So I have been here for almost 3 weeks now. I have been off base 3 times thus far. I wanted to share with you a little about these experiences. Experiences indeed!
On the Sat. night after I had arrived, completely dragging butt, several of the ladies in the department here invited me to go off base for dinner. I was determined to stay awake as long as possible so I could hopefully get on track quickly with Djibouti time. So I agreed. It’s quite a process to go off base here. You have to fill out a Liberty request – or Chit as they call it. On this you must list all parties who will be going, all destinations, the time you plan to depart and the time you plan to return. There has to always be one person with you that has a cell phone. And that number has to be listed on the Chit. You have to have your supervisor sign off on the request. If your request is for an overnight liberty, then you also have to have the PM and Security sign off.
Let me take a step back…every day we receive an email from the Work Control Center that gives us the rules for the days Liberty. Some days they cancel Liberty altogether, meaning no one is authorized to leave the base. Other days, like today, Liberty expires at 1900 (7 p.m.). Most days Liberty expires at 2359 (11:59 p.m.). All personnel must be back on base by the Liberty expiration time. So you shouldn’t wait until 10 minutes prior. In addition, every day they list establishments that are off limits. We already have a list of establishments that are off limits every day. We can never go to any of these places – brothels, night clubs, Khat locations, tattoo parlors, etc. But every day they randomly select places we can’t go to for that day. It keeps people from developing routines. They say this helps to interrupt the cycle of terrorism. Makes sense, if you find a restaurant you like a lot and decide that every Tues. night you and your group of people are going to eat there at 1900 (7 p.m.) then eventually someone is going to notice. And it’s hard to blend in here with the locals…especially being a pasty Irish/German Redhead, such as myself. ;-) Anyway, there are plenty of measures to help protect us while we are here. This is just a few. Not that anything has happened…but you never know.
So once we get all the required signatures, we head up to the Work Control Center where we must submit the Chit and sign out there. They make copies of our Chit – we get 2 copies back. One we have to leave at the gate when we leave, and the other we keep with us for our return. At this point, if you are lucky enough to have been able to sign out a vehicle, you can head towards the gate. There are a number of stops and check points on your way out of the gate. So it takes several minutes just to exit. Once out, you take a left onto the “main road” off the base. There are cabs in the lot across the street…waiting to take people from the base to where ever they want to go.
The speed limit on base is 10 kph/6 mph…ha – that’s usually my running pace! I have been known here to pass a gator or 2! J Anyway, off base, hard to tell what the speed limit is. So this first experience leaving the base was in a vehicle from the base. We took that right and off we went! The roads are full of potholes, people walking, saw a couple cats, and of course cabs and other drivers. It’s a little strange…and scary…that people seem to drive in the middle of the road – even when there are lines painted. So if you are leaning towards the middle of the road, other cars and cabs will pass you anyway. They like to flash their bright lights multiple times, to let you know they are going to pass you. No worries that there are other cars coming from the other direction. You’ll move over, and they will too, practically cutting you off to get back in the “lane”! And this is only the beginning.
The road outside of the base is lined with trash on both sides. It is quite a sight. And gross! The base, of course, on several occasions has endeavored to clean up the trash around the base. But each time, the local Djiboutians accuse us of trying to steal their trash and tell us how much we owe them for it! So needless to say, the trash remains. We aren’t in the business of “stealing” people’s trash nor are we going to pay for what we consider to be trash! So there it sits…Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa’s eye sore!
So we come to a T in the road. You can turn left or right to get you to the “safe” places to go. This is known here as Khat Corner. There are Khat stands all over the place here in dirt lots right on the corners. Obviously, Khat corner is off limits! We proceed to take a right here. Now we are amongst the people of Djibouti. There is activity all over the streets – stands on the side of the road, unloading trucks, kids playing, people walking everywhere in the streets, etc. There are restaurants along this stretch; no one I am with can tell me anything about them. People are double parked on the side of the road and we are forced to merge into the oncoming traffic to pass them. On this road, there are 4 lanes with no median. So it should be okay to cross over, right? UGH! I was terrified sitting in the middle of the back seat for this ride.
In about 5 minutes we are in the area in which the restaurant we are looking for is located. We were given good directions by someone on camp to take a left on some road, but quickly realized we needed to go right. Turning left would have put as at one of the closed and protected gates of the French base. So we turn right and find the place. It’s a Lebanese restaurant. Not sure where people park, so we just pull up right out front. 2 people immediately approach us to let us know it is not safe to park there, but if we pay them they will protect the car for us. We respectfully decline. We enter the restaurant, not a soul in there. Jeesh! Back home, that’s not usually a good sign…and it’s now already 1900 (7 p.m.). I quickly find out people here don’t go out to eat until much later, so at some point the restaurant will probably be packed. Wow…now all I want is a BEER! But nope, can’t have one of those. So we all order Coke Light – but they don’t have it. They have Coke Zero – so guess that’s the ticket. I inquire about having ice – is the water okay? Is the ice going to make me sick? But I am assured by my peeps that it is fine and I can use the ice too. So when in Rome…I do what they do.
We end up ordering a couple platters with all kinds of Lebanese specialties on them to share. OMG – the food was amazing…or was it that I just spent 2 days on Ethiopian Airlines eating Airline food? Don’t know…but that food was great! We head back to the base, take a couple wrong turns, which mind you was not pleasant. It’s interesting…we get a map of Djibouti City during New Employee Orientation that is color coded as to the places where we can and cannot go. Most of the CAN places are right across the street from the CANNOT places, and in just seconds you are now in a CANNOT section. We drive down a couple of side roads trying to get back to the main road…people and their donkeys hang out in the streets. Everyone is pushing something – bottled water, Khat, clothing/cloth, African souvenirs, etc. You name it; they want you to buy it! It is a slow crawl going down these roads, as I am sure they frown upon us running over the citizen’s of Djibouti as we try to find our way home! Doors locked: CHECK!
The City has a number of circles you come to. Everyone has their rules for how you get through them. I am glad right about this point that I am not the one driving. But am glad to have come out for a night of dining and getting to know my new peeps. We make it safely back to the base, maneuver our way through all the security check points, hit the Work Control Center to check back in and then back to our area. Whew…
Interestingly enough, if you do not make it back before Liberty expires, the cell phone number listed on your Chit will be called and then your Program Manager gets called as well. You don’t want to be reported for not making it back in time. Additionally, if you leave camp with 3 other people, you better come back with them too. Your parties are not allowed to separate. So if I want to do an overnight at the Kempinski Hotel or Sheraton, I need someone to volunteer to go with me. Not that we have to share a room…but we have to leave and come back together. We also must be in our hotels by Liberty expiration as well. Security sends patrols out in town to verify we are following the rules. Again…all of this to protect us. So I don’t mind. But as expensive as the Kempinski is, not sure I will be heading off base anytime soon for an overnight. Not when I have my CLU to spend the night in. Loving my little Metal Condo!
Anyway, just wanted to give you a little taste of what it was like heading off base. I will post the next stories soon.
Enjoy your week and more later…
Cheers!
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