Well it's Sunday here in the fine town of Yei.  I celebrated my 46th birthday on the 18th, by eating rice and watching Band of Brothers on my laptop. Brian gave me a Starbucks via coffee pouch, that he received from home, as well 30 Sudanese pounds worth of phone cards, thanks Brian. Well life here continues; for those of you who don't know, when deployed you work 7 days a week, and you can collect 8 days off a month, to which you can use that toward your CTO (compensated time off). I just love the comments all of you are sending, I try to get onto my blog every Sunday to publish them. To answer some those questions, I found the heat very uncomfortable, but after a month, 40 degrees feels really good. It generally gets down to around 22 to 26 at night, kinda weird that temperature feels cool. The food, well I wouldn't eat the meat or the chicken, but the market is full of tomatoes,onions,bananas, eggs, and fresh bread. So any of you thinking about a care package hint hint, canned meat would be wonderful. A real nice perk to being a Canadian working in the Sudan, is what is called family reunion trips, these trips are intended to reunite the member with his family, either at home or at a third location. My first trip will be to meet my family in Cape Town South Africa, from the 15th of April to the 01 May.  I met a real nice family when I was in Namibia in 1989, and we have stayed in touch over the years, they have graciously invited us to stay at there house in Cape Town, very brave. My trip starts here in Yei on the 13th of April. I will fly in a MI-8 to Juba, then a 737-600 to Khartoum, then I get a administration day, to pick up money and relax. On the 15th I fly from Khartoum to Doha to Johannesburg then onto Cape Town. My family will fly from Calgary to Amsterdam then onto Cape Town. I think it is safe to say that you have to have the attitude that the journey to and from is part of the experience. A funny note, my son Nick thinks that he is going to starve in Africa, this should be a eye opener for all the boys. We are planning to do some swimming, as it will be fall in Cape Town, maybe some skydiving, or bungee jumping, wine tasting, surfing, hiking, eating, and my personal request, to see the great white sharks off the coast, near Robben Island. I am hoping to take my next trip in July, I was planning on flying home for 21 days to do some camping.  Just a side note, the mandate for the United Nations Mission in the Sudan expires in July, which means that the UN will have to establish a new mandate, a new mission, which will most likely include moving the HQ from Khartoum to Juba. So interesting times ahead.