Referendum Day….

I will spare you all the details of my week because you can only imagine.  To sum it all up…..I am on day 9 of a very bad stomach bug/parasite.  It even kept me away from the office for a couple of days which I know many of you might have a hard time believing.  I am not sure what I caught but I have a feeling I must have picked up something when I was inspecting the Team Site down in South Darfur.  It could have been the egusi soup (melon seed soup) and semolina (hard wheat durum flour) which I ate in the Nigerian Military kitchen however your guess is as good as mine. 

I went on a tour of the UNAMID hospitals here in El-Fasher.  I visited 3 hospitals within a 4 day stretch.  I have tried so many types of mediation and nothing has seemed to work.  I ended up going to the Level 2 hospital where they ran a few tests on me.  In the end they put me on some more meds which seem to be doing the trick but it’s working very slowly.  I would not wish this on anyone and I am so relieved that it is coming to an end. 

Three nights ago our Egyptian military friend, Mohammed, invited us for a BBQ with some of his friends.  Once again he put on quite the spread…..beef sausages and goat.  Unfortunately I am on a fairly strict diet while I am trying to recover and it does not consist of meat.  Despite not being able to enjoy the food I had a really great evening.…..lots of laughs which I needed after this last week. 

I have not been able to run which is rather depressing.  I was able to get out for a walk two nights ago and ended up playing a bit of frisbee with my Canadian counterparts and my co-worker from Pakistan.  It’s the simple things in life that are keeping us entertained here. 

I have 32 days to go until I go on my first CTO (leave) – not like I am counting. The plan is to go to Egypt for about 14 days then fly to the Seychelles Islands (approx. 100 islands in the Indian Ocean just northeast of Madagascar) for a week of relaxation before I have to jump back into mission. 

Today marks a milestone in Sudan’s history as the referendum will take place to see if the people of South Sudan vote for independence or remain united with the people of north Sudan. This is following the historic 2005 peace treaty that brought an end to decades of civil war.  Many people anticipate that the referendum could result in renewed violence between the south and the north however I pray that things will remain peaceful.   Many of you will be following these events on the BBC or CNN news.  I will try and send a blog by the end of the day to let you know how things went here in Darfur.

A local animal market

Parking lot in Darfur.  Donkey's are the one of the main modes of transportation.

Local spice market

Sudanese donkey taking a quick nap



Our view from the Zam Zam camp.