42 degrees and this is just the beginning………..

I think winter is officially over. The mornings are starting to get pretty warm by ten and yesterday I went for a run at 5pm and the temperature was a mere 42 degrees Celsius.  I was drenched by the time I finished a couple of turns. I hear the temperatures can get up to 50 plus degrees..….that’s going to be unbearable!

I know many of you have been emailing me wondering if I have already left for Egypt or if I am still planning on going.  Due to the recent developments and demonstrations I have had to cancel my leave.  UNAMID has even put out an advisory that no staff members are to travel to Egypt during this time. So we are now back to square one and have had to put our travel plans on hold until March.  It’s a shame that this had to happen but I am thankful we did not get caught up in it.  We are going to hold off until May to go to Egypt. I hope by then things will be back to normal.  Everyone keeps telling me “inshallah” meaning "if god wills”.  As for our new plans…….we are now aiming for Greece and Crete.

Yesterday one of the female Police Advisors and 4 of her friends just returned back from a week in Egypt.  Due to the demonstrations they had to remain in their hotel for the week.  They were able to get out on one of the days to visit the pyramids.  Anyway, she asked if I would like to see her pictures which I was very interested in. I should have clued in when she said that she was stuck in a hotel for a week and that I would not be seeing much of Egypt.  She took over 3000 photos off her and here friends in the elevator, in their the hotel room, the bathroom, the lobby (some great pictures of the pyramids and the camels) and then many more of the hotel.  I was trying to be so polite and appear very interested but it took about an hour to get through 5 days of their trip.  I promise not to do that with any of you when I return home.

It has been a bit of a sad week all around.  In many of my postings I have spoken about my buddy “Ears” the donkey.  I was driving into Super Camp the other day and as we were entering the market I knew something was wrong.  I could see a donkey lying in the path of our vehicle and my heart sank because I knew it was him.  I am not sure if he had been struck by a vehicle or if he just died due to illness or age.  Every day I would look for him to make sure he was alright.  The night before he died I found him in the market surrounded by a bunch of sheep and goats…..I have never seen this before and I wish I could have taken a photo but as you know we are not supposed to take any photographs and there were a lot of local people in the market. The hardest part is that we have to pass him every day as we go to and from work. He was rather special and many people knew of him because he was so unique not having any ears. I have attached the last photo that I took off him the day before he died.



My last photo of "Ears" - There was no other donkey like him



As of January, our Unit will be divided into two areas: Auditing and Internal Evaluations and Professional Standards.  The question is….where are they going to put me?  I have a feeling they would like to bring me over to the Professional Standards side as it is a new unit.  I have been told that this new unit will entail some travelling so that has me interested.  Right now I have not been able to do as much travelling around Darfur as we still have to complete evaluations of all the units within the main headquarters. This is a pretty big task and has taking us several months to complete so I hope we can finish it off by the beginning of March.  I am sure I will find out where I will be placed within the next week or so. 

About a week ago I attended the RwanBatt23 Medal Parade (Rwandan Battalion) here in the compound that I live in. There was about 150 military soldiers and officers receiving their medals.  It was rather funny afterwards because everyone wanted their picture with the Canadian…not sure why……maybe because I was the only one there and they all know me from running in circles around this place. The picture below is my buddy Janvier who does not speak a word of English but somehow we manage to communicate. I have finally found a Rwandan who doesn't tower over me. 

My Rwandan friend "Janvier" after he received his UN Medal.



The other day a couple of the Rwandan Military officers let me play around in their APCs and vehicles……I was like a little kid in a candy story getting to jump around on all the toys and playing with the guns and weapons that were strapped to the vehicles You can see from the pictures how much fun I was having.





One of my friends from Norway is a football player (soccer) who even had the opportunity to play in the Olympics many years ago. I did not know that the UN held the UN Games each year and this year it will be in Austria in April.  I was looking at the different sports and I was disappointed not to see Dragon Boating or triathlon.  They do have swimming but I am not sure I will be able to get any practice here in Darfur as water is sparse.   My friend has been struggling to put a team together and everyone who has tried out really can’t play. I know I have never played on a team before but she told me if I can kick and stop a ball then I am good to go.  I have tryouts on the 10^th so let’s see if I have a chance of making the team.   I told her not to feel bad if she has to cut me….I won’t hold it against her.  I just thought it would be a great experience to go to Austria.



Dilli preparing the chicken for our Nepalese dinner.Do you like how he is using the floor of his tent to prepare the food.



Enjoying a Nepalese dinner with Dilli and Lama in their tent





A visit to the animal market near the Zam Zam Camp. The camels behind me cost 1250 Sudanese pounds which works out to about $400 US Dollars.



Welcome to my home "Hotel Zam Zam".This is where I have been living with the Canadian Forces since October 2010.