Canadian Cat

World meet Razzi, when compared to the African Cats, well actually there is no comparing, Razzi, by shear body mass out does them all.

Cats of the world unite

You've all met AC before, he looks alot better than he did in this picture; but when compared to Razzi......well I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The Camp here in Aweil is much larger than the one in Yei, I would say double the size.

Those are mango trees. They were planted by the British in the 1960's

This is the perimeter road, I walk it at night, and then run it in the morning when the tempatures are much cooler.

That blue building on the left is a church. Although most of the Southerns speak Arabic, they practice Christianity

This is my new container, much like the one I had in Yei, just older

I was on my daily walk around the camp, when I came across one of thses fellas. I was told that there are three of them in camp, and that they are quite tame.

The return of the lost box

Another beautiful day here in Aweil, I woke up at around 6:45, had some breakfast, went to work at around 7:30, checked my e mails, then began my day. When I was redeployed I had to ship some of my personal affects. The items were loaded onto the UN aircraft in Juba, which travel  to Rumbeck, and finally to the Northern hub of Wau. