I'll be off line for a while...

Goin' on a road trip...Sudan style

Another plane crash in Khartoum...

And I was supposed to be flying to Khartoum today too. Not any more. I'll blog some more later.

Wayne
(funny, someone was telling me just last week that the greatest risk of injury or death in this mission is flying...)

Kenyan police officers visit

On Friday, three senior Kenyan Police officers came to visit out mission. I escorted them around Juba; they met with the Kenyan Consul General here in Juba (first picture), then we made an unscheduled stop at the South Sudan Police Central Police Station in Juba (second, thrid and fourth pictures, yes, believe it or not, that is the Police Station), then a bite to eat, a hurried meeting with the Deputy Police Commissioner (last picture), and I rushed them to the airport to catch their return flight to Khartoum, which was ultimatley cancelled, so I had to scramble to find rooms for them to stay the night and find a vehicle to take them to dinner. It was a long day.

What do I do, anyway?

A lot of you have asked me what I actually do, so I’ll try to explain. I’m the Chief of Administration for the Regional headquarters in Juba, which means the Personnel and Logistics functions for the UN Police Officers assigned to the South Region are my responsibility. I supervise the Regional Personnel Officer and the Regional Logistics Officer. On the organizational chart, I also have National Staff responsibilities but no one has yet explained to me exactly what that entails.

The UN Mission in Sudan is divided into two Regions, North and South. Within the South Region where I am there are three sectors: Juba, Malakal and Wau, each with approx. 4 team Sites. It is our responsibility to staff and supply those sectors and Team Sites.

This week for example, we had a newly arrived Norwegian police officer I had to place. Some of the factors we had to consider were previous Mission experience (two previous missions), whether he has any country-men or –women in the Region as we try to place two or three people from the same country together to support each other and help the newcomers adjust, what his policing background was (patrol and investigation), where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do, where the vacancies are etc. In this case, I interviewed him about his interests, interviewed the Juba Team Site commander and let the commander read the Norwegian’s curriculum vitae to see if he would be a good fit at the Team Site. They were both interested in him working at the Juba Team Site so then I met with the Juba Sector Commander to ensure he agreed with this, which he did, then got the final okay form my boss the Principal Staff Officer here at Regional HQ. Its not rocket science, sorry to offend you Human Resources types out there, although the Juba Team Site commander said he hadn’t been treated so professionally in a staffing action in his whole time in this mission. Hmmmm. The things that make you go Hmmmm. Being open and transparent (those are such buzz words that I hate to use them but that is what they mean in this case) has always served me well in policing, and I’ve always looked with disdain upon management who think they know more than the people to be staffed, know better what’s good for them and conduct the staffing process in secrecy. Enyways, we’ll see how it goes, I’m only two weeks into the job. Logistics is responsible for ordering and disbursing office supplies and administering the vehicles, allotting them to Team Sites etc. That is a bigger headache, there are not enough vehicles to go around and many of them are in need of repair.

Then I do other assorted jobs. Today I am accompanying some visiting Kenyan Senior Police Officers on their courtesy visit to Regional HQ and to the South Sudan Police Service Headquarters here in Juba. Rubber chicken time!

One of the more pleasurable aspects of my job

Last night I went to the Netherlands Police contingent medal parade. It is one of my official duties as Chief of Administration here in the Regional Headquarters, but I don't mind, I enjoy mixing with other police contigents and civilians and besides, I never turn down a free meal. Even when it starts two hours late because they were waiting for the Dutch Ambassador to arrive. Enyways, I had a good meal and a good chat with some police and non-police type people, it was quite interesting. Afterwards I sat around in my boss's container with him (he's the other guy in a white shirt, retired LAPD) talking about police stuff. I should have went to bed earlier, I was kind of groggy this morning. The guy in the black shirt is the Deputy Police Commissioner, the Number 2 guy in the UN Police in Sudan. he's my boss' boss.

