quick update....

Just a quick update to say I’m OK. I’ve been on the move a quite bit the last week. I tagged along with the Dutch fact finding mission to evaluate if and under what conditions we are going to send our UNMO’s to Sudan. This week I’m on a 3 day airfield ramp training course in El Obeid, the UN logistics base in Soedan. The last weeks the situation was a bit more tense here in the South. We had an incident in Yei where people tried to rob a UNHCR compound. A guard was killed and several people wounded. In Yambio an attack on a UN compound took place. Probable agressors were the LRA. The objective was to loot food and comms equipment. 3 attackers were killed and 3 UN troops wounded. Ironically the wounded were soldiers sleeping in their tents at the time of the attack. In both cases a CASEVAC(casualty evacuation) helicopter was launched from our airfield in Juba. Kudos to the paramedics that delivered a fantastic job in treating and stabilising the victims ensuring their recovery.

When I get back to Juba I will post more information. Internet is very slow and it takes hours to get the blog info uploaded but.........stay tuned.

The Nile

Last weekend was my last in Khartoum and you can’t leave without having made a trip on the Nile. Or so they say. So on Friday I embarked on a sightseeing boat tour arranged by the UN welfare department. After pizza and drinks(sorry, no booze) were loaded aboard we casted off for a trip which lasted a full 4 hours. IMHO about 3 hours too long. All I can say is the Nile is overrated in this neck of the woods (well more of an urban jungle). Very monotonous and dull surroundings.

(Nile at the Khartoum marina)

On Saturday I relocated to Juba. This fortunately coincided with an afternoon BBQ the Air Ops team had planned on location. Courtesy of the Regional Administrative Officer an Australian chap that goes by the name of Andrew. Now unfortunately the rainy season has begun in the South so the BBQ got rained out. Nevertheless when, the weather cleared later on Andrew dropped us of with his speedboat on a small island in the Nile. The island is inhabited by a family who lives traditional African huts or so called “tukuls” Contrary to the North the Nile here is quite beautiful. The contrast and variety of green colors is absolutely amazing.

(Nile at Juba, foto taken from Mi 8 helicopter)

What else is amazing is how the captains navigate their barges through the river. They have to maneuver these sluggish vessels past rocks and shallows for risk of getting stuck or worse…sink.

(Barge navigating currents and shallows of the Nile)

Air Ops

I had a brief meeting with the chief Air Ops here in Khartoum. His name is Kevin and he's a civilian UN staff member with a background in aviation engineering. It probably doesn't surprise you but they weren't expecting me. However they have been waiting for a Danish staf officer for about a year now. He still has to show up. But since I fit the bill I'll do for the time being.

The UN has 31 air assets to run their operation here in Sudan. Ranging from Mi-8 helos to a boeing 737 and several large Antonov cargo aircraft. They are expecting more helicopters to arrive within the next few months. Surprisingly the civil aviation authority is still in tact in this country so they take care of all the air traffic control related issues. Air ops basically does scheduling of the UN air assets and monitoring their whereabouts. They also co-ordinate the necesary logistics to keep the planes in the air and the pilots happy. You can compare it to a small airline company. Right now Trish ( a British lady with operations experience at Hapag Lloyd) is introducing me into the fabulous world of UN aviation. Since I'll be going to Juba I won't recieve any training here. This is due to thje fact that Khartoum does mainly planning and flight authoristion. At Juba the main task will be co-ordinating with local staff and air crews and forwarding any requests for aircraft to Khartoum. Since the rainy season has just started in the South there will be a run on helicopter transportation because it will be nearly impossible to use the fixed wing aircraft on the dirt strips. Two feet of water on parts of the runway is not uncommon. Another problem is that people want to call in air transport for nearly everyrthing. There have even been requests to use helicopters to blow away the freshly cut grass at landingsites. That's a mighty expensive rake.

Contrary to my earlier report I will probably be leaving for Juba coming saturday. Why not earlier? Most of the Air Ops staff is heading for Juba on saturday anyway. They've planned a barbeque there. Well that suits me just fine. That means I can go to a barbeque Jelle and I were invited to on thursday. BBQ's seem to be THE socialising events amongst the expats here in Sudan. Apart from them there isn't really much else to do but work:(

The driving test

Today I took my UN driving test along with several others. This is mandatory if you are going to drive a UN vehicle. Normally you drive a 4x4. You would expect to get some extra training using these larger than average cars. Well you don't. The test itself is pretty simple. Actually it's so easy that anyone without any previous driving experience whatsoever should be able to pass. Guess what.... some don't:)

(standard isssue Nissan patrol. Note the all-season tires. Very useful in terrain)

An Indian paratroop engineer almost made us ellegable for the Purple Heart. He was however a model soldier and instantly carried out the instructors orders. Undoubtetly in the assumption that all the other vehicles were also aware of said orders. He maneged to not once check his six, sides or miorrors before changing lanes. The "pièce de resistance" was the U-turn on a 6 lane street. Again the instructors instructions were performed without hesitation. In no time we did a 180 causing the cars from the opposite direction to slam their brakes and come to a screeching halt. Our heartbeats racing up to 200+ and all this without the slightest change of composure in our Indian friend.

First impressions ...

