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.