My coworkers and my office

This morning I thought I would post a few pictures of my office and the people who work with me. Charita is a sergeant from the Phillipines, Resistant is an Assistant Commissioenr from the Zimbabwe Republic Police, and Kimu Idna who is a civilian from here in Juba. Together we are the Juba Regional Headquarters Adminstration Unit.

Catching up on the "weekend"

I thought I’d start off with a few pictures from the other night, we went out for pizza at a local restaurant with some Swedes and some Australians, it was good. I managed to piss of the Swedish women by the end of the evening, I’m glad to see its not just Canadian women that I have that effect on! Scott and Charles, two of the other Canadians are in the picture because they were passing through Juba on their way to Wau (pronounced wow) and missed their connecting flight so they stayed for a couple of days, it was good to see them again and have a few more laughs at the Swedes expense (which is why they were pissed off at me). Swedes are funny people, I apologized the next day for offending them and they’ve just forgotten about it, no grudges or anything, they talk to me like nothing happened. Weird.

But otherwise things are going well here. I've been here a month already, it's flown by. I'm enjoying Juba, I like it here better than Khartoum, the only problem is that I'm sharing the container of a Canadian who is away on leave with Jas until we can get our own containers; its crowded, I get up at 5, he gets up at 7:30, so I dress in the dark and I can't eat anything before I go to work. I've been sharing a room with one person or another for a month now and I'm really looking forward to a place of my own. The containers are small when you have two people and all their stuff in them. Jas and I should have our own containers in a couple of weeks to a month.

But, the weather is much milder here; the bugs are worse but that is an even tradeoff. I have to go outside to use a washroom unlike Canada House which was inside of course so it feels like I'm camping. I don't really like camping. I like being able to buy beer in the PX and drink it after work. It's all a tradeoff, things I like for things I don't like.

I've been appointed the Chief of Administration here, supervising a woman from the Phillipines, a local Sudanese man and a man from Zimbabwe. I’m having difficulty getting on the Internet again, there are only three computes for the four people in my office, the computers naturally are at the desks of the other three people and I have to wait till they are out of the office to log on to the UN Intranet and then onto the Internet. I’m supposed to get my own computer next Friday. In addition to that, the power keeps going down here mid afternoon and is down for 2-3 hours at a time, so when I could be going on the Internet after everybody else leaves work at 4:00, there is no power and I can’t get on anyway. Sigh.

As I mentioned, this is sort of like an extended camping trip, with the filthy smelly bathrooms and lots of bugs and rumors of snakes and lots of body odor. The food isn't bad. The beer is $1.25 US a can. There’s another cheap beer from Holland that’s 72 cents a can, it tastes fine to me. There's not much to do in the evenings but watch soccer, the Eurocup is on and everyone else is a rabid soccer fan. I'm watching old episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and Hawaii 5-0 at night. And I've read four novels in a month. I'm looking forward to go out somewhere on a trip soon.

There are cafeterias here, one that sells more western fare, once that sells local culinary delights. I eat at both. In case you're wondering, the latter consists of lots of rice, fish, curried vegetables, goat. or beef. Its not bad. In the PX here I can buy corned beef, baked beans, taco meals (sauce, shells, seasoning etc.), crackers, rice, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, frozen meats, soy milk, some canned meats but they are very expensive ($8 US for a canned ham, $4 for a can of tuna), cereal (ditto, $8 US a box), cup a soups are $4.50 US. Some things aren't bad, spaghetti is $1.32 or something like that. Baked beans are around $1.80. One can isn't bad, 10 cans becomes quite expensive. The rice mixes are expensive, around $4 a box. I saw some eggs there yesterday but I didn't ask how much they were.

Thanks to Dawn Boudreau, a Canadian Forces soldier who just left Juba last week, Jas and I got her leftover food and kitchen supplies, including a box of the rations the CF people take with them on maneuvers. That stuff isn’t bad. Lasagna, cabbage rolls (I gave them to Jas), sweet and sour pork, breakfast sausage and la piece de resistance, wieners and beans. The Forces know how to treat people well.

