Faculty and students of the Lycee D' Etat High School in Djibouti City, Djibouti, showed their school spirit April 6, 2009 while attending a basketball game between the Djiboutian and U.S. service members stationed at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

A group of enlisted noncommissioned officers, referred to as Joint Forces Five (JFF), worked with the high school's recreation coordinator to organize the event.
Regardless of the game's final score, or who had the most assists or rebounds, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) personnel hope to build a winning partnership with the local community.

"What Joint Forces Five did here today shows Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa's commitment to the mission of building friendships, forging relationships and creating partnerships to enable African solutions to African challenges," said Chief Master Sergeant Martin Klukas, CJTF-HOA command senior enlisted leader.

Joint Forces Five's broader goal is to revive the organization's involvement in the local community. The challenges of frequent personnel redeployments, consequential in established relationships and valuable information lost, result in lost relationship building opportunities. Joint Forces Five is determined to meet those challenges.

"These outreach programs are valuable assets for building and maintaining good standing relationships," said Joint Forces Five President Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Marquita Melvin. "We look forward to coordinating more games and other outreach programs in the near future."

The game's top scorer and rebounder Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dwayne Gordon said he enjoyed playing in the game and looks forward to a rematch.

"These events promote human welfare and show the respect we have for the Djiboutians," said Gordon. "The idea of having two vastly different cultures intertwined to increase diplomacy through small efforts, such as playing a basketball game is amazing. It only takes one person to make a difference in an individual's life and in my opinion; it all starts with volunteering your time."

Joint Forces Five plans on coordinating another basketball game sometime in May and encourages more participation from Camp service members.

In the end, it didn't matter if the final score was 54-54 or 62-51; the key to the game was building closer relationships with Djibouti's future leaders of tomorrow today.