This is the album of my shots from my travels in East Africa, 1-10 March 2007. I shot almost 400 photos. Here are the best 278. I've deleted the highly repetitive shots one tends to take when you only have one chance and can't risk not getting a shot. If you want to read the resulting story, "The Americans Have Landed," go to my website (www.thomaspmbarnett.com) for the links to Esquire.com, where I likewise posted a lengthy blog about my trip.
This is the first of the shots I made on my first day at Lemonier, Saturday, 3 March. The new command "shield," so to speak. One of the HOA officers designed it. I have this in a command coin, which I got for giving the talk at the Kenyan National Defense College on this trip.
At Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. Your basic tent housing. This is the stuff being phased out by the new containerized living units (CLUs).
An example of the old French Foreign Legion marine base structures. Not that many in use, but a few. The VIP quarters were old FFL and they sucked: bug ridden and nasty old plumbing. The CLUs, in comparison, were pretty nice.
A shot down a "street" at Lemonier. Tents on either side and containers stacked in the distance. Notice the big AC units. Hotter than hell there during the warm months and just plain hot the rest of the time.
One of the three shots of mine to make it into the piece. As soon as I saw the door I knew I needed to shoot it. Caption in Esquire, which I wrote, read: "A scene at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. While special operations makes most of the news, the task force consists of far more well diggers, engineers, civil-affairs specialists, and medics."
The U.S. side-of-the-single-shared-airstrip. On the tarmac are a couple of CH-53s, used primarily for evacs of troops down range in the event of medical emergencies. One was used to ferry some Guam National Guard guys injured (one) and killed (two) in a vehicle mishap in Ethiopia during my time there.
A shot of the existing containerized living units in Lemonier prior to CLU City being built. Not many to go around, thus all the tents.
A shot of the new CLU City from a crack in a locked-up gate along the old base perimeter, now expanded to incorporate CLU City. When I shot this through the locked gate on my first day at Lemonier, I knew I had to get up in a tower for a better shot.
Now we're into the second day of my time at Lemonier, or Sunday, 4 March. Second shot to make it into the article. Got this one off a tower (a story I tell in the piece). Caption, as I wrote it: "The spartan CLU City (for containerized living unit), built on four hundred acres recently ceded to Camp Lemonier by the Djiboutian government, will eventually house two thousand U.S. troops."
Closer shot of the CLUs.
Another shot of the CLUs.
Now we're into my third day at Lemonier, or Monday, 5 March. This is the first of a series of paintings left behind by the French in what is now the officers' club room of the officers' quarters. I just thought these paintings, drawn right on the walls, were pretty cool.
Another painting.
Still on Monday, 4 March. I fly with Rear Admiral Tim Moon, then deputy commander, CJTF-HOA, his aide, and a Kenyan major, from Djibouti to Nairobi, Kenya through Addis Ababa. Here is a shot of Addis Ababa airport from the tarmac.
Over Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from a Kenyan Airlines jet heading to Kenya.
Also over Addis Ababa.
Now on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, heading south.
Volcano from the jet, not too far south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. You see a lot of very old ones on the flight down south until you hit the Great Rift Valley.
Another volcano.
Second one, closer up.
As you get near the Great Rift Valley, it gets a lot greener.
A shot of the Great Rift Valley's edge. Hard for anything but a satellite shot to give you a good sense of its immensity. Eventually, the Horn just breaks off from the continent and is set adrift, a very long time into the future.
Now we're into Tuesday, 6 March. These are my AV guys at the Kenyan National Defense College, just after getting me wired up.
A shot of the student body: generals from all over Africa but heavily slanted, naturally, to the Kenyan military. About fifty in all. The senior Kenyan military chiefs I spoke with before the talk eventually took seats in the back row on the right, along with the commander and deputy of CJTF-HOA.
Shot of the left side of the hall.
Shot of the right. Both taken before the room filled up. They thought it was pretty funny to see me taking shots of the audience.
First of shots on Wednesday, 7 March. My hotel room at Safari Park in Nairobi. It was closed to U.S. personnel for a bunch of weeks due to terror concerns and was just reopened for HOA use the week I arrived. Much nicer than Lemonier quarters, and yet a can of Raid in the closet, which I much appreciated.