Some things I miss though. I haven't had a brewed cup of coffee since I got here. Its all instant. No bread in the PX unfortunately, but they do have it at restaurants and all milk is homogenized, no skim or reduced milk fat. I don't drink it.

My cell phone works sometimes and other times it doesn't. I've tried texting people in North America but my messages won't send for some reason. Actually I think I have to get a different kind of cell phone for down here but I don't think I will. I don't use it that much.

Happy Birthday Adam!!

I’ve posted a few pictures of my son Adam and I on the blog today, as this is Adam’s birthday, he is 23 today. That’s a little mind boggling for me. When I turned 23 I was in Regina in Depot, about to finish Basic Training in a month and a half and head to B.C. to start policing. I’d never been to B.C. before. My God, it doesn't seem that long ago, but its been 29 years. Enyways, happy birthday Adam. Enjoy these years, they are the best of times.

Wayne

Some pictures from where I'm staying

Here are some pictures of the UN camp I'm staying in. The first one shows the rows of residential containers, the second one shows the type of container I'm staying in, then there are two pictures of the inside of the trailer (that's a mosquito net over the bed) and the last is the road near my office.

Dog days of summer here. I'm fighting bureaucracy to get a computer, a phone, a container of my own, etc. etc. This is the really tough part.

Second day on the job...

Got in to the office early today, Jas and I are sharing the container of a Canadian who is back home on leave, and it was my turn to sleep on the floor last night. Its not as bad as it seems, I slept in my sleeping bag on top or his and my air mattresses so it wasn't uncomfortable, nonetheless I woke up at 5:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm thinking of this as a long, extended camping trip...if you could see the communal bathrooms we have to use you'd understand about the camping part.

I couldn't log on to Hotmail this morning so the website itself must be down or there is some technical difficulty with the UN server. It poured rain here last night, it was comforting to hear it falling on the roof of the container, it sounds like rain back home.

For those of you wondering about my Heinz baked beans for breakfast, let me explain that when I lived in Cornwall I loved to go to eat breakfast at a local eatery called Harv's Diner. Their breakfast special included eggs over easy, just the way I like them, delicious breakfast sausages (ditto), fried potatoes with onions (double ditto), two slices of whole wheat toast with strawberry jam (you're probably getting the idea by now), piping hot decaf coffee and, yes, Heinz baked beans (or some kind of baked beans, maybe they weren't Heinz, I'm not exactly a connesseur of baked beans). Enyways, when I ate my beaked beans for breakfast yesterday and Friday, I was imagining I was eating a Harv's breakfast special. Minus the eggs, sausages, toast, potatoes and jam.

Saturday, June 14th

We finally got out of Khartoum on Thursday, rather three of the four of us did, even though they were supposed to use the same list of confirmed passengers from Wed. when our flight was cancelled. Unfortunately, when we got to the airport Jas’ name wasn’t on the confirmed list so he couldn’t come, he had to go back to Movement Control (Movcon) and get his name added to the list for Friday’s flight.

Our flight was delayed about an hour and then we finally got away at 10:00. The plane wasn’t full but is only allowed to carry fifty UN personnel at a time because of insurance restrictions. Another waste in a land full of waste. Unfortunatley it is the UN that is doing most of the wasting. We don’t set a very good example.

Juba is not what I expected it to be. It is a village of dirt roads (with lots of potholes), shacks, huts, the odd modern building, lots of fenced compounds and one of the only three paved runways in all of Sudan I’m told. I was expecting another city like Khartoum, dusty and dirty with lots of trash on the streets etc. but modern (!?) buildings, paved roads etc. I feel like I’m in Africa now. I’m staying at the MSA camp (Somehting that starts with an M, Subsistence Allowance, in other words the camp the UN built for its employees to live in. They deduct $21 a day US from our living allowance to stay in a 3 metre wide by 7 meter long by 3 meter high container or trailer. The one I’m staying in belongs to a retired RCMP named Bill Kelly, he’s back in Nova Scotia on leave and he said we could use his container while he’s gone. Jas and I are on the waiting list for our own containers, right now we’re 23 and 24. We have to wait till other people leave to go elsewhere or finish their missions; there aren’t enough containers to go around. Rory and Wayne P. are staying in tents in another camp about half a kilometer away.

