Impossible, Ethiopia

Hi folks! So, 40 days and 40 nights later, I've finally made it back to some sort of civilization, also known as my office in Djibouti. What a trip! From reading her prior posts I gather that Danielle kept you all informed about how the whole affair with Scout and Patch came about...I think that's going to be my and Danielle's 15 minutes of fame. Anyhow, the kitties are doing just fine in their new home. If anyone ever makes it over to Ethiopia, just stop by the National Zoo in Addis Ababa and say "Yeah, I know Danielle and Rob, now lemme see the cheetahs!" and they'll let you right in. Better than being on the VIP list at a night club, I'm tellin' ya.
Hmm...in other news, my crew and I took a trip a couple weeks ago to a place called Mustahil. Translated literally, the name means 'Impossible' in the local dialect. Fitting name for the town, since for 3 months out of the year the whole place is under 5 feet of water and the townpeople have to evacuate to high ground and live in tents. Why anyone would ever try to build a village there, I have no idea, but the people were themselves were amazing. No water, no power, yet they figured out how to build a camel-powered (think hamster wheel) sesame seed press to make sesame oil. Totally bizarre. The local tribe there adopted me, and gave me a new Somali name, "Santoori." I'm told it means "Senator" in the local dialect...who knows. On day two of the trip, we distributed some soccer balls to the local childrens' teams...those kids can play ball! They might have been running around barefoot, but a few of them had a mean penalty shot.
Hmm...in other news, I've traded in eating goat for dining on camel and wild boar, not bad! Camel kinda tastes like lamb, and boar is like incredibly tender pork (Only setback is that you have to shoot and roast the boar yourself...most people here are Muslim and have an aversion to pork in general). But, we split a 55 gallon fuel drum in half, welded some metal bars on it, and voila! Instant charcoal grille. So at least we have some variety in the cuisine now...it's alot better than goat scraps every night. African barbeque!!!
Spent a lot of time providing medical assistance to local doctors, helping out kids with malaria or flu, etc. I guess it's the cold season over here now (south of the equator and what not), so the locals are a bit under the weather. Oh, and before I forget...the coffee here is unbelievable. They have a whole ceremony surrounding morning coffee here; they literally roast the raw beans in front of you, grind them up, and make this incredibly thick, sweet coffee poured into little tiny cups. And a little tiny cup is all you need, that stuff is strong!
Other than that, I've spent the decidedly lonely nights (read: half the globe apart from my wife) sleeping under the stars...which are brilliant like you would not believe out here. The safari's nice, but I'd trade it all in a minute for an evening at home curled up on the couch with the Mrs. This deployment crap is for the birds. Anyone have a desk job open for me?