My bed at the hotel. And yes, I did use the netting at night.
Nicer shot out of my room. Very beautiful grounds.
Electrical junction box at Safari Park. Just interesting to me for the Chinese lettering (unless I'm mistaken).
Beautiful trees near the main lobby building of the Safari Park.
Shot from our (Moon and I) armored SUV on the way to the Nairobi airport. Highway on outskirts of Nairobi.
Interesting to travel around a place where all the ads feature blacks and you're the oddity.
The C-130 on the Nairobi airport tarmac as it's getting loaded up for our flight down to the Kenyan naval base airstrip on the coast at Manda Bay.
Another shot.
Shot of the tail, where the loading was going on. I talk about the issue we had in the article.
This was an Arkansas Air National Guard C-130.
Other jets moving around in the distance. Saw a UN plane and several NGO cargo planes. The commercial jets were Kenyan, South African, and lotsa Middle Eastern and Asian airlines. Fewer Euro and American.
Working the pallet issue in the tail.
A shot from where I sat up front. Fairly packed up.
Djiboutian liasion officer. Like all the American military, he immediately falls asleep when the plane takes off.
First of series of shots as the pallets are quickly pulled out just a few minutes after we land at the remote airstrip on the coast.
I set the camera here on mutliple-shots-per-click. Simple stuff, but fascinating to watch.
There goes the last pallet.
Going ...
This all happens so fast, that's it really interesting to watch. Just slide 'em all out and they're gone in a few minutes.
Then the guys with guns suddenly appear and you realize this is a military strip.
The C-130 on the remote strip. We all just grabbed out bags and climbed out of the back. As soon as I got out, I dropped my bags, asked if I could shoot, and then started snapping. Almost immediately a senior NCO strolls up and starts swearing. He says, "Damn, if I knew you were going to be here, Dr. Barnett, I would have brought a copy of your book to have you sign! I saw you back in the States last year!" That was weird.
Marine helo in the distance on the strip.
The "baby Chinooks," as they call them, plus a bunch of Marine short-term tents along the strip for the joint exercise Edge Mallet.
Not exactly a big airport. This was basically the entire infrastructure, besides the strip itself and the tents.
A shot of the Marine tents set up for the ex.
The vehicle we took to the COL Manda Bay. The COL commander, LCDR Steve Eron on the right. Major Tesfa Dejene, Ethiopian liasion officer, on the left.
Another shot of the Chinooks.
Admiral Tim Moon in the middle, his aide on the left, and Eron on the right. They knew I was shooting them and were nice enough to stand still.
Now at COL Manda Bay. Old tents on the left. Main building on right, where they have all their meets, eat, and have the bulk of R&R (a big screen where they play video games).
The commissary, run by KBR. Actually, the food was decent to pretty good. These are KBR guys quickly unloading a freezer unit brought down by the C-130. Basically, everybody on base helped out, lest the ice cream melt on the spot.
The baboons that come and go whenever they damn well please, walking right through the wire like it's not there.
Classic baobab tree, located on the grounds.
Dedication of galley to previous Manda Bay trooper who was killed in vehicle accident.
The general purpose officer/enlisted lounge.
AC unit outside of a "SWA hut" of the sort I shared with Moon.
The older tents that most guys stayed in.
Again, the chow was decent.
Shot of head inside one of the containerized bathroom units. These were a huge step up from the skanky and easily messed-up ancient French plumbing I got to sample in Djibouti. Super clean and bug free.
Shot of the head from the door.
Shot inside my SWA hut. I had the first cubicle and Moon took the back one.
Left side of my cubicle.
From the door, head-on shot of my cubicle. This bed, unlike in Lemonier, wasn't full of bugs.
Spartan, but nice.
Overall, I liked these accomodations best across my entire time in Africa. But yeah, I was a bit nervous in the pitch dark on the way to the head at 3am, given the local snake population.
Chinook passing by during Edge Mallet.
Close-up of Nik's, the commissary.
Now we're into Thursday, 7 March. The vehicle in which I travel the countryside with Capt. Steve McKnight.
