Djibouti - Day 4 - Working Hard to Rest on the Sabbath

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This morning I woke up and decided I was going to make this Sabbath the most restful of Sabbaths I've had in a while. I rolled out of bed at 8:30am, got dressed and slowly made my way over to the galley for breakfast.

(This being a Navy base, naval terms are used to identify buildings and functions. My career Armed Forces Grand slam is now complete - I've been to Camp Pendleton (Marines), Camp Arifjan, Bagram Airfield and Camp Henry (Army), Lackland Air Force Base (Air Force), and Camp Lemonnier (Navy). As for which assignment I've liked most: Right now it would have to be Arifjan because of how long I was there and the friends I've made. In fact, one of my students from my first trip to Kuwait 2 years ago is now working here in Djibouti! Talk about a small world...)

After a simple breakfast I headed over to the Chapel for the 11:00am worship service. Chaplain Chaney was a warm fellow whose love for his sheep was evident in the way he looked at us and spoke with us. He grasped his sacred trust and spoke passionately to us. The big takeaway from his message was the importance of a basic Christian Education which, in his words, boiled down to three things: "Pray it, say it, put it on display." I will definitely be using this in future lessons/messages. I left the service encouraged by the Chaplain's challenge to use the time in Djibouti to grow in my God-given abilities for His glory. I've only got six days to do that, but by God's grace I will.

Having had a big breakfast before church left me not so hungry for lunch. The heat also worked on me as a secondary appetite suppressor. And despite eating more than I normally do back home (thanks to open buffet lines in the galley), I feel myself thinning out on account of the heat, and simply trying to survive it. The heat and humidity act much like a sauna. Walking a quarter mile drenches me in sweat. But with the strong winds hitting me from all sides the sweat evaporates rather quickly. Perhaps my body knows that it has to shed its "permafrost" (year-round winter layer) in order to not collapse. Thankfully there are plenty of water stations around where I can get a cold bottle of water.

I made my way instead back to the 11th Parallel (MWR building) where I could use the Internet connection to catch up on email and Facebook. The more time I spend overseas the more I see the importance of these tools - especially for those who are deployed 6-18 months or more. It's so important to keep connected back home now that we have the technology to do so. In fact, I have not been on a post or base where so many laptops are on and connecting home.

My goal was to relax all day, inside from the heat. I can't recall ever being so uncomfortable from the heat in all my travels. Thankfully, the 11th Parallel has a nice lounge area where I can plug into a wall and use my laptop. So I stayed here until dinner, when I walked back to the galley to eat. The food service here is surprisingly not as good as I've had in Afghanistan (probably the best I've had), or in Kuwait. Nevertheless, I'm thankful that I can eat at least.

After a quick dinner I returned to the 11th Parallel to "call" home. With all the other laptops competing for bandwidth calling was a challenge. The voice and video was choppy at best. I noticed that there were a few others who were able to somewhat successfully call "home", but they were using laptops instead of netbooks.

It's now about 10pm and I've got to get to bed for a 5am wake-up. Tomorrow I'll brave the early hour to shave and shower before going to work. Thank you Lord for today, this day of rest. It was badly needed.

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