Another End of Mission party

It seems that every week another group heads home at the end of their mission.

Yesterday it was the Filipinos and one Indian officer, so we had a party to send them off, which naturally turned into a karaoke sing along. In the first photo I'm having a laugh with Femi from Nigeria about how foolish people look and sound when they sing karaoke. In the second photo Femi and I and one of the Filipinos are singing some song, I can't remember what it was. It didn't sound like it was supposed to sound, what ever it was. It might have been Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree. Maybe.

In the third photo, we're having a group sing-along, Elizabeth from Zimbabwe, the Filipino guy who's name I can't remember, Christine from Uganda, Betty from Kenya, Zanet from Bosnia, Hugo from El Salvador, Edwin from the Philipines, ours truly, Regis from Zimbabwe, Martin from Ghana, and Ashmiu from Nigeria (who always greets me with a shout of "God Bless Canada!" whenever I see him). No idea what we were singing that time either.

Christine, Betty, Regis and Lorena from the Philipines and I sang another song. Sorry, can't remember the title of it either. I can remember one song I sang, I had to sing one song by myself and I wanted it to be a Canadian song so the only Canadian song I could find in the karaoke songbook (except Celine Dion songs which I can't sing) was Anne Murray's Snowbird. It didn't sound like Snowbird but nobody else had ever heard it before anyway so it didn't matter.

Last picture was a couple of other Canadians here in Juba; Ryan and Greg, on Christmas Day. I didn't have room in my Christmas Day posting for that one but its a good photo.

Some photos from Christmas

The Internet hasn't been working here since Christmas Eve. This is how I spent my Christmas in the 40 degree Celsius heat during the day (but pleasantly in the 20s in the evenings).

Top picture is me celebrating having baked a chocolate cake for the Christmas Eve potluck party. My mom thought I wasn't paying attention all those times she baked cakes when I was young! The only shortcoming was the icing, I had to use real sugar and I didn't stir it enough, it was still kind of granular. My thanks to Dawn the UNMO who left me the cake mixes when I arrived in Juba and she was leaving, and my friend Betty for the Santa Clause hat.

Second photo is the Christmas Eve party. I was going to go t midnight mass afterward but of course I didn't make it there.

Third photo is Christmas morning, I was invited to the Filipino Christmas Mass as they are all Catholic. I baked another cake for the lunch afterward, got up at 7:00 o' clock to do it, but the cake hadn't cooled down when I put icing on it so the icing ran a bit in the back of the police vehicle....Thanks again Dawn for the cakes and the cocoa which I used to make the icing.

Enyways, in this photo I'm arriving at the convent where the mass was held with my cakes.

Fourth photo is me talking to someone right after mass; of course all the Filipinos broke out their cameras and started taking pictures. They are the only Christian nation in Asia which makes them unique but they are so typically Asian, taking millions of pictures at every event and eating rice with everything.

And the fifth photo is me doing the dishes for the Sisters so they wouldn't have to do them. It took about an hour. And after that? Karaoke of course! It was a Filipino Christmas Mass after all.

Christmas Eve - A fitting time to talk about my trip to the Church of the Nativity

After going to Jerusalem, I went to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Hard to believe I was walking around the area where it all began!

I had to pass into the Palestinian territory for that, it was an experience, the huge wall, walking though a concrete and steel checkpoint with Israeli soldiers patrolling on catwalks up above, fingers on the trigger (my God, they're young, Israel has compulsory military service, these are 18 and 19 year olds). No pictures of that, sorry, not allowed to take any.

After a 1 kilometer walk into the town (the taxi drivers said it was six kilometers to the church so we pilgrims would hire them) you arrive at Nativity Square. The first picture is me standing in the square with the Church of the Nativity in the background. According to legend, this is where Jesus was born 2000-odd years ago. A small little square door you have to squeeze under to get into the church is visible at the bottom of the wall.

The second photo is me inside the church after squeezing under that small door with my backpack on my back. I was struck at the mixture of styles of the three Churches inside, Orthodox, Franciscan Catholic and I can't remember the other one.

And the representatives of so many different Christian sects, that's what also struck me in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, all the Orthodox and Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholics too of course, and Coptic Christians and I couldn't keep track of them all. All manner of dress, priests and monks and brothers and nuns of every size and description, all united by their belief in Jesus Christ.

