Finally...

I finally created my blog, I know it took a while but our Internet has been down the last couple of days and I've been adjusting to life in "the Sudan" for my first few days here.

My five intrepid companions and I arrived in Khartoum, finally, last Monday night after waiting almost nine months to get here. The temperature was 42 degrees but as everyone says, its a dry heat (lol). At first I found it like a very hot day in Ottawa; on Tuesday we walked back to where we're staying from the UN base here in Khartoum and I worked up a sweat but I wasn't like ready to pass out or anything. But it got hotter and yesterday was a real scorcher.

We're staying at Canada House, a big new house the Canadian military has purshased or rented for their personnel working in, passing through or staying in Khartoum for a few days. I have to limit my time on the Internet as there is only one connection working at present.

I slept really well my first night here, a combination of not much sleep on the plane rides over and the time change but I was wakened early that morning by my roommate Wayne P's snoring; even the earplugs I was wearing couldn't muffle the sound. It was around 6:00 Am at the time and even with the air conditioning it was hot inside, around 37 degrees outside I think.

On the Tuesday morning I tried to begin my time in Sudan with a good shower but the shower curtain fell down on my while I was showering; I had to tie the shower curtain up to the ceiling light fixture with some string, and I had to use a pillow case as a towel because the towels I brought with me are in my barrack boxes which are in Sudanese Customs somewhere, but at least the air conditioning works. I tried my first Sudanese food at lunch, and it was good and I've been eating it ever since with no problems (knock on wood).

On the Tuesday we went to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) base and recieved some more uniform (a ballcap with the UN crest on it, yay, we can't wear anything on our head that doesn't have the UN crest on it and the blue berets are just too hot in this heat. One of the other guys, Scott from Calgary has this huge head that nothing seems to fit on, his ball cap was too small for him at the largest setting. We wore our tilley hats on Wednesday which are probably better for UV protection anyway, but we were told several times that day that we couldn't wear them as they are "country of origin" issue rather than UN issue and dark blue instead of powder blue. Back to the ballcaps (and in Scott's case the beret).

On Tuesday we also had to watch a computer program on safety and security and write a test, fill out personal information forms and obtain our photo ids, apply for a personal issue radio, complete our application for a Bank of Khartoum bank account and some other odds and ends. If you are thinking to yourself that that shouldn't take a whole day you're right, we did a lot of sitting around waiting for someone to deal with us. That's the way it is here, apparently. We were not actually in training mode, our induction training started on Friday. That was just as well, we needed a couple of days to get organized. The barrack boxes I mentionned (metal packing cases the military uses to ship personal items) which we shipped ahead and which contain a lot of our personal effects including all of my towels (did I mention that already??) are still in Sudanese Customs somewhere. The RCMP officer already in mission, Chris Beamish from Edmonton, is trying to get them out for us. In the meantime I repacked my bags and put all the like items together and realized that I forgot my vitamins at home; not sure how I managed that. We ate really well on the plane rides over here (business class) so I'm not worried about nutrition for a while but I need to get them to supplement the food here. There's not much variety in the "cafeteria" on base (so far they've served the same food everyday, no choice, and the snack bar is really a small trailer with only locally baked goods and soft drinks).

Interesting place this Khartoum. Everything is sand-coloured and dusty, but there are trees and the odd bit of grass. When we arrived we heard about (and watched on Al Jezeera on television) heavy fighting in the Abyei region of Sudan but you wouldn't know anything is going on here in the capital. We're told not to take any pictures here however as the Sudanese govt. is very sensitive about that. We're told that its likely that if we're caught that we'll be sent home.

There's a couple of treadmills where we're staying so I go for a bit of a run after we walk back here in the afternoon, but it quickly becomes very hot. I don't think I could do my usual 30 minutes on the treadmill here, I'd overheat quite a bit.

On Tuesday night we went to eat with some of the UNMIS, military and Dept. of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT) people from the Canadian embassy at a nice little Italian restaurant called inexplicably Universal coffee. Its owned by an old Italian couple and they make their own pasta, sauces etc. We ate outside too, which was enjoyable despite the 40 something degree heat. It was very good, I had the mixed salad with tuna and a hadboiled egg and vegetable sandwich with eggplant and fried potatoes on ths side, with lots of fresh tomatos, cucumbers, onions etc. It was a bit of a treat as I wasn't expecting to be eating fresh vegetables for a while. So far I haven't been sick, although I'm told everyone goes through it at some point. I noticed that almost all people here talk about is their leave and where they've been and where they're going on their next leave and how far away that is.

Just as we were leaving the restaurant a Haboob (a wind/dust storm) blew in, I think that's the name for it in Arabic. The air got quite dusty for a while.

We got our postings after our Human Resoruces "interviews" on Wednesday afternoon. I emphasize "interview" because, as the "interviewer" put it, it was more of a negotiation than an interview and I was the only one "interviewed". We've got two going to Yambia (Wayne P and Charles), two going to Torit (Rory and Scott), Jaz to the Juba Team Site and me to Regional HQ Intelligence in Juba, all in Sector 1 in the very south part of Sudan.

Everyone seemed to have a lousy sleep the Tuesday night before our postings (I was awake from 2:30 on, Rory slept on the couch because the air condtioning was blowing on him, etc. etc.) but I slept 8 hours undisturbed Thursday night (must have been the anti-malaria medication mefloquin I took yesterday!! It gives some people nightmares). We had a good meal on Thursday night, we went to the Cedars restaurant for one of the CF guys who's going home and they served an unbelieveable amount of good Lebanese food on us for 45 Sudanese pounds each (about $22.50 US). I was stuffed but I sure slept good afterward.

My and the other guys' humour seems to be holding up; most of us are exercising on the treadmill and with the sparse number of weights here. This is a good way to get used to Sudan, staying at Canada House. Its secure, there's lots of people around to explain things to us, they take us with them when they go out for dinner, give us rides to work etc. Kudos to Brenda MacGregor, a Canadian from Saskatchewan who works in Security in UNMIS for getting us in here. Its made the transition much much easier and the CF guys seem to be fine with us staying here, they feel the same about getting a good start to the mission. As a small and totally inadequate token of our appreciation I gave Brenda some red licorice for all she's done for us including Chris and the other Canadian police who have been to Sudan on mission (she brought us a bag full of towels, handtowels and facecloths the other day, what a sweetheart).

Friday night the CF people here at Canada House hosted a small social event for other Canadians, Australians, the odd Norweigan and Dutch person and others here in Khartoum, it was lots of fun. Yesterday they (the CF people staying here) took me with them to the Canadian Embassy for a swim. It was great. I had to do my laundry when I got back here as I'd run out of shirts and Rory had made some pasta for every body, it was a great evening. The first day of our induction training, Friday, was boring and I couldn't keep from falling asleep, especially after I ate a big lunch (my first and only meal of the day, I wasn't that hungry). Yesterday in training we had yet another talk on sexual harassment, learned how our time off credits work, and took some English reading comprehension, English writing comprehension and English writing tests. Today we have driving training.

So that's a summary of everything to date. My blogs will be shorter from now on, don't worry.

Wayne