The Russians are coming!!!

Being left in charge here at AirOps Juba-my chief Julio is on a six week R&R- gives me some more insight in how the UN administration operates. Everything is done according to the CYA principle. For those not familiar with the UN it's the acronym for "cover your ass". First of all you have to understand that e-mail is the primary means of communication in the UN so not everything needs to be signed to be official. I recieved an e-mail the other day from the Chief Air Ops Khartoum asking me if I had made all the arrangements for the Russian Aviation Unit(RAU) coming to Juba as we had discussed (note: this discussion was an informal conversation about the possible implications of the Russians coming. There was no fixed date yet). I replied that I had not been able to do anything yet because he failed to supply me with some minor details like: How many peolple, how many choppers, when are they arriving, what are their requirements and what agreements have been laid down in the Letter of Assistance to the UN. Sure enough the reason for the e-mail touched down at Juba Airport the next morning. A Russian Ilyushin-76 has brought in the RAU advance party. Good thing nobody informed us or everything might have run like clockwork.

(RAU site near the "old runway" where we park our aircraft. Note the old 707. This is used as a barracks and protected by a .50 caliber machine gun. For those interested the two small planes are wrecked MiG-19's)
Khartoum was very enthousiastic about the possibilities of exploiting the RAU for AIROPS. They even wanted us to create an integrated AIROPS unit. despite the good idea I warned them that they might be a bit optimistic and we would be lucky if the aircrew speaks english. Well it turned out that even I- a pessimist by nature- was optimistic. Of the 8 man advance party only one spoke English. Even their commanding officer, a full colonel, doesn't understand anything beyond yes or no. Or else he's a hell of an actor. Of the full 120 man delegation only the 2 interpreters and the radiooperators assigned to the aircrews speak English. So far for the idea of an integrated office. But there are enough other issues to keep you busy. Apron space, access routes to the airfield, hangars, you name it, all still need to be constructed. Primarily HQ in Khartoum is supposed to support the deployment of the RAU. Apart from a few CYA e-mails left and right nothing much has happened so it's left to us peeps out in the field. Which is fine by me since it gives you a meaningful way of spending your sparce freetime.

If all goes well Sector 1 will be suplemented with 4 Mi-8 transport helicopters by the end of May. This will tremendously increase our capacity and we should be able to guarantee a more steady schedule of re-supplying the team-sites. Especially now road transport is becoming increasingly more difficult.

So you see there's not much time to get bored here. Which on the one hand is a good thing but on the other it leaves virtually no time to see anything of the environment. I haven't even had a chance yet to explore the city of Juba by daylight. And at night you can't see much because there are no lights. The only place I sometimes get out to are some of the NGO camps to grab a beer or two.

We has a fantastic thunderstorm a few nights ago. Only drawback was that we had a CASEVAC in progress. Two victims of a car accident had to be picked up in a small town about an hours' flight North of here. It took the paramedics more than 2 hours to stabilise the patients for transport while the storm was nearing Juba Airfield. Miraculously the storm passed left and right of the airfield leaving a clear path from the scene of the accident to the airport so the helicopter got in safely. Although there was little hope for the critically injured patient he managed to survive the night and was further transported to Nairobi. I'm sure there must have been an angel on somebody's shoulder that night.

(Our HELOG crew taking a break after yet another MEDEVAC. Far right is Jörg aka Capito, captain of the Super Puma and one of the most humble persons you will ever come across)
I got the word that my UNMO colleagues have arrived safely in Sudan and have had their first experience with the unfortunate combination of UN bureaucracy and the Sudanese way of life. They have started their induction course and if all goes well I expect to see them here in Juba in about two weeks. Question is how long they are going to stay here. Contrary to the agreement rumors are that in stead of them all being assigned to Sector 1 they will be dispersed over all sectors. Wouldn't expect it any other way with the UN;-)

Hi everyone

Well, I guess it's about time for an update. As you can see I'm still alive and hangin' in there. Last week I had my first day off in the mission and I owe it to Mohammed(PBUH). It was his birthday and as a present there were no flights. Since I was supposed to return back to Juba that day I was stuck in Khartoum. To make matters worse I had to spend the whole day at the poolside at the Sudanese German Club;)

(It's a tough life in Khartoum. The ice cream just isn't the same as back home)

The last week things have been busy here at the airfield. We are in the middle of a Kenyian deployment. About 750 troops are passing through Juba. Coming in with an MD83 from Nairobi and being shutteled to their final destination by either Antonov 74, Let-410 or Mi-8 helicopter. Up till now things are running fairly smoothly apart from the fact that the relatively peace and quiet of my tent gets disturbed by Kenyian sleep-overs.

