Goodbye to Jas

Once we moved into February, the rest of the Canadian Police contingent started preparing to go home on Feb. 18th (I didn't because I had been extended till March 4th to meet and orient the new group of Canadian police originally scheduled to arrive on Feb. 21st). Among other things, this meant saying goodbye to Jas, the other RCMP officer who was posted to Juba with me.

I should have said this more often but I enjoyed having him there with me; we ate many meals together, went to lots of parties together and generally kept an eye on each other and each other's containers. I knew I could always count on Jas, no matter what.

So, a couple of photos of Jas doing what he does best, sitting and standing around doing nothing (just kidding, he worked hard and was one of the few UNPOLs who worked shifts: days, evenings and nights, and did that for most of his tour. Keep in mind that we worked every day when we were in Mission, so he never got a day off after any of those shifts!).

The I've got photos from the February going away party (we started having so many going away parties for people at the end of their mission that the UN Police in Juba took to having one a month for everybody leaving that month). Enyways, there's the acting Deputy Police Commissioner and a good friend of the Canadian Police contingent, Tony Rosa of the US giving Jas a certificate in recognition of his work as the 2 i/c of Regional Operations, and me congratulating Jas, and one of me saying a few words about Jas and the good work he did, and yes, how much I enjoyed having him in Juba with me. I wish I told him more.

Second Family Reunion Trip - Egypt

In January I also met the family in Cairo for my second Family Reunion Trip and we spent 10 days in Egypt. My son Adam joined us too, having finally got himself a passport!

We spent the first two days in Cairo, not doing much because Adam's flight out of Kelowna was cancelled because of weather and he didn't arrive until a day later. We took the opportunity to got the Khan El Khalili outdoor market to buy some Egyptian gold cartouches.

Once Adam arrived, we flew to Aswan in the south and took a Nile River Cruise from Aswan to Luxor. I really recommend it. The boat is smaller than the ocean-going liners obviously, but the food was very good, very comfortable and relaxing. We could have spent the whole four days and three nights on the top deck, never mind all the good tours and amazing sites, and the rooms were larger than the ocean cruisers with big ceiling-to-floor picture windows/sliding doors in each one. I really enjoyed all dining together at breakfast and at dinner.

We then spent five days in Sharm El Sheikh, Jeez I like that place. Its like a combination of Las Vegas and the Dominican Republic. We went on a desert barbecue with a camel ride and a belly dancer. Unfortunately a little kid from the audience upstaged the dancer!

We took several Cairo cab rides during our holiday. I normally wouldn't risk the kids lives like that, but you don't experience the real Cairo until you've been on one of their white knuckle cab rides.

We made the obligatory trips souvenir shopping, and like our experience at the Khan El Khalili Market, the hassles eventually drove us away and kept us from going back.

Natalie felt we did too much flying (10 flights in 10 days for them, I guess that's a lot!)

Poor Melanie had the trip from hell; her luggage went missing and we didn't get it back until the day before they went home. She caught a cold on the way to Egypt, developed a gastro-intestinal disorder that necessitated a midnight call out of a doctor to treat her, and on and on it went.

The highlight of the trip was either the camel ride or Adam, Stephanie, Melanie and I climbing up into the interior of the largest Giza pyramid. Dinner at the Japanese Restaurant in our hotel in Sharm was also memorable, they cooked our meal in front of us and Melanie and Natalie took turns stirring the food while it was on fire!

Back in Canada

As most of you know, and the rest of you probably suspect, I'm back in Canada, the mission over already. I really enjoyed it. I had difficulty the last two months using the Internet as our connection was really slow and there weren't enough computers in my section for everyone, so I had to wait my turn to get on a computer and then wait for the Internet to be working, so I didn't blog anymore. I'm going to try to sum up the last two months in the next couple of days.

It was very hot in January, 40 degrees Celsius plus every day, there hadn't been rain since Oct. so it was very dusty as well. I didn't go out much in the afternoons; I'd go to my container to eat (first picture) lunch and then back to the office. Thank god for air conditioning.

I also felt very tired in January and February; working every day with no days off and the heat seemed to catch up to me and I was exhausted by 9:00 o'clock in the evening.

