Djibouti
Letter from Bankoulé
Rachel Pieh Jones goes looking for a waterfall in the Djiboutian desert: “I tried to keep my expectations low. I know how little water there is in the desert, how unlikely it is to fall in substantial cascades.”
Dreams of Djiboutian Olympic Glory
Ayanleh Souleiman is Djibouti’s best hope for an Olympic medal in nearly thirty years. Rachel Pieh Jones interviewed him about his hopes for Rio.
Tea Time at the TB Clinic
When, asks writer Rachel Pieh Jones, is it rude for a foreigner to refuse a drink? “My way has always been to say yes, to fried camel hump, rancid butter, syrupy drinks. But am I still foreign? Does time erase the pressure to comply?”
Women Are My Tribe
Rachel Jones on the gender imbalance in Djibouti’s most popular sport: “The men are playing games while the women are working. To outsiders this can seem inherently sexist.”
You Can’t Go Home Again
Rachel Pieh Jones profiles a Yemeni American struggling to make a life in a new country: “It is so expensive here,” Ibrahim said. “I can’t work. My kids aren’t in school. We don’t speak French. We feel so much stress.”
To Find a House, To Make a Home
In Djibouti, writes Rachel Pieh Jones, the work of dilals, or house finders, is unheralded yet profound: “Home becomes our place of melding the old and new, familiar and foreign, into the shape of our own liking.”