After a couple of hours visiting the church, I walked back to the border checkpoint, pausing to buy some fresh flat bread from a bakery and to buy a souvenir for my mom. Palestine obviously looks poorer than Israel. But I didn't feel nervous when I was there, other than trying to get me to spend my money they left me alone.

Merry Christmas everybody from a land that is just experiencing peace after 40 years of war, off and on. Lets hope for peace next year too for Sudan and Palestine and Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and .....

Odds and Ends

A few more pictures from November that I was unable to post at the time. # 1 is Rory Goncalves, Bill Kelly and I at Trivia Night at one of our favourite restaurants in Juba. Our team came second on this particular night. Rory was in Juba on his way from Yambio Team Site in the southwest corner of Sudan (via Maridi Team Site) to Torit Team Site in the southeast corner of Sudan, a move he requested himself to get a change of scenery. He was stuck here for a couple of days waiting for his flight, hence the look of chagrin on his face hanging around with us old guys who have to be in bed by 10:00 o'clock at night.

The second picture is me doing my dishes in my "kitchen" which is really one end of my container, the end where all the dirty dishes are. I have to walk about 100 meters to the real kitchen where the sinks and stoves are, where I wash my dishes, bake my bran muffens (thanks to Mom and sister Sandra and Betty for sending me some mix), etc. Courtesy of Dawn Boudreau, a Canadian UNMO who went home in June, I have a hot plate to cook on in my container but any baking I have to do in the camp kitchen. The oven is so dirty, that when I open the door to check on my muffins the smoke just pours out lol. It gives the muffins a nice, smoky taste!

Picture 3 is me trying to get my tv to work (it still doesn't). For some reason the camp management bought a bunch of cheap tvs for the residential containers but there are no tv signals to pick up here, no cable or satellite dishes for the residences and I can't hook my laptop up to it to watch movies because it only has the old audio-video input plugs and of course my newer laptop only has s-video and USB outputs. It looks real good on top of my barrack boxes though.

Last picture is me at the most popular pizza restaurant in town, the Oasis, an outdoor venue in which we sit in various tukuls (open-sided huts with thatched roofs). Yes Tony, that is another beer bottle in my hand. Tusker beer from Kenya, its my favorite brand of beer now (and it comes in 500 ml bottles!!). Notice the good-looking Ocean Pacific shirt I'm wearing, which I bought on my Family Reunion Trip to London in August.

Duty trip to Aweil (pronounced "Away-ell"

While in Wau (pronounced "Wow"), my boss Cyprian and I accompanied the Sector Commander, Jili Shi (pronounced Jilly-she) of China (pronounced "Chy-na") on a road trip to Aweil. This entailed a two hour drive on a dusty gravel road to get there. We were going to see how the UN Police there conduct the on-the-job or co-location training of the South Sudan Police there.

In the first picture, Cyprian, Jili and I are posing with the UN Police Team Site Leader in Aweil, a Zimbabwean whose name I can't remember unfortunately, in front of his office.

We then went to the Aweil Police Station and while we were there, the SSPS officers on duty heard I was Canadian and they all wanted their picture taken with me. I'm still scratching my head over that one, unless they all want to emigrate to Canada at some point and thought having their picture taken with me would help!

In the third photo, Cyprian and I are posing with the SSPS police station commander and the Aweil Team Site Leader again.

Jili Shi arranged for us to have a delicious lunch courtesy of the Chinese Army Engineering Company also based in Aweil. They were very hospitable and served us a mountain of food, including fried chicken, fried fish, beets, pumpkin, nuts, pears and rice of course. That and a couple of cokes made me contented, I tell you. I didn't mind the drive back that afternoon at all.

I forgot to mention yesterday that the SSPS Police Station Commander in Wau was a woman, which surprised me as Sudan is a very patriarchal country and the SSPS a very patriarchal police service. She was very bright and I was very impressed with her. I was telling her after our hour-long meeting that I was glad to see her in the role of Police Station Commander as this holds out some visible hope for the young women of South Sudan to break into the male dominated fields like policing. She thanked me and told me that she has a sister living in Calgary! Small world again.

Duty trip to Wau

I'm going to jump around in my posts a bit because I have some pictures with me at the office of my duty trip to Wau in Nov., before I went on my trip to Israel, Egypt and Jordan. I wasn't able to post the pictures at the time but I seem to be able to now for some reason. Gremlins!

