Rain

October was a busy month. But it appears that I will make it to Halloween alive, albeit tired.

Early in the month I went back to Somalia for a week. As the plane was arriving the pilot told us that we needed to circle a few times to wait for a heavy rainstorm to pass. It’s not something you hear often when flying to Somalia. Eventually we were able to land. Though the tarmac was very wet, it wasn’t flooded. But as I was exiting the terminal, there was flooding everywhere. There was no way to get to the parking area without tromping through water that was mid-calf deep in some places. The security guy that was retrieving me from the airport was trying to figure out a way to get me to the armored vehicle without wading through the water. It was a vain effort and finally told him that we should just go. What’s a little water.

a rare scene in Mogadishu; exiting the international terminal

What I didn’t realize was that my feet would remain wet for the entire day. I had to go straight to a meeting in the airport compound (green zone), followed by two more meetings back to back. I was not able to get to our office until late afternoon. It’s a rare problem in Mogadishu and I’m not complaining.

On the second day that I was invited to lunch with the staff in our compound. Our finance manager was leaving the organization and, as is often the case in Somalia, he bought lunch for his colleagues. It was a nice surprise. I went downstairs and into our courtyard to see the feast all laid out. It was only men since women often eat separately in this type of setting, particularly where you’re eating on the ground.

The food consisted of chunks of goat laid on a bed of rice with a few veggies thrown on for decoration. We chased it with a glass of camel milk. It was quite yummy, I have to say. One needs to be careful with camel milk if you’re not used to it. It’s a powerful laxative. I don’t have it often enough to say I’m used to it but my deputy director assured me that this was not super fresh. That's actually a good thing. The fresher the milk, the more powerful the laxative effect.

I don't get a chance to eat outside much in Mogadishu so it was quite nice. I think the team enjoyed having me join them. With all the insecurity, expats can be a bit of a novelty in some circumstances. Lots of questions as to whether I'd had a traditional Somalia meal before. I had - the most recent being in June of this year, but it's not something I get to do often. Will look to make sure the next one happens sooner rather than later.