Right after I put my things in things in the container I'm staying in, I went to the PX (a store on a military base) and bought some beer of course, a bottle of red wine, a can of corned beef and a can of Heinz baked beans. I had half the cans of Corned beef and beans for lunch on Thursday and the other halves for breakfast yesterday monring.

For dinner on Thursday night, a nice American named Chad, from Texas originally, took us to a restaurant on the Nile called the Oasis. It was a lovley evening, cool enough to enjoy being outside, the local beers Bell and Nile are quite good, the Curried Mutton was very good (as was the Curried Chicken accoring to Wayne P), the staff were very friendly and helpful, smiled constantly. A good evening butr we got tired very quickly because of getting up early yesterday morning (4:00) to catch our flight and being in the heat all day. And the beer.

One of the things I’ve been very impressed with here in Sudan is the entreprenurial spirit of the Sudanese. There aren’t many beggars, not as many as I expected, but there are thousands of people trying to sell you stuff (useful stuff like phone calling cards, vegetables and fruit at roadside stands, in Khartoum there were thousands of these annoying little taxis call tuktuks that are just a motor scooter with a back seat and a canopy, they sound like a lawn mower) people with donkeys hitched to carts hauling stuff around. They want to work and earn their living, they don’t want charity, if we can just get their leaders to stop fighting they’ll make something of this country.

In what I considetr a bad sign, I've finished my fourth 300 page plus novel and I’ve only left Canda less than a month ago. I brought 16 novels with me and thought that would be enough!!

I should have regular Internet access tomorrow so I can post more regularly and respond to some individual emails.

Finally! Juba!

Arrived in Juba this afternoon. Not as hot as Khartoum but more humid. As we were waiting for someone to come pick us up at the airport, a guy came out of his office (trailer) and said he had just found a foot-long snake in there! This should be fun.

I'm going to have trouble getting Internet access for a while, I borrowed this one for a minute to update my blog but I'm staying in a vacationing employee's container for the moment until I can get my own place and I don't have Internet access there. I'll get back to everyone as soon as I can. Don't know what I'm going to be doing yet either.

Heading out for dinner now. The other guys are staying in a tent. At least I have air conditioning.

Wayne

Still in Khartoum

We didn't get out out Khartoum today because of last night's crash and we're back at Canada House. We sat at the airport from 7:30 to 12:30 at which time they announced the flight to Juba had been cancelled. We then sat at the airport for another almost two hours waiting for someone to pick us up and take us back to Canada House. I drank three Pepsi's during the waiting around and a Coke with our late lunch at 3:00. That sort of compensates for the flight cancellation!

The flight to Juba is supposed to go tomorrow morning instead, we have to be at the airport at 6:00. Still just Wayne P., Rory, Jas and I going; Scott and Charles are staying put for the time being.

Still confusion about how many actually died in the crash. We saw the burned out aircraft as we were driving to the airfield this morning. Only the tail section still intact. They always say the rear of the plane is the safest place to sit!!

Tomorrow is mefloquin (anti-malarial) day for me. I should have great dreams on the flight.

Wayne

airplane crash in Khartoum, plane burning on the runway

I wasn't on it, I was at a nice Khartoum restaurant eating Chicken Cesar salad and home-made fettucine. Khartoum radio stations are reporting that all 200 passengers got off the Sudan Airlines plane alive. Early indications are that we won't be flying to Juba tomorrow. Sigh. I wish I'd had dessert.

Movin' on...

Here's Rory and Wayne Plimmer at the hippotherapy place we went to last week.

Our barrack boxes have arrived so we're moving to Juba tomorrow (Wed.). I have to repack my stuff, take what is essential with me, the rest gets shipped to Juba (I know, here we go again). I'll post again once I'm done repacking or when I get to Juba, whichever comes first.

