Now that was a hot one!

It was 46 today according to the Internet. And it felt like it. We were outside for about three hours, first doing a GPS exercise and then practising how to deal with ambushes, hostage taking and minefields. The latter included a practical exercise in which members of the Force Protection Unit, that's the armed military guys who guard the UN posts in Khartoum which in this case are Rawandans, acted as rebels at illegal check points and dragged us out of vehicles at gun point, slapped us around a bit, emptied our pockets, made us stand up and lie down continually, yelled at us a lot in their native language etc. etc. It was all a test to see who will take that docilely and who will fight back. Fighting back will get you killed here. We all passed the test fortunately. I sweated a lot and I didn't feel that well as we were walking back to our residence. I decided to skip my run this afternoon after work, I lay down and slept for a while.

Not eating last night didn't work so I ate lots today ("lots" by Sudan standards for me, not for Canada). I had plain yogurt and orange juice for breakfast, a chicken sandwich on brown bread for lunch (the meat looked like balony to me, but they said it was chicken!) and beef medallions in mushroom sauce, grilled vegetables (very grilled) and french fries with a coke for supper. I probably won't be able to sleep tonight because of the coke, but it sure tasted good! Generally, I don't have that much of an appetite here, probably because of the heat.

I'm going to count the number of bottles of water I drink tomorrow to see how many that is. I usually have one for breakfast, one walking to work, one during morning class before break, one at break, one between break at lunch, one at lunch...you get the idea. I think I'm drinking a lot (compared to Canda I really am) but I wonder if it is enough.

I'm in my second day of upset stomach, abdominal cramps etc., not enough to keep me from doing much but keeping me close to a washroom just in case. But my spirits are good, I enjoy the guys I'm with and the people we are meeting, the Brazillians are hilarious as are the Australians.

The power went off again right after my last blog entry so I try to keep these short so I don't lose them. And there are more people staying here now, someone was actually looking to sleep in one of our beds this morning after we left for work! I got up at 6:30 this morning to use the Internet and there was one person already on it and two more waiting to use it.

Hopefully when I get to Juba I'll be able to access a wireless Internet with my laptop and can go on the Internet whenever I like.

In the photo, that's me (on the left), Scott and Rory in flak jackets and helmets for the ambush practical test.