The Passport

I knew I was going to need a passport so I started that procedure months before I deployed.  What I never quite figured out correctly is what the difference was between a tourist and official passport.  The tourist version is blue and the official is red.  But that's not the real difference.  The real difference is that the official passport gets you through customs without having to pay for a visa.  Also, a visa application could take a few minutes or could take forever and ultimately be denied.  The passport for which I paid over a hundred bucks is the tourist kind.

I'm now in the process of applying for an official passport.  On the good side, it's free of charge since I'm working on government/military business.  On the bad side, it's going to take two to three months and I have places to be within that time frame.  So, if you find yourself coming out to Djibouti, you're going to want to look into getting that official passport as soon as physically possible.

Oh, another Important Tip about coming out here:  Get lots of extra passport photos and bring them.  The only way to get them here is to go out in town and you will probably need them for various things.  Like visas and new passport applications.