Wayne

Too much time on our hands...

Hello everybody

I thought I'd send along a few pictures of life in Sudan for your amusement. The first is us drowning our sorrows in the Canadian Embassy pool last week. The second one is Rory and his latest blowup doll. Actually, that is Australia House's mascot, which we are now in possession of. There was another Happy Hour at Canada House on Thursday night. The Canadian Forces guys had abducted the Australians blow-up kangaroo (don’t ask) from Australia House at the birthday party last week and hung it from a chandelier in the front foyer here (one of the CF guys sang "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" in French when the Australians arrived); of course you know, this means war! The Australians are plotting revenge even as we speak (or read and write, whatever!)

The third one is a pciture of the Haboob (dust storm) that blew in a couple of nights ago.
The last one is our "ceremonial" passing of contingency command from Chris Beamish to myself. The stick is for beating the other guys with when they won't get out of bed in the morning. Actually, its to beat off the women who are attracted to the power of the position. I know, I know, that was sexist, okay its to beat off the men and women who are attracted to the power of the position. Double actually, its to kill the cricket that was in our bedroom last night chirping up a storm. We thought our air condtioning was conking out (everything sounds like our air conditioning conking out).

We're still sitting in Khartoum, still waiting for our luggage, still waiting to go to Juba. The power went out four or five times last night, once for a half hour to 45 minutes. It got pretty warm pretty fast I'll tell you.

Wayne

A bleary-eyed posting...

Morning all (6:15 AM here). Was wakened seveal times last night by some squeaking noise. I thought at first it was some demented bird but I realized it was mechanical, probably our air conditioning unit conking out on us. Our barrack boxes didn't show up yesterday so we're still waiting for them before we go anywhere. Its been over a week since we finished our training, and although the past week went fast, it certainly is getting boring just waiting around to deploy.

A haboob (wind and sand storm) blew through the night before last, the military CO (Commanding Officer) invited us up to his roof top patio to watch it, it was very spectacular. It rained as well and the air was quite fresh and cool all the way till yesterday morning. Coincidentally or not, Thursday and Friday felt like the hottest days since we've been here so it may be that the haboobs result from the severe heat. Enyways, there was some thunder too and a rainbow at one point; it was an eclectic weather event to say the least.

As hot as it is during the day, the cooled down a bit last night, we ate at an outdoor restaurant and it was quite pleasant.

We're trying to pool all our pictures, so I hope to have some new ones to post on the blog soon.

Wayne

An oasis of mercy…

The day before yesterday, Elsie, a Dutch woman we met here who works for the Leprosy Mission, took us to see some handicapped children undergoing hippo-therapy, riding horses. An English woman named Jane-Ann, who is married to a Sudanese man and moved to Khartoum about 20 years ago, began rescuing abused and neglected horses and donkeys about 15 years ago (there are donkeys everywhere here, they pull wagons and carts and people ride them). Jane-Ann has four children of her own, has adopted or fostered three other children including one really cute deaf boy and is pregnant again!. It was like Grand Central Station at her farm with goats, geese, cattle, horses, dogs, donkeys etc. etc. all over the place, plus all her own kids and handicapped kids and other kids that I never did figure out where they fit in.

Jane-Ann has about 20 horses now and she provides riding lessons for a fee to help pay for the feed but she provides free riding therapy to handicapped children on Wednesdays. The theory is that the motion of the horse walking stimulates the back and abdominal muscles of a child and exercises and strengthens them. Elsie says it works, she’s seen some children who couldn’t walk before the therapy able to learn to walk after months of riding. The children seem to really enjoy it. The horses they use for riding are very docile and good natured. Wayne P., Jas and Rory came along too. Wayne ended up holding one child as he rode around the pen and Rory went to make sand castles with Jane-Ann’s kids in the sandbox. It was a humbling experience. We think we’re here to help the people of Sudan but Jane-Ann is someone who is really making a tangible difference in a lot of lives. If anyone knows of a Canadian charity or service club that is looking for a project sponsor in Africa, I’ve got a suggestion…her blog is at http://miraclessudan.blogspot.com Check it out.

