Someone is impersonating me.

Alas it seems nothing good is left alone to be enjoyed and remembered fondly. Someone in Africa, I think in Ghana, is impersonating me on the Internet trying to solicit money and referring people to my blog to verify their "legitimacy". It is not me, I am not working for the United Nations and I am back in Canada working for my police service. These are the phony IDs that are being sent to people to solicit money. Please do not have anything to do with these emaks, just notify the police and myself. Thank you.

Goodbye Sudan, I'll miss you (and I do)

Then the day came, I took all my luggage to the Movcon building to have it shipped to Khartoum, vacated my living container (which is now fittingly in the hands of JP Levesque, a Canadian UNMO (UN Military Observer) posted to Juba, (fittingly, as I received most of my dishes, kitchenware, a hot plate, kettle, lots of food etc. another Canadian UNMO, Dawn Boudreau when she was finishing her mission in June, 2008, and I was happy to pass it on to another Canadian peacekeeper) and said goodbye to my co-workers and friends. That was sad too, I really enjoyed my time in Juba, made lots of good friends, had a lot of laughs and good times. Nothing stays the same, and my friends would have all gone home eventually at the end of their missions, but its depressing when good times come to an end.

I had received word the previous week that my mom was diagnosed with leukemia and was hospitalised in Ottawa. Even though the new contingent had not arrived yet, they had trouble getting entry visas for Sudan as we had, I wanted to go home right away obviously to see her.

As it was the new contingent didn’t arrive in Khartoum until March 14th. My best wishes to them, I hope they get as much out of the experience as we did (and I wouldn’t mind seeing a blog or two from them either!) I enjoyed blogging, if I hadn’t had so much trouble with the Internet I would have done it more often. There seemed to be something to talk about every day that I was in the mission.

As I said to my friend Steve today, working in poor and developing countries can be very frustrating but also very fulfilling. I sometimes wondered if I was accomplishing anything significant but I think you have to take a smaller scale view of this, we each help a few people, change their lives in meaningful ways, show them that the rest of humanity cares about them, etc. Not a lot on a small scale perhaps but cumulatively over a prolonged period of time, the quality of life and standard of living improves for a lot of people.

I want to thank everyone for their emails and comments on my blog and best wishes and in general the interest you showed in my life over there. I rarely felt like I was alone as a lot of people kept in touch with me, and a lot of people wished me well and encouraged me and reinforced my decision to take nine months out of my life and get out of my comfort zone, and for that I am truly grateful. Also many thanks to my mom and my sister Sandra and Betty and Alix for sending me food and snacks and things I needed (forgive me if I’ve forgotten anyone), and to everyone else who offered to, I just had limited storage space and a tiny fridge so I had to limit the amount of food I kept on hand.

I had such a good time in Africa, I'd consider moving there. The climate, although really hot, was good for my health, no problems with allergies, all my aches and joint pains etc. didn’t bother me there. I liked the laid back lifestyle, Africans don't hurry, never pass up an opportunity to visit and talk, I loved the music, loved dancing to the music, loved dancing underneath the stars, eating on the banks of the mighty Nile River, shaking hands for about five minutes at a time, laughing a lot, joking, just having lots of fun.

Yes it was dangerous there, not as bad as other places, but everybody has a gun there and there is no law and order as we know it, there were no consequences for misuse of firearms or being violent or anything like that. It didn't happen to me but other UN police officers were held up at gunpoint, assaulted, etc. We had to be careful, no doubt about it. Death or serious injury were ever present possibilities.

Yes it was a life altering experience. What people consider problems here are insignificant as far as I'm concerned. The people in Sudan just worry about getting enough food to eat in a day, and not being killed, robbed, raped etc. It is not a compassionate society right now toward orphans or disabled or infirm. People are still losing limbs or their lives to land mines. Death sometimes doesn’t get more than a passing notice. But the people have hope for the future, a hope that the

UN has in part created in them.

I also loved being a UN peacekeeper. Sometimes, when things were tough and I was having a bad day, I was say to myself "You are a UN peacekeeper. You wear the shoulder flash and the beret that you’ve always wanted to wear, and that so many other people of so many different nationalities, even Sudanese people, want to wear". I’ll always be proud of having been a UN peacekeeper.

One last task to perform

Before I left for Khartoum to checkout, I had one more task to complete. I lectured to the Senior officers of the South Sudan Police Service about strategic planning. Specifically, we talked about the upcoming elections in Sudan and the role the SSPS may have to play in protecting the candidates, election officials, polling stations, the voters, ballots and ballot boxes etc. etc.

My talk was well received by the class. I think we as Canadian Police Officers can be very influential with this fledging police service. Canadians are held in high esteem in Sudan, probably because many Sudanese people have immigrated to Canada and told their family and friends good things about our country and our people. And our policing services are very community- and people-oriented.

Of all the tasks I did while I worked in Sudan, I enjoyed presenting to training classes the best. I liked the direct interaction with the South Sudan police officers and felt like I was giving them the benefit of my 30 years (gasp) in policing, in many different roles and situation, problems and solutions etc.

Time to say goodbye to the other contigent members

So after some dinners with the other Canadians in Juba, the Military Observers and civilian staff, and a last breakfast after the going away party, and a surprise visit from Charles who was supposed to proceed directly to Khartoum from Wau but instead showed up at my container door on the morning the rest were to leave for Khartoum (that was like having a wish come true for me, all five of us remaining Canadian UNPOLs together for one last time), we gathered at the Movement Control (Movcon) building to say goodbye before they boarded their plane. I wished I was going with them.

They were a good group, they did a really good job in their positions and all were thought of very highly by their co-workers, bosses and everyone who knew them. They caused me minimal grief as the contingent commander. I often said I wished I had two Canadian UNPOLs for every Team Site and Headquarters unit in Sudan, everybody wanted one for their section. We were accepted and respected by all the other contingents and most importantly, by the South Sudan Police Service.

It was a depressing time for me as the rest of the contingent left. I felt alone for the first time in the mission, even though I had lots of friends from Juba around me. There was much comfort for me knowing that there were the other contingent members in mission and only a phone call or a flight away.

The end drew near (much too quicly for my liking)

About a week before they flew home to Canada, the rest of the Canadian Police contingent gathered in Juba, the regional headquarters for the south of Sudan, to begin the checkout process. This involved handing over any equipment, vehicles etc. that were in their name to someone else and making sure they had no inventory left in their name, checking out of their UN accommodation, packing up their luggage and having it shipped to Khartoum to be in turn shipped back to Canada etc.

In the midst of all this frantic activity, we found the time to have a going away party for ourselves and our friends in Juba. In addition to the usual group pictures, we did the obligatory group hug, posed with our friends the Swedes, and mugged it up for the camera. You'll notice that I'm holding a Sprite can in these photos which is all I drank that night as I was driving non-UN people home after the party. No good deed goes unpunished though, because I wouldn't go in the makeshift pool with them after the party and left to take the non-UN people home instead, my contingent mates showed up at my container at 4:00 AM trying to get me to have one more drink with them. What a bunch. But they are obviously happy about going home.

The end was drawing near, and I was having mixed feelings about that.

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!