Lest We Forget......

I was very honoured this morning to be able to partake in a small Remembrance Day ceremony at the AMIS Compound (African Mission in Sudan).  There were several African Military contingents there all displaying a red poppy on their uniform.  They looked so sharp in their dark green uniforms and the poppy was the prefect contrast.  I was asked to assist our Canadian Military partners in laying the Canadian wreath.  A blue UN helmet was lying at the foot of the memorial site and was guarded by a group of men from the African military.  It was at that moment that I said to myself, “I am really here”.  I was so proud to be a part of this event and something that I will remember for a very long time. 

Jack, Julian, Sgt. Buba Jammeh (The Gambia) and Me



My friends Dimitri and Celestine from Burkina Faso





The Gambian Military guarding the cenotaph.



The Gambian Honour Guard



Laying the Canadian wreath

It has been 12 days since my last post so I will try and bring you up to date.  I am very lucky as far as accommodations go.  It is no Hilton or even a Super Eight Motel but I am calling it home.  We are in a camp called Zam Zam. The Canadian Forces (CF) was here before and they have set it up.  Zam Zam is a fairly large compound and we have 24/7 military protection.  It is surrounded by an earth berm, fencing and razor wire and there are manned guard towers at every corner and the gate.   I am still doing a lot of running however I have lost my old running partner Mohamed and have found a new running partner from Egypt who is also called Mohamed.  He is a Major with the Egyptian Military and has been very helpful in showing me the ropes around this place.  The other day I went to open my bank account and they told me that they had no more account numbers.  Luckily Mohamed was with me, spoke to the teller and all of a sudden I had an account number instantly appear.  I have wanted to take Arabic lessons but it is a bit difficult when I have a curfew of 7pm and cannot get to the Super Camp.  So Mohamed has offered to teach me.  He is pretty regimented when it comes to his lessons (he even gives me exams).  I will be honest…I am not a very good student.  This is not an easy language to learn.  I am sure I will pick up quite a few words by the time I get home.   

As I mentioned before we are very fortunate to have our accommodations with the CF.  I have gotten to know a wonderful group of Fijian policemen and one policewoman.  They are living in a large tent on cots (about 20 to a tent). They have 2 small window type air conditioners and no mosquito nets.  I have a feeling they don’t get much sleep due to the large amount of snoring.  They have no washing machines so laundry is done in a bucket.  A single burner hot plate is on the ground outside the tent and serves as their kitchen. We could have been in this situation.

This is where I will be living in Zam Zam.  My sleeping area is the building to the right just behind the fence and straight ahead are the ablutions.



This is the hallway of "Hotel Zam Zam".  As you can see it is a bit run down.



As you can see we all have our chores. 

This is the inside of our kitchen tent.



 As you can see our kitchen tent is to the left and our living quarters is the building on the right.

 Just beside our living quarters are approximately 50 tents that are

 shared by UNAMID Military Officers

 My room

Not very big is it?

 I could have been living in this tent when I first arrived

These are some of the tents that my co-workers have been living in...did I mention that there are no air conditioners

This is my co-worker, Vincent Traore (Burkina Faso), showing me his tent that he shares with two other officers.

It is desert here so the ground is covered with fine reddish brown sand and rocks.  The vegetation is sparse.  There is always dust in the air.  There are mountains to our west but you usually can’t see them due to the dust.  They have something called a “Haboob” here which is a sand/dust storm like you saw in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” If you see it coming it’s a massive wall of sand-dust and we have been told to take cover. If you are driving you must pull over and can be waiting up to several hours for it to subside. I have yet to experience one.

I'm sure I mentioned the dust but did I mention the plastic bags?  They litter the ground and blow in the breeze like falling maple leaves in the fall.  It brightens up the sky and they come in all sorts of colours. Even the animals consider plastic bags a snack.  I am not kidding….they eat anything and everything.  I always catch the goats and cows chewing on plastic bags and cardboard. Nobody picks up anything.  If it falls or is discarded on the ground it remains there.  Every one walks over it or around it.  There are some exceptions; like the plastic water bottles.  Apparently there are many household uses for these so you rarely see any lying about.  If it breaks down it is often left where it breaks and anything useful from whatever it is, is removed and used.

This is what we drive by every day.  As you can see the garbage and plastic bags are scattered everywhere and the animals eat whatever they can find.

The women are very industrious.  There are always on their donkeys loaded down with all their firewood that they have collected that day from hours away.  The buses and trucks are piled high with people and goods.  It's amazing how much they can load on to vehicles, carts, animals and people!  There are no safety standards or highway traffic rules and it looks quite dangerous to see a bus full of people, piled high on top with luggage and furniture, etc. and then more people perched on top of that.  And all this on very rough dirt roads while weaving through herds of camels, sheep, goats, cows and avoiding the donkey and cart riders and children.  I call these buses “the Partridge Family Buses”.  Some of them are painted in bright colours and look very free spirited. And of course all this activity keeps the dust in the air.

I have been given my posting and I am going to be working under the Executive Officer as an Audit and Inspections Officer.   What does that mean?  I will be travelling to all the team sites in Darfur to conduct inspections.  This should give me a good opportunity to see the region and to see what is going on all over Darfur.  I may have to stay in these areas for a few days at a time.  I am sure I will experience some of these wonderful living conditions that other countries are telling me about.

