12444.7 km from home

---

Well my first week is almost complete in Sudan.

Six days ago I stepped off the Lufthansa plane into what felt like a the blast of a hairdryer... 42 degrees. Wow. But it's a dry heat.... seriously. hahaha.

Khartoum is like any other city, it has restaurants, corner stores, and traffic lights. That is where the similarities end. There is a constant lingering smell of buring charcoal, dirt, and heat.... to me, it actually smells different when it gets hot outside... weird.

My introduction to the United Nations has been interesting to say the least. What I have seen so far indicates a behemoth of an organization, centered around process, paper work and small feifdoms. It seems each department has it's own agenda, and it is the most important agenda, of course. However, the individual departments don't seem to speak to one another, and information sharing seems to be minmal. Now, I have only seen it from my military-biased viewpoint, but it seems that each person here, while they are "working to support the Mission in Sudan," are mostly concerned with the paycheque, and closing up offices early. Not the support of the Sudanese people, or the upholding of the shaky peace that exists.

All in all, I am enjoying Khartoum. I find the people friendly, and I am trying to pick up a little Arabic along the way... Salam a'laykuum is Hello, Shukran is Thank You, and Kiff? is How are you doing? Next week I'd like to know how to say "The area of a circle is Pi, times the squared radius of that circle" Not likely eh?

I seem to be getting used to the heat here, but honeslty, it is dry. Which makes the heat a lot more bearable... if you sweat, you dry almost immediately, which just doesn't happen in a hot, humid environement. The other thing to get used to is the dust... fine reddish, brown dust, coats everything. It has the consistency of baby powder, and passes through air conditioners, cracks around windows.... it gets everywhere. I'm hoping my laptop survives long enough to last the mission.

I finished my UN indoctrination training this week, and I begin my one week Military Observer (MilOb) training course on Monday. I think most of you know I took the one month Canadian UN MilOb course in Kingston last year; however, it turns out most of the other non-western military observers have ZERO pre-Sudan MilOb training. Awesome. So it seems that most of the work in our sectors will be planned, organized, and executed by the Canadians, Germans, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegians, and British. Some of my fellow Canadian UNMO's have some stories that show that some other countries' MilObs are concerned only with the paycheque, and have no wish to step outside of the Team Sites to conduct patrols, or simply do their jobs. I am trying to not let this influence my way of thinking, but it gives me a heads up on things to expect when I arrive in my Sector down south in 10 days.


The pictures are of the UNMO house where I am living, and stay at on my way in/out of Sudan... the pictures of the towers in the distance are on a Mosque that was built by Osama Bin Laden when he was the guest of the Sudanese Government here. He was later expelled under international pressure because of his training camp activities. But while he was here, he built roads, hospitals, schools, and Mosques... quite the way to win the hearts and minds of a developing countries' people. The video, if I can post it, shows the time, and you can here the Msulim clerics making their calls of prayer. It's actually kind of nice... but I guess it all depends on if the guy can sing... other Mosques have guys that couldn't carry a tune in a bag apparently.

Anyhow, I hope this finds you all happy and helathy... take care.

Don

---

Photos

UNMO House1
My bed

UNMO House2
Sunrise from the roof.

Osama's Mosque
Bin Laden built this while in Sudan, as well as roads, schools, and hospitals.

Comments

[Timmay]

Howdy
Hey Don, Great to hear from you, sounds like quite the adventure so far. Good luck with the heat! I know I didn't like the heat too much, but it wasn't a dry heat that you keep mentioning!! Haha. Tim