Elsie also took us to her mission to see the setup they have for treating people suffering from leprosy and related problems. So many people, so many children. The medication to treat leprosy is provided for free by the World Health Organization, WHO, but the people have to transport themselves and their children here. Some of them travel 2 hours to get here for treatment.

Interesting how politics comes in to play here. The number of people with leprosy is constantly underestimated as it is considered a reflection of the scale of social development and hygiene in a country. Unfortunately, this results in an inadequate supply of medication being ordered and sometimes they run out at the clinic. Sad.

Wayne

My mother will be so proud….

Last night I attended the longest mass I have ever been to. It was in the south side of Khartoum, a really poor area that reminded me of the pictures of the shantytowns in South Africa that you see on the tv news sometimes. What I’m going to say will sound like Greek to non-Catholics but believe it is very significant for a little Catholic boy from Eastern Ontario.

The Canadian military guys we are staying with sponsor a charity at this particular church and they were going to see a mass of celebration last night; so I invited myself along. The church was the Church of the Ugandan Martyrs, which reminded me of course of the Canadian martyrs of southern Ontario. Sure enough, when I started talking to Father Carl, one of the priests presiding at mass (a 70 year old originally from Holland), he and the other priests were Jesuits, as were the Ugandan martyrs and the Canadian martyrs. Despite the fact that one of my favourite priests was an Oblate (Father Ken Stephens of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate or OMI, I love that name. Do any of my siblings know what order Father Roy Valliquette belonged to? He was my other favourite priest, along with Father Sammon, the priest who gave me my first communion and confirmed me. But I digress...). Anyway, Father Carl and I had a great chat about Catholic stuff. There are 10 Catholic churches in Khartoum and there are five Missionaries of Charity houses in Sudan (the Missionaries of Charity are sometimes known as the Sisters of Charity, Mother Theresa of Calcutta’s order) and 20 MOC houses in Ethiopia. They run schools, orphanages, palliative care homes, as he put it, for everyone that no one else wants.

I was also introduced to the Cardinal of Wau (pronounced “wow” and it was kind of a wow for me, believe me, I’ve never met a Cardinal before, as my kids would say, he’s one of the dudes that elect the pope!) The mass was a mass of Confirmation for about twenty young people and there must have been at least 500 people at this outdoor mass. It went on for 2 hours and 45 minutes, all in Arabic. The people were all black, no Arabs, as it is still a capital offence in Sudan for a Muslim to change to another religion. Father Carl said there is no restriction on converting black Sudanese from their traditional religions to Christianity, I would estimate that 90% of the crowd were under 20 (I know this because we sat in the youth seats instead of the men’s seating area by mistake lol. The men, women and children are all supposed to sit in separate seating areas). Quite a difference from the composition of the parishes back home. And the children were quiet as mice, for the first hour anyway. Fascinating.

It was a high mass which means they sang most of it except for the readings and the homily. And children went up on the alter and danced during some of the singing, dressed in bright blue and yellow and red, what a feast for the eyes. It was very upbeat, very inspiring, very enjoyable despite the heat and the uncomfortable metal benches. Some of the other people in my group took pictures, being a Catholic I felt funny doing that so I didn’t but my discomfort doesn’t extend to obtaining the pictures from the heathens that did take them and posting them on my blog.

Sam or Brenda, can you pass this on to Mom, I’m sure she will be thrilled to bits that I went to a mass in which someone wasn’t being married or buried.

Tuesday morning blues.

We had our driving tests and received our UN diver's licenses yesterday (but not until after the car to be used for testing broke down and had to be repaired); now we have to just sit and wait.

We’re still waiting to go to Juba because there is no accommodation for us there at the present time, plus we don't have our mosquito netting and DEET so it would be dangerous for us to go, the mosquitoes (and Malaria) are really bad there right now because of the rainy season. Our equipment sits in Sudanese Customs here in Khartoum and we sit at the UN base, reading and watching movies. I've read one novel already and more than halfway through a second.