This is a photo from my office.  As you can see we all work out of prefabricated containers.

I want to thank everyone who has sent me comments on my blog or on my email.  It means a lot and it is wonderful to hear how everything is going back in Canada.  I miss all of you. 



Hello from El Fasher......

Once again you are probably wondering if I have disappeared.  These last two weeks have been crazy.  From the time I landed in Ottawa on October 19^th I have not stopped working.  I was hoping to update my blog however the Internet would not work.  I am partnered with an OPP officer named Jack who has about 35 years of experience.  There are only two of us on this mission so we will be watching out for each other. 

Pre-deployment training in Ottawa.  I feel like a rookie in my new uniform.  

The training in Ottawa was overwhelming and very fast.  Many people who have attended missions in the past continue to tell me that everything goes very slowly and you have a lot of time on your hands.  I have to disagree.  My experience (and I have Jack to back me up) has been completely the opposite.  We have not had any time to get things done.  The training was supposed to be 6 days over a 10 day period.  Our training was for 3 days (we received the condensed version) and were on a plane to Africa on the 4^th day (September 23^rd).  The flight to England was fantastic.  I was able to enjoy one of the Air Canada pods and get some sleep.  We arrived in England at around 7 in the morning and had about a 9 hour layover.  We left around 4 in the afternoon and made a quick stop in Beirut.  I was surprised to hear that we were going there.  We landed safely and were back in the air in no time on our way to Khartoum.  Arrived around 3:30 in the morning and it took us about 2 hours to get through the passport and visa counter.

We were supposed to be met by someone from the UNAMID office however they never arrived.  Luckily, one of the RCMP members who is in charge of the South Sudan mission picked us up and took us to Canada House.  I was so exhausted, nervous, apprehensive but also very excited.  Canada House is like a large apartment in the city of Khartoum.  There were no other members staying there at that time so I was lucky enough to have my own bedroom and washroom.  The conditions were pretty good but it was very hot.

We were able to catch a few hours of sleep and headed into the UN Headquarters.  The minute we stepped into the UN compound we were being rushed around again.  They were doing everything they could to get us through the intake process so they could fly us out to El Fasher.  We were told that we would be in Khartoum till Thursday and start our Induction training on Sunday October 31^st.  Well that didn’t happen.  We were in Khartoum for only two days and back on a flight to El Fasher with no orders as to what we were supposed to do.  It was unfortunate that I was not able to see the city of Khartoum however I hope to get a chance to see more when I return to go on my leave (which will be in approximately 3-4 months).

We had to get up at 4am on October 27^th in order to catch our ride to the airport for 5am.  We arrived with all our barrack boxes in hand (we had about 6 boxes between us).  You should have seen everyone’s faces at the airport as you can only bring 20kgs with you.  One of the staff from UNAMID showed up and was surprised that we were just waiting for him.  We were told that we would be taking our extra baggage to the cargo area.  This guy must have had some pull because we pushed through the security lines and dragged all our gear with us.  Usually that does not happen and we would have had to wait about 5 days for it. 

The plane was so hot that I couldn’t stay awake.  There really isn’t much to see except miles and miles of red desert. A few small mountains in the middle of no where but that was about it.  We landed at the El Fasher airport and pushed our way onto one of the buses.  We were met by one of our Canadian Military officers at one of the compounds. 

There really isn’t much here.  The sun is very powerful and reflects right off the sand and into your eyes.  It is so uncomfortable that you would be crazy not to wear sunglasses.  In the afternoon we had a military officer from the Philippines (Ruben) show us around.  He took us to the Rotation Office to see if we could get our paperwork going before we start training on Sunday.  It was at that point that the Fijian police officers that we met on the flight over told us that the Rotation Officers have been looking for the Canadians.  When we attended the office they informed us that we started our training that morning and they have been looking all over for us.  We completed the necessary paperwork and were told to come back at 8 in the morning to start classes.  We will be joining 89 Rwandan policewoman and 5 Norwegians.

Training is very different from what I am used to.  You get about one 3 minute break in the morning, a two hour lunch and another 3 minute break in the afternoon.   I will be in training till around November 11^th.  I have to do an extra week of classes with the other policewomen on Gender Based Violence.  I am sure Jack will already be assigned to his posting.

There is not much for us to do in our own time apart from sweeping up all the bugs that have somehow made their way into our quarters, eat dinner and try to get on the internet.  I have used the gym by our training centre however I have tried to get out for a run every evening before it gets dark.  I can run around the compound which is about 1.5 km.  It feels so good to run even though the heat can be unbearable.  I sometimes feel as if I am in a prison.  When we are not at the training centre we need to be at our living quarters.  So you can see why running is very important.  I found a running partner along the route today.  His name is Mohammed and is from Khartoum.  What I found really interesting was that he was running in his flip flops because he does not own a pair of runners.  I have a feeling running might be my way of interacting with the other countries that are living on the other side of this compound.  

I had an interview with Human Resources today in relation to my position.  It took about ten minutes to complete and I guess I wait to see where I will be going.  I am hoping to stay where I am and receive a position where I will be able to work in the local IDP camps. 

We are very fortunate to be Canadians.  The people here are very excited to see our country in this mission.  Each day as I drive to and from work I am reminded of how lucky I am.  I know I will not be able to change the world but if I can make a difference or assist one person in this mission then I know I have succeeded.