The first picture is the parking lot, we share the camp with military observation officers, as well as our protection force from Bangladesh, the next picture is my room in the container, there is a small beer, I mean water fridge, a desk, and a locker, it is quite comfortable. The other night I had a visitor, a small 6 inch lizard, after 10 minutes I was able to chase him out, I didn't want to be rude, however, I also didn't want him to invite his much bigger friends over.

This is home

These are the containers that we all live in, there about 12ft x 20 ft, not a bad size, they are all equipped with A\C, mine is the one to the right of the sat dish.

On the Nile

It was so surreal, it was our first night in the capital city of Juba, it was so different from Khartoum, first thing we all noticed was the heat, the temperature was around 35 that day, and you could really feel the humidity. There are a few Canadian police officers that have been stationed in Juba for about 3 months. Upon our arrival they took us to this place, a real gem on the Nile, I stood there for about 5 minutes saying man I can't believe it, I'm having dinner on the Nile, it was so majestic, I looked to the east and there were several kids swimming, and I said..."aren't there crocs in that there river"....and they said "yup", and I said "do they know that " and they said "o yea" things that make you go huh. I have to apologize, the Internet this far south is brutal, I can talk on msn, but skype is out of the question for now. Tomorrow, Monday the 31 of January I will be part of a long range patrol that will take four of us to the town of Morobo, this town is situated on the border of Uganda, from there we will pick up a second vehicle, and travel 25 km into Uganda. Once we are there we will have lunch with the police chief, I 'm kinda of hoping that I can get my passport stamped. There is a community support base in the town of Kaja Keji, this base was constructed for the sole purpose of supporting the referendum for Independence.  I will have the opportunity to stage long range patrols from the remote base, the duration would be for 30 days, how interesting would that be eh Roy. Anyways stayed tuned, the next few months will prove to be very interesting for all of us.

Yei South Sudan

Well, there are several things that I thought I would never do, and one of them was ride in a Russian MI-8 transport helicopter. I have lots of pictures, but right now I am unable to hook up my lap top to the internet, I should have that done in a couple of days. I am now living in Yei, a town of 140,000, spread over a very large area. This part of Sudan was largely unaffected by the war. Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to the local market, what an experience, I walked past a booth that was selling meat, no refrigeration nothing, the smell made me gag. The market covers a couple of km, and one can purchase just about everything. I picked up some nuts, and bananas, and a case of beer. Most of the items come out of Uganda. The weather here is very nice, the daily temps get to around 30 or so, with a little more humidity.  Anyways once I have the internet up and running, I will download some of the new pictures, till then

Shipping Day in Khartoum

Today was shipping day, all the barrack boxes, food, and extra kit to the Khartoum airport.  Once there at the UN side, it's unloaded marked, tagged, weighed........you get what I mean.  The fella beside me is Brian Carmichael from Fredericton Police. For the next 9 months we'll be living and working together in Yei South Sudan. On Tuesday is will have been 14 days in Khartoum, the time has gone by quite quickly.  I can say for sure that we are all very excited to be heading to our team sites. Khartoum is nice, dusty,and 50 to 60 degrees in the summer months. Maybe after 9 months I will be able to apply for a job here, but for now, it's time to get on with it. Until next time.....Cede nullis

Canada House (police)

This is Canada house for the canadian police contingent in Khartoum. This is where we live for the first 2 weeks in country, it is also the residence of a full time canadian police officer who is in charge of the training cell for the UN.  It is quite comfortabe, and close to the airport.  It is also used as a stay over for us when we are in transit from the south, going on vacation. Right next door the Canadian military has house/hotel, that they use to house their UNMO united nations military observation officers. This place is about a 10 minute walk to the UN HQ.

ATV's

These are the types of vehicles that are operated. There are nissans,toyotas,and land cruisers. Note the snokel kit, that is a requirement for vehicles that operate in the south. I guess that the rainy season is quite a spectical,  roads become rivers, etc.