If I went off base it was usually in the evening (second picture), to go out for dinner or to the market to shop for food or pick up a few souvenirs before going home. We drove the UN vehicles off-duty as well, there was no other means of transportation.

Sometimes I went for a walk in the late afternoon (third picture), it was still hot but not as bad as during the day, and I was afraid to go for a walk after dark in case I ran into (or stepped on) a snake. Those are the UN helicopters behind me that flew out to the smaller team sites during the day. I never rode on one unfortunately, the one time I was scheduled to go on one the flight was cancelled. That happened quite often.

Actually, I never saw a snake while I was there but other people told me they saw some on our base. So I never walked after dark.

But I did see some storks (pictures 4 and 5). You can see them behind me in the fourth picture. For some reason they started hanging around the UN base in Juba, probably because there was a food source there for them. They are huge animals. It was kind of disconcerting to have one fly over all of a sudden. Because of them, I started wearing a hat when I went for my walk.

I never talked much about our communal washrooms, or "ablution centres" as they are called by the UN. They were filthy and the toilet seats and flushing mechanisms and sinks were always broken and many times there was no water or it was really muddy. What really bugged me though was that there was never toilet paper or hand soap in the ablution centres but there were always stacks of condoms. I wish they would assign whoever puts the condoms in the ablution centres to put toilet paper and hand soap there instead (or also!).

Yes, I know I haven't blogged in a while...

More out of frustration with how long it takes to get on the Internet and upload photos. It takes me about 10 minutes to open and reply to an email these days. And Internet Explorer will shut down unexpectantly every so often and I'll lose everything I typed. And then there are the daily power failures...

Enyways, I'm fine, feeling tired though, sleeping more than I used to and not feeling as rested when I wake up in the morning. Mission veterans told me this would happen, the working every day eventually wears us down.

I'm extended till March 4th, the next group of Canadian police are due to arrive in Khartoum on Feb. 21st and I'll stay behind to greet them. The rest of the guys go home on Feb. 18th. I'll be moving to Khartoum in the next week or two.

I've got one photo to upload (please, God!!), this is the group of people I'm working with currntly in the Strategic Advisory Team. From left to right: Holger from Germany, Momesese from Fiji, Trond from Norway, Danashree from India, Cyprian from Rwanda, Rabindra from Nepal and yours truly in case you've forgotten what I look like. Because its been so long since I posted lol.

Well, its 6 am and I'm off to wash my underwear and socks.

No! No! No! I don't love cats

As Stephanie reported, I am fine, I just haven't been able to use the Internet for most of the last week. And I did smile when Stephanie was born, she had just peed on me in that picture (okay, I'm kidding, I was just tired from being up all night).

New Years Eve was the usual here, an outdoor party that lasted until 4 AM, but this next part was a bit out of the ordinary. I was awakened by the sound of gunfire at 6:30 AM, it appears the good people of Juba, or some of them at least, thought it would be a great idea to greet the dawn of the new year with some celabratory gunfire. It sounded like a firefight outside the front gate of our camp. For about half an hour or so. We were in a bit of a panic for a while because no one could remember this happening before. My hats off to my colleague Jas, who was the Operations on-call officer for that night, for keeping his cool during this episode. When one of our woman UN police officers called him to report the gunfire (waking him up in the process! How can you sleep through that many shots?), he listned for a while and then asked her if she was frightened and when she said she was, he said "Well phone your dad then" and hung up the phone. No wonder the man is single!

I LOVE CATS!

Hey All, Stephanie here. Waynes favourite daughter :P The only one who reads his blog.

His internet is currently down which is why he hasnt added a new post lately and he wanted me to let you all know he is ok and he wants to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Since I was entrusted upon to deliver this message to all of you, I decided to add a picture of my father and I. Since I recently got a new computer I was loading all my pictures and I came across this picture with I really liked. Nice stach dad, real nice. Lol. I shouldnt laugh too hard though one day my kids will laugh at my choses of style. Although would it have killed you to smile... Oh and Natalie says hi. I bet you smiled when she was born.

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.