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.