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.
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