Djibouti

When we got home for vacation, not only were we not time adjusted (I'll fully admit I'm still sleeping in until 10:30 everyday), but meal time was all screwy. Then, we started getting sick, and we have since passed it all the way around and different times. So, countries just did not happen. I tried, but I also decided I didn't want to do them just for the sake of 'getting them over with'. If that's what I'm doing, then what's this project even for? Calib is going to be gone until the 8th of August, then it'll be my birthday, and then a week later, we're headed out on another week long trip. Which means August will be a pretty big wash as far as countries go, too. So, I really had to start to make peace with the fact that we're probably not going to finish this project in 2017. But, I guess we'll try our best and finish when we finish. 

I've also been really slow to do my blogs. I have one left after this one, so I'm just going to try and knock them out. 

Our 109th country on our trip around the world is Djibouti. Perhaps the boys favorite name of a country so far. It's been the butt of jokes for days now. (No pun intended). 

Djibouti is so crazy hot and dry, that it was dubbed the 'Valley of Hell' in the 18th century. Slightly bigger than New Jersey, Djibouti sits where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden. It's neighbors include Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. 

But it also sits on the meeting point of three diverging tectonic plates. The country is basically being torn apart by Mother Nature. In geological terms it's happening at a breakneck pace, but it human time, it's all happening in slow motion. Djibouti claims their 'bridge of lava' could be the thinnest piece of the earth's crust. 

It is full of weird and interesting landscapes. 

Our landmark is one of those. Lake Assal is the lowest point in Africa. It sits in a crater 490 feet below sea level and is the world's second saltiest lake (after the Dead Sea). During the dry season, much of the water evaporates leaving 'beaches' of salt. The thick crust of salt is extracted in slabs. The Afar people of Djibouti once traded this salt in blocks as currency. The word 'salary' actually comes from 'salurium' meaning salt money. 

Lake Assal is the lowest place in Africa, but Lake Abbe is one of the hottest places in the whole world. Limestone chimneys emerge from flat plains, giving a jagged, interesting landscape. 

Off the coast of Djibouti, you can find the world's largest fish: the whale shark. They grow to 46 feet and live to be about 70 - and they only eat plankton. 

We talked a bit about the Afar people, I mentioned above. 

Sometimes men will spit on each other, which isn't considered rude, but is instead a blessing. 

They are fans of khat (or qat), and addictive plant which is chewed by most the male population. 

They also put butter in their Afros to protect them from the sun. 

Like I said, dinners and lunches were weird, and nobody was hungry at the same time. But we did make some samosa's, with are popular in Djibouti, along with a dipping sauce.  (We didn't make the samosa part, but we did make the sauce- which was excellent, and we later used as a salsa with eggs). 

Along with that we made some Djibouti Banana Fritters. 

We just put it out as a light lunch, and everyone tried at least one of each. The fritters were weird, and a little too mushy, and I didn't take stock of spoons up and spoons down, but it was just kind of 'meh' except for the sauce with the samosas. 

The boys made their postcards for Djibouti. 

Calib's featured qat, a whale shark, and the bridge of lava. 

Peyton focused on the limestone chimneys. 

And Hayden's included the butter afros. 

We colored Djibouti in a light brown color, right there on the edge of Somalia. 

109 down, 84 to go. 

Next Up: New Zealand (and then I'll be all caught up!)