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I've been back in Kuwait for about a week now, getting into the swing of things again. Which is going to be interrupted in about 2 weeks when we leave for Egypt. We'll spend around 8 days there, then back for 2 weeks, then off to Kenya to visit Josh and Audra for Christmas. So things are hardly settling back to normal for quite some time. Anyway, the weather has turned lovely again, cool, breezy and sunny. It rained the other day very normally (not the dust rain that sometimes comes down) and we had a good thunderstorm last night.

My time in Djibouti has made me appreciate Kuwait much more and I'm pretty sure I don't need to go back there again if I can avoid it. I did get to see the outside for a bit on the last day I was there and it is profoundly poor and desperate. The people are very down and drugged out most of the time on khat (a plant they chew). There is no sense of industry or purpose...it is the most dirty, trashed place I have ever seen. The landscape is utterly dreary with rocky desert littered with plastic bags and trash in every direction. There are some older interesting looking buildings down town, but the entire economy of the place seems centered around feeding the debased appetites of the foreigners who frequent them most frequently. Admittedly it was probably a poor impression with little to go on, but such as it was, that was all I got.

Addis Ababa was a totally different place with greenery and bustle, people who seemed more hopeful and like they had a possible future. I know it's totally different in the lowlands where people are starving, but at least in Addis things seem to be going well over all. Even the very poor looked like they had something to do and weren't lying about drugged out all the time. Anyway, it was much more enjoyable and I really want to bring Kerri and Rowan back and spend a week or two exploring the country (Ethiopia).