Blogs from Sudan, Africa - page 5

There are heaps of photos - scroll down to the end and click next to see them all! Salam alaykum from a hot, dry and dusty Sudan. There is not much to see in Sudan and the heat and dust is unbearable at times but its gem are its people who really have made our trip. The friendless and generosity of the people seem at odds with a country gripped by civil war. Anyway, the ferry from Egypt to Wadi Halfa in Sudan only leaves on Mondays and was quite a performance and we had a very exciting 24 hours. There were many checkpoints and a ridiculous amount of forms to fill out but everyone was friendly and helpful and people got us all the necessary forms without us even asking. We then had to go ... read more

This entry is long overdue as much has happened since my last post. I will give a brief Summary of the last few weeks and will add pictures in the next few days. After completing training in Khartoum, I was tasked to Team Site Julud in the province of Southern Kordofan, in Northern Sudan; it was an area of significant fighting during the war. Upon receiving my tasking I quickly contacted the team site in order to get an idea of what to expect. Only to be told there was absolutely no accommodations available. The other major point was that fresh and decent food was difficult to obtain in Julud. This resulted in my deployment to my team site being delayed as I was not about to deploy with nowhere to live. After several days of ... read more

My second week of training is now completed. The work week here in Sudan is Sunday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday being the weekend. The week went by quickly, and has seen a few Canadian UNMO’s come and go. All of our tours are staggered so there is never more than a few people at a time on the same schedule. The classes completed this week were generally more interesting as they were designed specifically for us UNMO’s. I am not sure if it is just coincidence or not but the majority of the lectures were given my military officers and there appeared to be a greater sense of professionalism than during the Generic indoc course for all UN workers that we had last week. It is not hard to determine who has had training ... read more

After a relaxing Easter Monday it was time to get to work. First on the schedule was clearing into the UN. This is a process that requires one to march around to locations scattered randomly around the camp, collecting various stamps and signatures to take to the next location. The process and its redundancy were ridiculously yet humorous as I filled the same info on to a dozen of more forms. It was during this walking about when the reality of the +40C weather hit home. Khartoum is indeed a warm place. Wednesday and Thursday was UNMIS indoctrination training. Nothing spectacular there, two days of relatively mundane training, along with some more stamps and signatures. While not particularly enlightening it was a chance to meet a few of the other international military observers. Other new arrives ... read more

Prepare yourselves for a continuation of the picture-imagine-exercise first introduced in the last blog as I write about all the fun I had in Sudan. Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. Ruled by Pharoahs throughout much of its ancient history it was plundered for its assets before being brutally colonised by the British in 1898. Since independence in 1956 it has faced relntless revolts against power and (if you're up to date on your news you should know this) is currently limping through a general election a year before te Christian south will vote on the issue of independence from the Muslim north. Anyway, travelling with Istvan and Radek proved to be a strange but rewarding experience. Radek is gung-ho in every way and thinks nothing through. He charges around a predominantly Muslim country where ... read more