children and us.  The kids would make a game of it until one would get hit and you would hear the yelp, then the game would end for a bit.  We gave the kids some nuts and granola bars that we brought, which they were ecstatic about, running into the village with it held above their head. 

To put into perspective the town where these people live, think of the movie District 9.  Those shacks would be a step up.  Many of the homes in this town is nothing more than piled rock walls with some metal and plastic sheeting for a roof.  Understanding from the interpreter, they don’t eat but a couple times a week, so the fact that they slaughtered a sheep and served us food was a great honor. 

My CLU

For the next year my home away from home is a Container(ized) Living Unit (CLU).  This is basically a 40ft CONEX box that is outfitted to be a berthing space.  There are two types at Camp Lemonnier, wet and dry, the difference being the wet CLU has a single stateroom at each end with a head in the middle and the dry has a double stateroom at each end with a dividing wall in the middle.  The dry CLU’s are centered around a CONEX box that is outfitted with heads and showers. 

All E-7 and above rate a wet CLU, but due to the number of people station at Camp Lemonnier, there are not enough wet or dry CLU’s.  Currently there are hundreds of enlisted folks living in large tents.  The base was designed for 2000, but the numbers have grown here to 4400.  This puts a strain on all the standard services, like water, power, waste water, facilities. 

Currently I am living solo in a dry CLU, which is highly unusual.  The next rotator is due in next week, and I will probably get a roommate at that point in time.  Luckily I am only three CLU’s from the bathroom, so it’s a short walk.  

 

I am the aft bed, which is nice that I don’t have the door next to my head and the AC isn’t blowing directly down on me since I forgot a blanket.  The bed has a nice mattress and incorporates both drawers and a large storage space beneath the mattress.  This is where I have hidden my three seabags of NARMY gear like body armor, ruck sack, tent, and sleeping bag.  I already bought a rug to make it nicer in there.

There is also a desk area and that is where my locker is.  The lockers are nice, with both vertical space to store uniforms, plus wide/deep shelves.  I bought a lot of extra cloths and still have extra room. 

 

This is the outside/door to the CLU.  Notice the Hokie pride.  I unfortunately face the sun, so it can get physically hot to touch my door handle in the afternoon.  Right now it's usually getting into the low 90’s and the AC is keeping up fine with the heat in low; so I am confident that in the summer when it's 120 the AC on high will keep it cool.  

‘CLUville’ is roughly 1/3 of a mile long and I am at the far end.  The gym is 0.5 mile away and my office in about another ¼ mile past that.  Scatter throughout the CLU’s are bunkers that we could hide in if we are attacked by mortars/bombs.