Men wearing dresses and holding hands....need i say more:)
Sudanese aren't lazy. They're just a bit slow and unstructured :p

First of all I would like to apologise to my fans for being so late in updating my blog :p

After our troublesome start we started the proces of checking in at the UN. Remarkable how such a large organisation can adapt to the Sudanese lifestyle so quickly;). At least we managed to finish our induction course this week. This means we can go to work starting sunday ( but I think Jelle and I are still a bit too eager).

(view from UNMIS HQ)

If all goes well I'll ship out to Juba on tuesday or wednesday. I still don't have a clue if they are expecting me. The UN is mostly about figures and statistics. When you've checked in you can be added to the list and when you check out you can be deleted. What happens in between seems to be of no concern to the deskjockeys. For instance you would expect the personnel department to know what and where your posting is and who will be your boss. Questions in this direction often cause blank expressions with the staff. Ah well. I guess we'll just have to learn to live with it as we are learning to live with the climatological circumstances. Slowly we are adapting to the temperature. However we are now having more problems with the ever present dust in the air. Stuffy nose, itchy eyes and such.

As for the present political situation. I don't have any aspirations of becoming a novelist (I'll leave that to Hemi) so I'll keep it short. The situation is ever changing here. Darfur is the hotspot at the moment. The African Union (AU) is going to end their mission there and the UN would like to take over from them. This is something the Sudanese about. The UN tends to take the reporting of treaty violations more seriously than the AU so the Sudanese government isn't to pleased about UN presence in the Darfur area. Since it is alleged that the government is supporting several rebel factions in the area you now understand why. To underline this there was a "spontaneous" demonstration against the UN in Khartoum last thursday. It was of course all perfectly orchestrated by the government. Countries like Sudan don't have spontaneous demonstration. Result was that we were confined to the compound the whole day. Despite these incidents we still feel pretty much safe here. The people are generally friendly, but what do you if you're being considered a walking wallet:)

As I mentioned earlier I hope to be heading for Juba next week. This means AFRICA. Khartoum is more an Arabic city and reminds me of Turkey in many ways. The big difference is that Turkey is climbing on the economic ladder. Khartoum is anything but a rich city albeit for culture. And even in this aspect there is not so much to see. There is only one large paved road that is in good condition. The others are riddled with potholes the size of craters. And there is dust and sand...and some more dust and sand. But like I said the peeps are alright.

(ferry crossing at the Nile)

Arrived safely in Sudan

Jelle and I arrived safely in Sudan at about 18.45 local time after an uneventful flight. Everything after was less uneventful. But this didn't really come as a surprise. First off it took us more than 3 hours to clear customs. This was mainly due to the fact that people gennerally tend to take on a more leasurely pace in hot countries. And it is pretty hot here. It was 37 C on arrival and the mercury is expected to rise to a scorching 43 C tomorrow. it is expected to things generally take more time. Secondly we didn't have the proper customs documents for our firearms. After about 10 people took interest in our equipment the top honcho finally showed up and said we couldn't take the guns in. They would have to be cleared tomorrow after the UN provided them with the proper documents. Speaking of the UN...they didn't know we were to arrive today. And of course we didn't have a phonenumber at hand. Why should we? New York assused us that everything was arranged. A friendly lady from KLM groundhandling called a guy from the UN she knew and that got things rolling. All in all we were treated very kindly and with respect. The only thing customs made sure of is that we weren't destined for Darfur. That's kind of a touchy issue here. At least we can't complain about the hotel we're staying in. It's got airconditioned rooms - something more of a necessiety than a luxury- and they are clean! Well, my kebab is about to be served. After that, a good nights sleep should sort us out to tackle tomorrows bureaucracy.

Last post from the safety of home..

Tomorrow morning I'll be on my way to Sudan by means of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. That means that my next post will be done in Sudan. Kind of an odd feeling right now. Over here there's a 10cm pack of snow with more to come. In Khartoum it's a comfortable 28 C. I think I can leave my polar socks and undergarments home. I don't know what to expect when we arrive there. We have no clue yet as to who and if there will be someone to pick us up. Another uncertainty is our luggage. The carry-on luggage shouldn't be a problem but it might take a while for our pallets to clear customs. Also they didn't pack all of our gear. Some of the stuff is still on the pallets that are packed for the group of observers that will hopefully follow about a month later.

I said goodbye to the kids today. It's heartreaking to see how difficult this situation is for them. Especially since there is no real way to comfort them. Hopefully Ill be back before the summer holidays are over so that we can still take a vacation.

Latest news is that the Sudanese peolples are becoming more hostile towards the UN presence. Not a very comforting feeling. However this seems to be more the case in the Islamic North than in the South. I wouldn't surprise me if it still has to do with the recent "cartoon" business. Another aspect is that the Government of Sudan(GoS) is not in favor of UN presence in Darfur. A major issue since the UN is the only organisation at this moment willing to fill the void that the African Union will leave behind when they retire from the area. Also the team of one of our colleagues on another mission(IMAT) in Sudan were paid a visit by the national security force. They had to hand in their PC's, communications equipment and vehicles. Some of the equipment was returned later. The valuable lesson learned here is that an AK47 puts more weight in the scale than diplomatic immunity. A minor detail is that the IMAT mission does not have an official status yet, so the intruiging game of power and politics can commence...