A Tad Bit Insane

I feel a tad bit insane right now. My heart is beating fast, I'm super sweaty and sticky and my thoughts are racing. You see I just walked into the house after driving in Djibouti. I mean literally, just walked into the house, taking my wet clothes off as I walked over to the computer and sat down. Grocery bags are still sitting in the hallway and I really have to pee...but first, I need to get these thoughts out of my head.

I have heard people bitch about the driving here and not really processed it cause people bitch about a lot of things and I figured this was just one more thing but I have a whole new appreciation for what people who drive everyday go through. I am normally spared the agony of driving around town much cause Eric does all that, but with our current situation, I was forced to go out to the get some groceries. I have a couple of choices in town for grocery stores - one is close and easy to access the other one that I like is farther away but has a random assortment of things (I was hoping they would have sage - no luck!).

Anyways, its Saturday (which is like Monday for most folks here) and I left the house at 0900 thinking this would give me plenty of time to try and find Nougaprix. I have been there a million times but you know how it is...when I am not driving I really don't pay much attention to how to get to someplace and so I knew vaguely where the store was but wasn't quite sure. I'm not very good with directions anyways and here in Djibouti the streets seem to twist and turn until I couldn't tell you which way was North to save my life. I decided to take the "mickey mouse" roundabout way and pretty much managed to drive through every unpaved, pothole laden, full of shit and people and goat, road until I finally came upon the store.

I successfully grocery shopped and came away with something I hope will pass for cream cheese and some awesome looking lemons that were not on my list but when you see something like that you buy it regardless cause you never know when it will come back in stock. Leaving the store, I thought I retraced my route until I was at a stop light I didn't recognize and suddenly there were FOUR lanes of traffic coming straight towards me. I immediately thought, "holy shit I am on a one way street" but looked behind me and there was traffic lined up. I looked up again and realized that this was two lanes of traffic that had spread into FOUR - kinda like when your cookies don't have enough flour and they just ooze into the space of each other. I wasn't sure what to do when the light turned green...do I just stay stopped, do I drive straight ahead, do I hang my head down and cry? With ten million cars, trucks and buses behind me all honking their horns when the light turned green, I slowly started driving forward and then, like the red sea, the lanes of cars parted and I made it through the chaos onto a street that lead me towards the promised land (or at least my calm and cool house).