Monday May 26th (I think)

Our Internet was down again last night so I couldn't reply to any emails, I'll try again tonight. I will reply to all the individual emails in time but please be patient with me, I only get a half hour access to the Internet at a time, we have one working Internet connection, there are 15-16 people staying here at Canada House and the Internet is frequently down. I appreciate the emails I recieve a lot but I can't reply to them as quickly as I'd like, especially since we don't get any days off here and we don't have Internet access at the UN base (yet).

One of the problems with working everyday is that you lose track of the date and the day of the week (the UN Police work straight through the weekends and only get time off when we take our Compensatory Time Off or CTO days. We earn 6 CTO's a month so I have to work 30 days straight to get 6 days off. The military on the other hand get the weekends which here is Friday/Saturday off, and they are only here for 6 months. Wimps! lol We're here for nine months by the way). I think this is Monday, May 26th because we left Ottawa on Sunday May 18th and arrived in Sudan on Monday May 19th, which was officially our first day in theatre. Enyways, I passed my English tests, that was a relief, I always wondered if I could really speak English that well or if my friends and family were just humouring me. We had Driver training in the morning yesterday which entailed an hour or so of standing outside in the sun looking at the engine of a vehicle, being shown how to use the winch in case we get stuck and have to pull ourselves out, and where the emergency equipment, spare tire etc. is kept. I could feel the beads of sweat running down my back for the whole hour or so.

We finished our induction training yesterday and today we begin Integrated Training with the UN Civilians and Military. Its really hot in the trailer we have our classes in despite the air conditioning, and I keep falling asleep during class. The other guys keep count of how many times my head bobs during class and have a good laugh about it.

I feel tired this morning, I couldn't get to sleep last night for some reason, I tossed and turned for at least an hour.