I plugged my USB flash drive into one of the computers at the base the other day to save some powerpoints we had seen in class and went to one of the chipheads (technical assistance) to get it scanned before downloading it onto my laptop; sure enough it had a couple of viruses on it. There are supposed to be a lot of viruses on UN computers so I have to be careful not to infect my own.

I went to the local "mall" here a couple of days ago, the Afra Mall, and it was really hot inside, there was no air conditioning. It wasn't a very big mall; there were only about 20 stores or so. One big dept. store with not much merchandise, there were large aisles between the tables and shelves. I have a slurpee at the coffee shop and it cost me $7.

Don’t have much appetite these days, probably because of the heat and the lack of variety in the food. The cafeteria on the base isn’t bad, but there is no choice and we get rice and lentil soup every day. I don’t like lentil soup that much. Even the Golden Gate restaurant which is just off the base has a limited menu; I’m in the pizza/hamburger/spaghetti cycle. The sheesh kebab was a bit tough to chew on. We’re supposed to check out a restaurant at lunch today that has more North American fare.

This is what I sound like when I'm tired...

Some random musings this evening, I'm tired and want to go to bed soon. I woke up at 4:30 this morning for some unknown reason (probably because I had to go to the bathroom!) and I thought "Oh well, I can go on the Intenet for a while" but when I came downstairs there were already two people on the Internet. "Arggghhh" as Charlie Brown would say.

Today I went to meet the Charge D'Affairs at the Canadian Embassy and had a pleasant chat with him and two of his staff. He commented favourably on the fact I brought a book with me, he said its a good habit to get into as we do a lot of waiting here. Sure enough, I have to wait for two hours for my ride back to UN headquarters after our meeting, I read about 4 chapters plus a Maclean's magazine they had at the Embassy.

We didn't have our driver tests yesterday, we had some practise driving the four wheel drives and preparing for our driver's tests tomorrow. That's one more hurdle to overcome before we can move down to Juba. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, hopefully supervising a bunch of UN police who are mentoring a bunch of South Sudanese police, accompanying them on their patrols, watching how they do police work and making suggestions on how it could be improved. Its going to be a slow process. We've been in Kosovo for 10 years, this is going to take at least as long...

A few of you have commented on the danger in being here. There is a risk to being here, no doubt, there are lots of people running around the countryside with guns, none of which are us, we are unarmed, and every so often we hear of UN people being robbed or much less frequently, killed. The only UN soldiers with guns are what are called the Force Protection units; in Khartom they are from Rawanda of all places and they guard the UN facilities and can shoot back if they are attacked. We just have to be docile and not resist robberies, ambushes etc. Yeah I know, that's not very reassuring. Yeah, I did volunteer for this. I minimize the danger but it is there.

My spare time here has been filled with laundry, working out to get back into shape, shopping and cooking, and trying to stay cool, the heat is unrelenting here. I don't go out much, we stand out because we are white and the danger here is mainly after dark from common criminaliy, during the day I don't feel insecure. Besides, once I'm in an air conditioned place I don't want to leave it. It doesn't cool down much in the evenings this time of year.

There's not much greenery around here although occasionally I see people watering lawns and gardens. Come to think of it, that is only at the UN compound I see that happening, and usually mid morning when the water evaporates right away!

The way my schedule works is that I work continually with no days off for a month and then get six days off, which I will probably spend in Cairo or Amman, Jordan or somewhere like that, somewhere where they have good food and cold beer and soft beds. For one set of days off I may go to the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Shaik (sp?) as well, yes to overeat and overdrink and oversleep. Nothing against my roommate but it would be nice not to wake up to a freezing cold room from the airconditioning or snoring!

I'm going to head off to bed. Hopefully I'll have more ambition tomorrow and I'll download some pictures off my camera to post on my blog.

Wayne