(Side bar- I never realized how ingrained in me it was to use the seasons as a benchmark for passing time until I came to a place without the four major seasons! Fall/winter/spring/summer- kind of meaningless here!)
My second work trip, to Djibouti, was one of the most coveted assignments among JVA staffers, not only because it is so beautiful and unique, but also because it is a very rare destination. Djibouti is quite frankly one of those places I had vaguely heard of a child playing geography trivia games, but never imagined I would actually visit! So, before you read on, here's a little pop quiz for you:
1. Name two countries that border Djibouti?
2. Which European country colonized Djibouti?
3. What is the name of the capital city of Djibouti?
(ANSWERS BELOW)
I'm finding that on any JVA trip, the main questions are:
- What are the accommodations like?
- What population of refugees are we working with,and what is the 'claim' we're looking for?
- What are the working conditions like, and what is there to do outside of work?
Accommodations:
In Djibouti, we stayed in the 'Sheraton Djibouti', a nice, though slightly outdated hotel sitting right on some lovely (but smelly) waterfront property. There was a hearty breakfast buffet included the hotel room, which also supplied lunch for those of us who had been smart enough to bring along some tupperware! Real classy, eh? ;) There was also a little gym in the hotel, which I LOVED. I finally got back into running a bit on the treadmill, and it was a great way to unwind after a stressful work day.
We each had our own hotel room, with multiple channels in French! In the evenings I got addicted to a French version of 'name that tune.' C'etait super! The bathrooms in the hotel room had not only a toilet, but also a bidet (a point of crucial importance later in my story.) Our fellow guests were mainly foreign military personnel, particularly German navy crew. The hotel owner threw a 'happy hour' each Wednesday so the guests could mingle, and we were regaled with stories of some of their run-ins with Somali pirates.
Pic - me in front of the Djibouti Sheraton
Pic 2 - The view of the water from the hotel pool
Refugee Population
The first few days in Djibouti, half the team drove two hours each morning to the province of Ali Sabieh. We processed lots of Somalis and Ethiopians out of the local UNCHR facility there. It was a long, dusty drive, but I was glad to have the chance to seem some of the countryside. It was a little stressful working out of that location, because of timing. The cases were rather complicated, and we still had to finish, pack up and be out of there by 4:30pm in order to be back in Djibouti City before dark (due to security concerns.)
While in Ali Sabieh, I saw one of the Kenyan staff doing the preliminary interview with an older lady, obviously uneducated. The staff person seemed to be having trouble getting the information they needed out of her, probably due in part to her age and illiteracy. I thought to myself, "oh boy, hope I don't draw that file for casework!"
Now, of course I did draw her file for casework! And man, was she difficult to work with! This is the tricky thing sometimes in this work- you just need certain information out of the refugee, and you need it quickly and accurately, because you have a quota of cases to meet for the day. This urgency and the resulting frustration when you have a hard case can sometimes war against the compassion you feel for the refugee's situation.
I was just on the edge of extreme irritability with this lady when we started getting into her story. It was almost like something out of 'Black Hawk Down'- some American soldiers had burst into her home fleeing from local militia. She took them out the back way and helped them to escape. When she came back to the sitting room, some of the local militia burst in and punished the family for helping the soldiers. They killed her husband and sons in front of her, and then raped her in a very barbaric way (almost made me physically ill to have to document it.)
What a lesson for me- hearing what she had gone through really helped to put things in perspective, push my irritability aside, and bring my compassion back to the forefront.
After a few days in Ali Sabieh, my team worked out of a detention center in Djibouti City. The population there was mostly Eritrean men who had fled across the border to escape mandatory military service or other persecution. (I'll write more on the Eritrean refugee plight in a later post about my visit to the town of Shire in Ethiopia.)
Because of the lack of proper facilities and poor relations between Eritrea and Djibouti, the refugees are being kept in prison. Although they are secure there, by international standards this is not acceptable. for this and other reasons, this is a high priority group with the U.S. government. One of the top officials dealing with African refugees at the American embassy actually came by the site for a visit!
The other JVA team worked out of the UNCHR office in Djibouti City, and tackled a hodgepodge of interesting 'urban' refugee cases. One of my colleagues there said that she had her "top five most interesting JVA cases of all time" at that site! These included one atheist family that had fled Yemen because they faced persecution for not being Muslim.
Working Conditions
Except for the large fly population and shared toilet facilities the work site was ok. However, I found the work there stressful because we had to do five cases per day, rather than four (due to the small case size.) Some of the UNHCR referrals were multiple pages long, and it was very time consuming match our stories against those, especially with the communication challenges. At times, I found myself almost shouting at the interpreter or refugee because of my frustration, and that made me feel pretty horrible about myself! (More about that phenomenon in a later blog post.)
The after work time was quite fun- I enjoyed bumming around the pretty downtown, trying out delicious local food, and enjoying the gym and French TV at the hotel.
All in all, I had a great time in Djibouti, though I would say 'out of work life' definitely trumped 'work life' in this location. One loose end to the story though... I mentioned the importance of the bidet...Well, I had gotten into the habit of shaking each refugee's hand once we finished our work together. However, on the last day of work, I neglected to wash my hands before eating lunch. A couple hours later, I felt something funny in my tummy, and knew I was in deep trouble.
I spent the next 24 hours purging whatever bug it was from every half hour or so (from both ends, so to speak.) The bidet was very strategically located to make this possible... ;) Some oral rehydration salts finally helped me to break the cycle. Although I had to miss the fun group boat trip that, the one good thing about being so sick was that I really, really appreciated it when I finally felt better again!
Pic - A shot of the architecture in the centre ville.
A 'Newby' No Longer
So, my stomach has officially been initiated into the JVA world, and I, having completed two trips, am no longer a novice caseworker! It sure feels good to be getting into the swing of things, and I look forward to experiencing other locations and refugee groups!
QUIZ ANSWERS (you're lucky I couldn't figure out how to turn these upside down!)
1. Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen (across the water) Amazing to me how Djibouti could be so 'together' given some of those neighbors! I guess it could have something to do with the foreign military presence...
2. France. Some downsides to colonization to be sure, but the French did leave behind some great architecture and a lovely 'cafe' culture. Besides French, Arabic is an official language, and Afar and Somali are also widely spoken. The Somali 'man skirt' is also quite common to see out and about :)
3. Capital City is Djibouti City, which is located in Djibouti province in the country of Djibouti! The population of the whole country is only about 700,000, of which almost half live in Djibouti City. That makes for a pretty sparse population elsewhere, as you can see in the pic below.
Pic - you can see our vehicle's shadow on our ride out to Ali Sabieh. Like I said, sparsely populated, though lots of camels!
Bonus pic - Our 'ride' was really quite something else! Decked out with fringe and various other adornments, the most impressive point in my view was the ornate side view mirror!
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1 comment:
Great update! What exciting adventures! You're teasing us with promises of future updates...better not take 2 months to put them up! Hopefully we'll see you some time in the next few months!
Mark and Lisa
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