McKnight with the Lt. (on left) in charge of the Marine engineering unit rehabbing the school that I describe in the article. She was very impressive.
Plaque at school from original dedication back in 2004. I describe this in the story.
First of shots of U.S. Marine engineers working alongside Kenyan engineers to erect fence around school and to build gate for traffic in and out.
Closer in.
The Kenyan engineers helped the Marines push the local contractors to come up with better cement mixes.
Original construction of the school's roof included a drop-down ceiling that only attracted tons of bats, who left tons of guano in the space. So in the rebuild, the Marines skipped the drop-down ceiling and rehabbed the stone work.
Blackboard at school
Wider shot.
Example of rehabbed stone work along roof.
Marines at work in classroom.
Shot from inside classroom. Bars to keep out the bigger wildlife.
Neat old door with elaborate metalwork.
Same door.
Shot of activity and involved vehicles from both Kenyan and U.S. sides.
Shot of the students, taking lunch break from their studies in temporary tents. I passed out licorice I was carrying.
Another shot of kids.
Lt. Spirese shooting pix herself.
Another shot of older kids.
Just before I pulled out the licorice and started the excitement.
The cutest kid there.
The kids loved seeing the shots on the read-out from my camera after I shot them. Made me wish I brought a Polaroid instamatic like Vonne and I took to China when visiting Mei Mei's orphanage.
McKnight with the kids.
Third shot to make it into the Esquire article: "Army Captain Steve McKnight with Kenyan children at a school recently rehabbed by visiting marines."
My favorite shot of the whole trip. Spirese showing her read-out on her camera to the kids.
McKnight shaking hands.
The new fence the Marines and Kenyan troops built. Concrete molds and wire strung to keep out the wildlife.
Marines building a new kitchen and pantry for the school, a story I tell in the article.
Kenyan soldier painting.
Action shot of Marines moving the concrete posts.
David Marrete, principal of the school.
He gave me a nice tour and was an excellent interview.
Older female students.
The problem with the local rock used for foundation work: porous as hell. A lot of the stuff used was coral.
Another shot of the local stones. Often they looked fine from the outside.
The old kitchen--literally sticks and a bit of corrugated tin for a roof.
The former kitchen roof.
Kenyan military trucks.
The kids' temporary classroom in a tent set up by Marines.
Another shot of same.
How the teachers cooked for themselves and the kids in the meantime.
Teachers' quarters.
Kids in class.
McKnight and Marrete talking.
Same.
McKnight, two of his civil affairs guys (typical uniform) and Moon's aide.
Girl student rolling water barrel.
Marette joins the conversation.
Drive back to Manda Bay along sandy roads along coast. Reminded me of loose roads along dunes in RI and Cape Cod. McKnight on left and Kenyan driver on right (UK-style car). I'm in back behind McKnight, holding my recorder all along but snapping shots when I can.
Closer view of roads. You can see how a rainy season makes them impassable.
Kenyan Wildlife Service truck approaching.
The dust kicked up. A very suggestive air fresher hanging from the rear-view mirror!
Local rural Kenyan villager home. Mud/dung-wall-around--stick construction, with thatched roof.
Kenyan Wildlife Service guys in truck.
Kenyan National Youth Service ag camp. The flagpole in main courtyard. I describe the visit in the article.
Main buildings of youth service camp. We visited with the main guy in his office at the elbow.
Walking through the grounds with Sammy, our host, so I shoot the trees.
A lot of disabled vehicles on the ground. Reminded me of where I grew up as a kid, in that Jeff Foxworthy way.
Sammy on left, then McKnight, then Steve's guys and the admiral's aide. I trail behind making shots.
Heading into the fields.
The banana fields in the distance. The heat and sunlight here was stunning. You move pretty slowly in this intense climate around noon, which is when we were running around that day. It was hard to stay hydrated.
Basic grounds.
As we head into the banana fields, we see and hear Chinooks buzzing along the treelines in the distance. I almost found myself waiting for "This is the End" to start on the soundtrack, it was such an evocative view with that whup-whup-whup sound. Then I remembered I just came from the rehabbed school.
Again, the heat was unreal, but the chance to get sunburned, really bad, was even worse. We're just a degree south of the equator here.
