Djibouti - water and qat, what pleasure!

Djibouti - water and qat, what pleasure!, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

A lot has been written here and on the blog about qat and its destructive influence on families, so need to say too much more. Basically, men start on their qat at about midday and spend the next five hours sitting around with their mates chewing the leaves like goats. So not only are they dead to the world, inable to work or earn money, but they spend the money that they have earned (maybe earlier in the day) on their drug instead of their families.

Still, I find this a charming portrait of a young man, posing here with his qat and his bottle of water.