Grateful

     If I havn't emphasized enough on my blog, it's hot in Djibouti. There's a saying that is often used in the city that locals use. Roughly translated, it means: "It's so hot in Djibouti, everyone living here will automatically go to heaven". To make things worse, the electricity is not consistent; blackouts occur without warning and the water supply is insufficient for the growing population. After listening to my endless complaints, my cousin, Rosa, decided to give me a dose of reality.

     Right around the corner from her house is an open area where less fortunate have built makeshitft homes. These shelters are made from wooden planks, metal, cotton sheets, etc. The inahbitants in this area have no electricity nor direct access to water from their homes; instead, they use empty gasoline jugs to fill up water, sometimes from neighbors.  

Here's a video I recorded of this site. Coincidentally, Tupac Shakur's "Changes" was playing on the radio. For my readers who are unfamiliar with the song, it goes a little like this:

We gotta make a change
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.