Blogs from Sudan, Africa - page 12

Excerpt from Galib's emails: "I get up, use the outdoor shower if there is water, shave at the BARNEY sink while fighting mosquitoes, therefore cutting myself as I fight the bugs and keep the blade going. I have a twix bar, yep a twix and it is made locally in Africa, so not that great and a glass of water, a multivitamin to keep up and then drive the 6 kms to work on a mud road and put my vehicle into 4x4 to get by. The road I travel on is marked by the various groups in control of the area as you can see by my SPLA photo below. This road was built by Osama Bin Laden before he left for Afghanistan. He had a farm just besides our new UN Sector V HQ. ... read more

Saturday, June 9, 2007 - Torit, Sudan 3 days into my time in the Torit team site, and I have already served as duty officer, given a lecture on the interim government structure as agreed to in the CPA, and been nominated to be the Welfare officer for the cap. Good times... good times. I knew to expect that a heavy balance of responsibility and various duties would likely fall on my shoulders, being a "Western" English speaking officer. But three days in, it seems like there will be more expected than I had first imagined. It rained here again today. Harder and more fierce than anything I had ever seen in Canada; but that is how the rainy-season works here I guess.... one day warm, one day hot, one day with a 1-2 minute ... read more

June 7, 2007 - Torit, Sudan I have settled into my new "home." I have chosen to live in the UN Camp, as it provides much more in the way of security and infrastructure than the other places I saw today. I was picked up by an Egyptian Major, Tamer Goda, and taken around to see the accommodation possibilities around town. For $20/night, I could have a 12x10 room, with a clapboard door, locked on the outside by padlock, with electricity only from 7-10pm. Did I mention the bed was a double? ya, no thanks. So I chose the UN option, for $30/night and that will give me 24 hour electricity, armed guards, and flushing toilets, and sometimes hot showers. Oh, but the bed is only a single... ha. Anyway, things here are going to ... read more

June 6, 2007 - Juba I arrived in just under 2 hours from Khartoum, and realized I had no idea wahtI was supposed to do after that. Oops. After the hard braking on the runway, I was halfway-sure we were going to overshoot, and fly off the end of the runway, but we managed to stop with under 1000 feet to spare. In the air force world, thats not a whole lot of extra room. I got off the airplane, followed everyone else inside and realized.... yup. I had no clue where I was supposed to go. I finally found a few fellow enlgish-speakers and was directed to a gentleman that told me the luggage would be arriving in the parking lot by tractor shortly. Nice. We found our luggage, re-sorted it according to final ... read more

May 29, 2007 - Khartoum Well things here are interesting still... I have started my weeke of Military Observer refresher training. I am the only Canadian in the class, with the majority of UNMO's being German. A few UNMO's from Peru, Paraguay, Nigeria and Zambia round out the class. We have covered a lot of information that was passed along last week which reaffirms that everyone is only concerned with their own specific issues and no inter-department communication really occurs. Instruction has come from Croatian, Ukranian, Pakistani, Polish, and jordanian staff. I think that working with the Germans will be a good experience as they seem well-trained, professional, but maybe a touch on the arrogant side.... but really, who can blame them? Their forefathers tried to take over Europe... twice. Kidding... but seriously, they seem ... read more