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.

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 .....