27 Jul 07 - Gardens, Somalia, and Baboons, Oh my!

So I'm trying to quit smoking. I cheated already. Two cigarettes in one day isn't bad for the 20+ a day I had been smoking. I'm glad SSG Hipp is here, kind of like my conscience, but at the same time, he doesn't rub it in if I cheat.


Today we walked about 11 miles from camp to visit a local who has a garden with some guava. We're all dying for some fresh fruit. His place turned out to be amazing! Built completely out of stone, mud, and old construction junk left by the French.

Djiboutian's home/garden

There are buildings with thatch roofs, and a huge wall made of stone overlooking a large garden in a valley between two mountains. It was beautiful, but every rose has its thorn.

200ft to the south is the dreaded border to Somalia with an armed guard waving his AK-47 around like it's a damn toy.

We made our way back without much of an altercation and came across a baboon. It nearly massacred SSG Hipp's face, and it stole my pop-tart. Bastard ass baboon fuck, I was looking forward to my pop tart.

Bastard ass Baboon fuck.

Anyways, our orders got extended once more, we're now looking at Aug 15th before we head back to camp, hell yeah. The longer the better. I am not looking forward to going back to Camp Lemonier, not a big fan of politics. Then again, they do have pop-tarts.