I've been living in Africa for a while now. It's normal to see people living underneath piles of trash, or if they're ambitious, underneath crudely made trash shelters. Disease is common, especially Malaria. The locals that make money by selling black market merchandise spend their money on a drug called khat.
The nicest school I've seen had a dirt floor and a plywood roof. Some of the children are lifeless. They just stare blankly at something in the distance. I've even seen some children wander the streets alone.
Potable water is unavailable to probably 90% of them. The funny thing is that Djibouti is one of the wealthier African nations and the crime rate is very low. At least for now.
The Kempenski hotel must have been a sort of sick joke by the French. It's completely out of place here.
Americans can't even comprehend poverty of this magnitude.