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.