The Birds…

We have a lot of crows and some pigeons here on camp. There have been numerous stories of birds attacking humans. Have you seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds”? Well, it’s not quite like that, but apparently if they have a particular distaste for you, they will swoop down and hit you as you walk through the courtyard. I was walking through the courtyard the other day with another sailor and 4 drops of bird doo landed directly in front of us as we walked! Luckily no droppings hit us. Apparently we were just out of their range. It was a close call nonetheless. The moral of the story is, when you’re in Djibouti, keep your head down, and watch out for the birds!

Showers

At Camp Lemonnier, we never have to worry about having hot water available. In the summer time the hot water heaters are turned off and the faucets are switched, so the cold water is hot and the hot water is cold. Except the water doesn’t get cold since the pipes are so close to the surface and are warmed up by the sun, so pretty much all your water is hot. Even though we never have an issue with having hot water, we are instructed to take “combat showers” to conserve on overall water usage. That means getting in the shower, turning on the water for 30 seconds to wet down, shutting the water off, lathering up, and turning the water back on for no more than 2 minutes to rinse off. That also shortens the shower time so that more people can be cycled through the bathroom quickly.

Pirate patches…aaarrgh

My friend Katie P. informed me that pirates would often wear a patch over their eye, not because it had been gouged out, but rather as a way to gain a tactical advantage when overtaking a ship and plundering the booty. The pirates would board a ship and once they were done plundering and pillaging the main deck, they would descend down into the lower decks looking for more treasure. Since the lower decks were dark due to a lack of sunlight, the pirates would need to let their eyes adjust to the darkness, unless they were wearing an eye patch. With the patch, they could just flip the patch over to the other eye, and the eye that had previously been under the patch would already be adjusted to the darkened conditions. Then the pirates could continue to plunder without delay.

I have found this technique to be quite useful on Camp Lemonnier. No, I don’t go around camp wearing a patch over my eye, but often times I will have to get up in the middle of the night to use the facilities since I drink a large amount of water during the day to stay hydrated. After walking outside and into the brightly lit bathroom, it is hard to see once I get back into my CLU and I end up stumbling around. So, in order to avoid stumbling around in the dark, I keep one eye closed as I walk outside, use the facilities, and come back. Once I get back in my CLU, I open my other eye and it’s as if I had never left in the first place. Hopefully this useful bit of information will help you avoid stumbling around in your house if you have no nightlights and need to use the restroom in the middle of the night.

Food:

The food here is good, and the best part about it: IT’S FREE!! Every meal is an all-you-can-eat buffet. They have made to order eggs for breakfast, a massive fruit bar for lunch, and sandwiches anytime you want (except 0200-0400 in the morning). Tuesday is Taco night, Saturday is steak night(T-bones), Wednesday is pizza night (and sirloin steak night), Thursday night is chicken wings, Friday night is seafood night (including Lobster). All this talk of food is making me hungry. I’m gonna go grab a bite!

Djibouti - Week 1

Greetings from Djibouti!

In response to requests for information and in an effort to keep you all informed on the life and times of Brian Gates, I have decided to start a blog. The internet access here is shady at best so there is no guarantee how often it will be updated, but I thought I'd give it a try.

For those of you wondering what life is like in Djibouti, the following are my thoughts on week one.

I guess we should start with 1st things 1st. I am stationed at Camp Lemonnier (pronounced "lem-oh-nay", like “lemonade” without the "duh" at the end. I left a winter blizzard in DC on 30 Jan (yes, my birthday) and arrived in Djibouti 1Feb. I think the best way to describe Camp Lemonnier would be to compare it to summer camp when you were a kid. It's a lot like that. To get from one place to the next, you walk on a gravel road. It's warm outside and meals are eaten in the galley. You have to walk outside to get from your living quarters to the restroom. You get to call home once in a while and you are encouraged to drink plenty of water.

I sleep in a container living unit (CLU) pronounced “cl-oo”, like the board game “Clue”. All the CLU’s are clumped together in one general spot on base called, “CLUville” like in Dr. Sues. Currently my CLU is on the east end of base. My office is on the west end of base. It’s about a 12 minute walk from my side of CLUville to work. The CLU is basically the same thing that you see on a semi-truck. It’s split in half with two beds and a desk on each half. There are lockers, lights, power outlets, an AC, and a ventilation fan on each side of the CLU. I live in a dry CLU with no bathroom. I should be able to move in to a wet CLU soon, once the number of base occupants decreases.

We have wardroom (officers) PT on Wednesdays. Last Wed. we played ultimate Frisbee. That was fun. Temperatures have generally been in the 80s during the day and 70s at night. We are located 11 degrees north of the equator, hence there is a rec. center on base called, “11 Degrees North”.

I’ll try to post some pictures later. Right now I only have a Flip which takes video and I thought it took still pictures as well, but it’s a bit more difficult than I anticipated.

Ok, that’s all my info for now. I hope all is well with y’all!