The banana trees, suffering a bit from drought. The soil reminded me a lot of Florida.
Close-up of banana plant.
Very sandy soil. Also made me feel at home.
Another banana plant close-up. I had never seen a banana field before, so as a kid who grew up surrounded by corn and hay, I was fascinated.
Watermelons were getting nowhere in the drought.
Can't remember what these were. Feel like they were nuts.
These are the kasava plants, from which you harvest potato-like roots.
Orchards on right.
Sammy has one of his guys cut down a kasava plant to show us the roots.
The roots, which looked like sweet potato.
When cut open, though, it was like a white carrot in substance.
McKnight cuts the root up with his knife.
Sammy making a point.
The partially peeled kasava root.
We ate some raw. It tasted like something between carrot and potato. Not bad, really.
Nut trees in distance.
Heading back.
Sammy making a point to Steve.
Buildings in the camp.
More fairly rundown buildings, but the place was amazingly neat.
More buildings.
Cashew nut Sammy showed us. In return, I gave him my bag of pecans. He had never tasted any before, just like me with kasava.
Checking out the cashews.
AIDS prevention poster back at the office.
Closer shot of same.
Another.
Again, reminded me of growing up in SW Wisconsin: the local farm agent.
Ants were everywhere in Kenya. Naturally, I loved this, given my intense phobia of ants.
Back at COL Manda Bay, your average bug.
We get back after the long day of traveling around the countryside.
Still on Thursday, McKnight, Moon, I and all the foreign liasion officers (Brit, SK, French, two Djiboutian, Ethiopian) get on some small speed boats (local carriers, like the Kenyan in the foreground) and traverse the bay to the port city of Lamu. In the background, a Kenyan naval ship at base pier (and that's the entire naval infrastructure for this site).
From left to right: Brit, Djiboutian, Ethiopian, Ethiopian, U.S. "Big Red One" force pro sarge, and French colonel.
French colonel (cool guy) and SK Marine major (intense, like your basic Marine).
Djiboutian officer. Another force pro guy on right (we had two, unarmed).
Admiral Moon and Capt. McKnight heading down to the speed boats.
Heading out from the pier. Korean Marine in foreground.
Kenyan ship as we pass.
Local dhow out on Manda.
One of the speed boats getting ahead of the rest. Teeth-rattling ride.
Me in middle between Korean and French officers, with Djiboutian up front. He regretted getting that seat, as his rear end hurt after the hour-long ride.
Bigger dhow with sails down. Basically a local taxi.
Another dhow.
We head into channel that is short cut to Lamu. Dredged years earlier.
Coastline of channel was full of the coral rocks.
Forests of mangrove trees along coastline. Their roots were like seawall, reminding me of that Dr. Suess book.
Heading up channel.
Shot of coastline, with mangrove forests.
Approaching port city of Lamu, which is truly ancient in origins.
Pulling up.
A shot along the harborside. Old cannons from when the Portuguese were there, if I'm not mistaken.
We head into town, McKnight in the lead.
Donkeys were everywhere.
Fancier boat in harbor. For tourist cruises, I believe.
Shot from back entrance into office of senior local game warden of Kenyan Wildlife Service.
Another shot of same, looking into city.
Yet another. These buildings were very old. You could tell this place has been around for a very long time.
Local cargo boat gettiing unloaded.
Local regional flag and Kenyan national flag.
Low-tech local longshoremen's approach to unloading a ship.
Basket for transporting chickens.
We head into town to visit a recently rehabbed school, a project McKnight oversaw.
Donkeys, donkeys everywhere. It was like cows in India: not to be disturbed.
One of the back alleys. Sewage was open and raw. You see the trough on left and then it switches over to right, running under the front step in the foreground.
Me falling behind the rest. A force pro guy always kept an eye on me, though, just out of habit. There was no danger to be had in Lamu. Our troops love having a day off there.
Don't want to get too close to the business end. Big kickers.
Me following the pack.
Well.
McKnight with janitor at Muslim girls' school HOA had just rehabbed, to include the attached mosque.
Shot of school rooms from inside main courtyard/playground of school
Mosque attached.
