It's time to begin catching up after many weeks of not writing. Time to write is a luxury.
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(Sept. 19) I’m in Baidoa, in southwest Somalia as I write this. For security reasons, I am not allowed to post things in Somalia while I am currently in that specific location. So, this won’t be posted until I’m somewhere else. But before I discuss my current visit, I need to go back to my previous trip to Somalia – the one that I took at the end of August/early September.
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After returning from the US, I was anxious to get back to work. Not only get back to work but get back to Somalia. That may sound odd to some but I do like what I do and I do like my team. Moreover, we are in the midst of a terrible drought that seems to be headed in the direction of a full-on famine. It’s a very serious situation and something that was in the back of my mind throughout the time that I was in the US. My team did a fantastic job while I was away but I wanted to get back to supporting them.
Within a little over a week of being back, I boarded a plane for Mogadishu (Aug. 28). One advantage of being back in Somalia, being away from family, was that I could really focus. Hanging out with family is one of the best things in life. But as the humanitarian situation continued to deteriorate, I desperately needed this time to dedicate to getting caught up and making sure our drought response was quickly scaling up.
I normally travel early Sunday. The 4am wake-up and 6:30 flight get me to the office at the beginning of the workday and workweek. It cuts my weekend in half but it’s an efficient use of my time. From the time I hit the ground, it was meeting after meeting as everyone was catching me up on what had happened while I was away, and to at least give me their take on what had transpired.
By day three, I was ready to escape the confines of the office. Not being able to duck out for a run or a cup of coffee, or do anything that involves me leaving the building without security detail can drive someone a bit crazy after a while.
My escape was to head to the “green zone” and participate in a panel discussion on reaching marginalized communities hosted by the UN. It took place in one of the container facilities (hotels) within the airport compound. As I’ve mentioned before, the airport area is more like a large military base and the airport takes up only about a third of the fortified complex. The rest is made up of armed compounds within the armed compound for private companies, UN, embassies, etc. It’s a dusty, sandy web of roads linking these compounds (most of which are collections of container buildings) and teaming with SUVs and armored personnel carriers (APCs). It’s a completely different world from what I experience on the outside. Though there are plenty of SUVs and APCs, we have noisy children playing in the dirt streets, bleating goats and an occasional meandering camel. Overall, life is better on the outside.
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| Mogadishu scene - camels wandering the street, kids resting from playing football, a sliver of ocean view |
After the meeting, it was back to the office for a combination of face-to-face and virtual meetings. One twist this time was that one of my staff asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with a couple of colleagues. It was a bold request given that I had actually never really been out to dinner in Mogadishu. I’ve been out to dinner in Garowe (Puntland) a couple of times where it’s considerably safer, but never in the capital.
She arranged for an armored pick-up which came to pick us up around 7pm. We headed out in the darkness of the Mogadishu evening. There’s only been one other time that I was in a vehicle after dark on the streets of the city and that was after a function at the British embassy in the green zone. The event went a bit late and the VIP gate that I normally use was closed. As such, we had to make our way to another gate that was on the opposite side of the base. Somalia, being farther north than Nairobi, gets dark a half hour to forty-five minutes earlier.
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| from my window - camel with the owner's phone number |
Fortunately, our destination was only a couple of kilometers away. We pulled up in front of the unmarked perimeter wall of the restaurant compound. This is where things are usually the sketchiest. I was told to disembark from the side nearest the wall where I would slip quickly through the metal door, past a metal detector and two armed guards and into the compound. Once inside things were calm and peaceful. No foreigners, obviously, but people sitting around having tea in the dimly lit courtyard. I was escorted to a far table in near complete darkness with only a small light barely revealing the faces of my colleagues.
I felt like a kid skipping school. Though he wasn’t with me, my head of security did indeed agree to this. That was another thing that was weird for me. He normally shadows me when I’m in country. I suppose it made me feel even more reckless. Nonetheless, it was a stunningly beautiful evening. I could see a crescent moon between the palm fronds waving in the warm evening breeze.
At one point the manager appeared through the darkness. He’s a skinny, smiley Ugandan guy that I’ve known for a few years (I’ve been to this place during the day several times) and he seemed surprised to see me. I told him I was surprised to be there myself.
We ordered (fish curry for me) and the proceeded to sip on our juices as we waited for dinner (alcohol’s illegal though it would have been a nice evening for a glass of wine). Given that there had been a hotel attack a few days prior that involved some of our staff (thankfully no one was injured or killed), much of the conversation revolved around that and other attacks that they had encountered over the years of living and working in Somalia. Sobering conversation but it wasn’t without a few laughs here and there.
After dinner we made our way back to the exit, getting a couple of double takes along the way. We entered our compound and I was relieved that we’d pulled it off without a hitch. I’m not saying I’m empowered to keep pushing that envelope because I’m not. I’m just happy for the nice experience.
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The next morning, I was plowing through emails when the head of our Mogadishu office came to the guesthouse where I was working and asked if I was okay with have a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister. I said yes, of course, though it does involve a bit of risk heading to the seat of power for the Somalia Federal Government. But you can’t pass up an opportunity such as this. We need close ties with this new government and at this point I know very few of them.
With short notice, we made our way to Villa Somalia, the former home of the Italian colonial government decades ago. I’ve been before but it’s always quite the adventure getting through the innumerable layers of security, boom gates, etc. Once inside, we had the customary wait in the spacious waiting lounge. Once inside, the meeting went fairly well. I suspected that I was rather bad at these things given that perpetual look of boredom I often get when meeting with high-level officials. But a Somali guy I know who runs another international organization told me he gets the same looks. According to him, that’s what a lot of Somali people in power do. Maybe. Or we’re both boring.
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Over the past several months, I’ve been quite heavily engaged in speaking to media about the drought. We have communications people that set these things up, sometimes with an idea of what they want to discuss specifically, sometimes not. It’s mostly been media outlets in the US and Europe.
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| me with the princess |
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| Mogadishu sunset |
The princess had just returned from a trip to Galkacyo (central Somalia) and I was impressed that she was authorized to do such a thing, and that she was willing to do so. After the roundtable discussion, I spoke to her separately for a few minutes and it was clearer to me why she was willing to leave the confines of the UN compound, when so many from the UN don’t (or supposedly can’t). It seems that she really has her heart in this goodwill ambassador role. I almost felt like she knew more about some of these issues than some who do this for a living. Refreshing, I must say.