We've also had several medical evacuations, so called MEDEVACS. For this we have a dedicated Super Puma helicopter with paramedics. Very professional guys from Germany. Even for a medical situation the UN is very bureacratic. Descisions are laid down by single officials. If you don't get his approval it's a no go. For a MEDEVAC you need a doctor's assesment of the situation. Based on this the Chief Medical Officer in Khatoum gives the green light. Last week we had a person that was run down by a car in Torit and was admitted to the local hospital. We recieved a request to fly the patient out. Luckily our chopper was already there. Problem was the patient hadn't been properly assesed by a doctor(paramedics don't count). In order to get final approval we phoned a military doctor to have a look at the patient who was already at the helicopter. Doc said it was nothing serious, just a sprained arm and a few bruises. So we called the MEDEVAC of. Much to our surprise the helicopter showed up in Juba 30 minutes later with the patient. We asked the paramedics if the doctor changed his mind and OK-ed the MEDEVAC. Turns out he never showed up at the helicopter. Paramedics assesed a serious chest wound and broken ribs and thought it better to fly him to Juba. A right decision...

But you have to be careful with who you put on the plane. Especially in the small towns they try to get patients on our aircraft but it could do more damage to airlift a wounded or sick person if you don't know what his/her condition is.

Last night we had our first real rainfall. Turns out our tropical tents won't keep the water out if the wind blows from the wrong direction. I only felt a few drops penetrate the mesh of the ceiling but some people in other tents they got their feet wet. Most of the water was gone come morning. Good part about the rain is that the temperature drops down quite a bit which is quite nice.

The general situation here in South Sudan is reasonably stable. Up in the Northern part of the South there was an internal clash within a faction about which side to join, the SAF or the SPLA. In the resulting firefight 15 people were killed including civilians. There are a lot of acusations flying left to right in the media about infringements of the CPA. Here at Juba we see a lot of SAF troops being shipped out North. A sign that the government is adhering to the CPA. However the formation of Joint Integrated Units(JIU) consisting of SAF and SPLA troops is behind schedule. It seems that units have been designated to participate in JIUs but are still somewhat reluctant to join up. Not very strange considering the circumstances. You can't expect sworn enemies to become bossom pals overnight.

All seems quiet

Well after the incidents a couple of weeks ago things seemed to have quietened down here in sector 1. But I must confess that much of the news passes me by. I am dividing most of my time between the office and the airport resulting in 12 hour+ working days 7 days a week. And that with 50C-60C temperatures on the tarmac. I'm glad I can hit the sack when I get home. Under these conditions you start to call everywhere you can sleep relatively undisturbed home. The past few weeks I have been able to fly to a couple of places to break the routine. For those interested here in Juba we host a Be-200 KingAir, Let-410, Mi-8 Helicoptes, Super Puma helo with medevac configuration and an Mi-26 transport helicopter. These are just our local assets. The rest of the UN fleet that regularly passes through consists of MD-83, B-737, Antonov 74, Dash-8, Ilyushin 76 and L-100 Hercules aircraft.

(Mi-26, now that's a HUGE helicopter)
My job along with my colleagues Julio (ex Honduran Lt Col pilot) , Einar(Norwegian Air Force major)and Shaban(local guy) is to ensure the fleet keeps flying. At least in our neck of the woods. That sometimes requires some flexibility because like the Dutch railways the UN doesn't like to stick to the planned schedule. This often leads to passengers getting stuck and having to take the next flight...usually 4-5 days later.

(plains between Juba and Maridi)
At least from the air you have a magnificent view of the landscape. The only thing that's missing is the wildlife. Well, apart from some birds. It seems most animals were poached or have fled the area because of the wars. However, they seem to be returning slowly. There even seems to be a small herd of elephants roaming the plains about 20 miles East of Juba. The only "wildlife" I have seen here are frogs, lizards, hawks and maribus. Oh and one small monkey in Torit. The maribus scavenge the waste plots around the camps near the airfield. Due to their ever increasing numbers they are starting to pose risk a risk to aviation safety.

(Maribu stork)

AMZAR CAMP...

(AMZAR Camp)
Here in Juba there are several compounds ranging from simple iglo tents to air conditioned units. My residence for the coming 5 months is AMZAR CAMP. A full service tent barracks, it is run by a contractor for the UN. I have the luxury of sharing my tent with maximum 4 other persons. Since I’m a long term inmate I have claimed the back of the tent as my territory. I have a reasonably comfortable bed which I can just stretch out in. This will be a problem for some of the Dutch guys that are coming in later.


(my turf)

The tents are just fine if it remains dry. When it rains in combination with wind the water is blown through the mesh of the double roof. But look at the bright side, if it rains the temperature in the tent drops to an acceptable level in combination with the fans. The food is OK. We get served 2 warm meals a day….so much for loosing a couple of pounds. No gourmet dinners but by all means acceptable and you won’t get ill from it. Toilets and showers are kept clean and your laundry gets done daily, if necessary. So, all in all it’s not a bad deal. I’m sure I’ll think differently when the rainy season really kicks in. The site will turn into mud soup and the snakes and other reptiles will come out of their hiding places. Hopefully by the end of next month the UN will have finished building the air conditioned prefabs intended for their staff :-)