HOA had replaced roof, rehabbed all walls and painted, etc. Place looked very neat, but bare of equipment.
Admin side of school.
Average classroom.
Girl students running around playground at end of day.
Self-explanatory.
Admiral Moon and Capt. McKnight speak with teacher. She and Steve were clearly good friends based on the Captain's local work. She's working an MA from Uganda.
Looking outside the school's wire to local park/playground. Bit rougher.
Sign at school.
Moon watching girl students play "net ball," a holdover from the Brits.
Mosque tower in distance.
Teacher, Moon, McKnight.
Students playing volleyball. Everyone fought over the same ball to play various games.
McKnight and school teacher.
Djiboutian officer, Moon, McKnight and teacher in discussion.
Later, in Lamu, heading back to shore, we see local craftsmen building a dhow. Almost no hardware involved.
Putting bow in place.
Rehab job waiting in line.
Mangrove tree along shore in Lamu.
Beautiful local boat. I bought one of the local boat charm wooden signs, which you can see just above higher shore rope.
Where I bought everyone a round of beers at the end of this long day.
Carved doorframe that indicates an ancient slaver's house.
Detail of door. About 4 million Africans sent east as slaves. Roughly 12 million to West.
On speed boat heading back to Manda Bay at sunset, so this is Kenyan coast from Indian Ocean.
My driver on boat ride back.
Me sitting next to him in back. Much smoother ride back there.
Moving at decent clip.
French colonel in front of me, with cool HOA shirt.
Another nice sunset shot.
Now it's Friday morning, very early, on the 9th. On way back from shower, I spot a spider monkey and finally get one on film.
Every other time I saw them they ran off before I could snap a shot.
Critters were quick.
But fun to observe. The guys say they will come up to you and take stuff out of your hands if you let them.
They scavenge the place constantly.
Moon (Ieft) hosting BGen Ngewa Mukala of Kenyan navy (middle, hands behind him) for breakfast and tour of Manda Bay. Moon and I had spent previous two nights in long conversation with Mukala at local Kenyan officers' club. He was a fascinating guy.
Mukala and Moon pose for me. Ngewa, BTW, was the guy who triggered my "two wives" column back in March.
Marine LCAC landing at navy pier (part of exercise) as Moon and I arrive there to get swift boat (rigid inflatable boat, or RIB) demo from Seal/SOF support unit.
The RIB we get to ride. I stand in back two rows, where SEALs usually stand as they're being transported, along with liasion officers. Moon gets to sit up front and test drive.
These RIBS are incredibly fast. Hand signals to warn you of turns, because if both hands aren't holding tight and you don't lean into it a bit, you can go flying off.
LCAC hitting beach.
Never seen that before.
Just floats right onto beach.
Not too stealthy, though. Pretty noisy.
Moon getting to test drive.
These RIBs can stop incredibly fast too. Something to watch.
Head at naval facility. I go in to take a leak, and all of a sudden, while my hands are busy, a huge wasp jumps in my face. I keep blowing it back while trying to finish. Then a second appears, so I go back and forth between them. Then a third, and I'm puffing like crazy. At one point, I just start laughing and run out.
LCAC on the beach.
My journey home finally begins around noon on the 9th. First the drive to the navy pier.
Shot of local countryside.
My driver carries my main bag to the boat.
My first vehicle on the long journey.
We leave Manda Bay behind.
Back to Lamu at high speed.
We stop alongside a dhow in route. My man picks up a customer, and gets a smoked fish in return.
This guy's going to airport pier too.
Shot of the dhow as we leave. Notice the good luck charm on side.
We approach the airport pier.
The airport pier. Basically the only way to get there.
My guy carries my bag the quarter mile to the terminal. Very nice of him.
We approach the local commercial strip across the harbor from Lamu.
Pretty cool waiting area.
Interior of terminal roof.
Guess who I run into on the same flight to Mombasa? My new friend Ngewa Mukala, the Kenyan general. So we sit in back and talk the whole way down. He is a truly fascinating guy, and he asks me a million questions about Enterra as a start-up.
The Kenyan Airlines flight down to Mombasa. I stay on it to Nairobi too.
Shot of the Kenyan prez at terminal in Mombasa. Das ist alles!
