Scenes Around Camp

Scenes around camp - morning, 30 March 2006

"My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." Cary Grant

A Portside Morning - Part II

Port Of Djibouti

"Here comes the Navy - there goes the neighborhood!"

A Portside Morning - Part I

Port Of Djibouti

"Contemplating the many “forever’s” in my life seems to be an everyday occurrence here in Djibouti. This is not your normal “port of call” by any means unless your port is full of raw sewage, rusting or sunken ships and an original look and smell all of its own that stings senses like a slap to the face with acetone-laden 80 grit sandpaper!...This is the Horn of Africa, baby!" - Essay excerpt taken from "Like Herpes, Malaria Is Also Forever" (16 March 2006)

Morning In Djibouti

Quick Reaction Force - Morning Guard Mount Preparations

"The camp is beginning to stir to life as the pulse of the camp begins to quicken on this early desert morning. The minions wake to the very same partly cloudy sky that I have described in my previous paragraphs and like hapless zombies stuffed into air conditioned coffins, they too raise and stumble into this morning to shuttle themselves off to various work spots on the camp or trot off to an early morning breakfast gleefully served to the famished crowds by pleasant and smiling food workers.

Scary sometimes because it makes you often wonder why the food workers are always smiling.

Do they know something that we don't?..." Excerpt taken from essay, "Morning In Djibouti"

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson

It's Where I Lay My Worries To Rest & Head To Dream...

"We all dream; we do not understand our dreams, yet we act as if nothing strange goes on in our sleep minds, strange at least by comparison with the logical, purposeful doings of our minds when we are awake." Erich Fromm

"When we awaken from sleep in a particularly good mood or in a particularly bad mood, it is a result of what we have received via the sixth sense." Henry Reed

"Are you in my dream too?" M. Night Shyamalan

Bones

Skulls on Camp

Djibouti - Horn of Africa

"Sun-bleached bones were most wonderful against the blue - that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man's destruction is finished." Georgia O'Keeffe

Overcooked

Doc Gutierrez: "Wait! Wait! Wait! Let me see if I got this straight - you spent all day at the port yesterday - in the blazing sun, without sunscreen and only sunglasses and a kevlar for shade?"

Doc Coleman: "It would appear that way, HM2"

Doc Gutierrez: "I gotta get a picture of this....(click!) - The folks back home are never going to believe this!"

Wildlife

Afro-american house gecko (Hemidactylus mabouia)

Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius)

Dog (Canis lupus familiaris)

Land hermit crab (Coenobita perlatus)

Homo sapiens gutierrez

Symbols Of Freedom

United States Embassy, Djibouti

"The secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides

Pulse Of A City

Djibouti City, Djibouti - Horn Of Africa

"I went all over that damned city and shot everywhere-in all the streets and all the forbidden places, and I had a wonderful time." Elia Kazan

First Patrol - Part II

Outside Djibouti City...

"Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy's First Corollary - If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire." George E. Woodberry

First Patrol - Part I

Somewhere in Djibouti...

"I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself." Nelson Mandela

Around Camp

Camp Lemonier, Djibouti - Horn of Africa

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Changing Of The Guard

The Camp at Djibouti - Horn of Africa - 04 March 2006

"Beware the feathers of the blue falcon - they are sharp as a reaper and cut to the quick!"