Last week, the REI home team received the startling news from our staff that Djibouti, like most countries in the Middle East, was beginning to experience pangs of uprising. With presidential elections on the horizon (set for April), the political climate had become tense in the region, with small protests erupting in Djibouti City’s suburbs. However, we had heard that all of our staff were still safe and that they weren’t concerned that their safety would be threatened.

On Saturday, we received a report from staff that Djibouti has calmed. There had been rumors that strikes would come from last Saturday (February 19) through Friday (February 25), but they remained rumors and none of the strikes occurred.

...Read more on REI's blog!

Amidst all the turmoil in the Middle East, our staff in Africa have been holding their breath to see how it affects the countries where they live and work. Our staff in Djibouti, up to this point, have not been impacted by the protests in other countries, but just this past Friday, the REI home team received an email giving us a new update on protests in Djibouti. Read more from our staff members!

REI has more than five staff (and their families) who live and work in the Horn of Africa in one of the hottest places on earth: Djibouti. What is Djibouti like? Read this BBC Correspondent's article called "A Life of Constant Thirst Beside Djibouti's Lake Assal" for a taste.

REI’s President and CEO, Roderick Beidler, just returned last week from a round-the-world trip to visit REI staff. He was joined by REI’s Regional President for East Africa and the Middle East, Rick Heupel, and together they visited REI’s staff in Djibouti, Egypt, and Jordan—and boy, were they excited about what they saw.In Roderick’s words, “Nothing substitutes for being there!”

Being an expatriate in Djibouti is an opportunity to learn to live all over again.

I stepped off the plane in 2004 and thought I knew something about living in east Africa. I had already finished a teaching stint of eight months in Somalia where I had learned how to tell goat meat from camel meat, how to ignore machine gun fire and how to explain English idioms to non-native English speakers. But Djibouti is an entirely different place and I soon realized that I’ve only begun to learn.