Wau is a couple of hours flight northwest of Juba where I am. Charles Obeng from our contingent is posted there; Charles of course is from Ottawa too, assigned to the Prime Minister's Protection Detail before he was released for this mission. And Scott Burge, who went home to Alberta on Nov. 18th, just before we got there, spent his six months in Wau. And a couple of fun Canadian UNMOs (UN Military Observers), Donna Wendell and Catherine MacDonald, are posted there. My boss Cyprian Gatete of Rawanda and I went there to review the co-location activities (on-the-job training of South Sudan Police Officers by UN Police Officers) at the Sector Headquarters in Wau and the Team Sites in Wau, Warrab and Aweil.

Enyways, the first picture is of Wau City or town, I guess its a city but its laid out like a town. Notice the red earth. Its dry there and the dirt becomes really dusty and clothes get really red from walking around there, even for just three days, especially my boots. They're still red from the dust.

The second picture is the UN Employees Accommodation Camp in Wau. Notice how far apart the containers are from each other compared to Juba. Also notice that there is no vegetation in the Accommodation Camp. Lots of red dust though.

The third picture is the creek in Wau. Notice that people drive their vehicles into the creek to wash them. They're probably washing the red dust off them.

The fourth picture is Charles and I. Charles was a very good host while I was there. He prepared a dinner of spaghetti the first night I was there that was so good we ate the leftovers for dinner on the second night; and I would have eaten it again on the third night but there was none left by then. You taught him well, Victoria, he is a very good cook (of spaghetti sauce, anyway).

The fifth picture is my boss Cyprian and I outside the Wau Police Station. More red dust.

There is a very active social life for the UN staff in Wau; I can see why Scott and Charles liked it so much there and didn't want to move anywhere else. In fact, I arrived in time on the Sunday night for their weekly flag football game, and after scoring a touchdown and dropping another sure touchdown, I promptly tore or strained the hamstring in my right leg trying to catch up to a 30something year old for the other team. It hurt so bad I thought I was going to pass out! I limped for about two weeks after that and had a big bruise on the back of my leg. Sigh. Chalk me up as another 50something hurting himself trying to keep up with a 30something. What happened was I tried to kick it up into another gear when I was chasing her because she could run faster than me and I don't have another gear any more!

Tomorrow I'll talk about our two hour drive to Aweil team Site.

At last - photos of Jerusalem

I was able to post a few pictures of my recent trip to Jerusalem. The first two give you an idea of what its like in the Old City, its is walled all around and almost exclusively made of stone! There is no bare earth or wood, its all stone, and the passageways are all narrow. The third one is me beside the grave of Oscar Schindler of Schindler's List fame. You may remember at the end of the movie that some of the people he saved placed rocks on his grave, that's where I'm standing, beside his grave. And there are lots of rocks on it!

The fourth and fifth photos are from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City. This is believed to be the site of Jesus' crucifixion on Cavalry, where his body was lain when it was taken down off the cross (in the fifth picture I'm kneeling beside it) and where the tomb was located in which his body was placed. These sites are all in the Church, which is really an amalgamation of a number of churches. Very moving place to be. There were Franciscan monks walking around singing and several processions which I never figured out what they were for and a lot of people.

The Old City contains this church, the Al Aqsa Mosque which is the third holiest place in Islam and the Western Wall which is sacred to the Jews. Although there were soldiers everywhere (and are they ever young! 18-19 years old) the security measures didn't feel that severe. Probably because it was relatively peaceful at the time. It felt good to be going there as a UN peacekeeper.

Wow, only one week till Christmas!

I just got back from a trip to Israel, Jordan and Egypt and I still can't post any ?!$%+#& pictures to my blog. I have some great pictures to post from my holiday but I can't. Oh well. Tomorrow is the completion of my seventh month here in Sudan. It has gone by so fast, its unbelievable.

But it doesn't feel like Christmas to me, the temperaure has been really hot here and I've only seen one set of Christmas lights in the camp in Juba. It was kind of disconcerting to see Santa Clauses and Christmas trees in Egypt and Jordan, I didn't expect to see those symbols in Muslim countries.

I'll post some pictures about my trip when I figure out what's preventing it.