Today rounds up exploring the world and our hearts for the month of February. One thing I have learned is exploring a different culture every week is a lot. It's quite the push. I won't do that again. This week was Djibouti. My step-son was stationed in Djibouti in 2014-15. At the time I had never heard of it and the research I did was military based. Why were we there in the first place?
For February I decided to learn about the place where he was, not just the base. Djibouti is on the horn of west Africa. It is a tiny country with a large port city: Djibouti City. It's a hot bed for pirates (one of the reasons the US is there). Djibouti supposedly means 'the casserole'. Which is what it is. There are 9 different countries with bases there. It is also a combination of locals and Somalians, the neighboring country. You can't grow any food there, so it is all trucked in. They tend to eat camel and goat along with drinking the milk. Khat is a favorite herb there. It is an herb that removes any anxiety. Which may sound good, but it removes it to a dangerous level. I can see why it may be so addictive. The official language is French, due to the French controlling the country so long. However, on the street the people speak Somali.
I also learned about Congenital Heart Defects for medical education. I watched "Building the Field" which is about mental health in adults with chronic heart defects. It was truly fascinating. I also read a book "Hearts of a Girl" which is about a girl who needs a heart and kidney transplant and what all that entails. My daughter has hypoplastic left heart, so this information was all very important to me.
Next month is Art and France. My heritage has some French in it so I am exploring my French side. In art I hope to go to the O'Keefe museum in New Mexico. Fingers crossed.
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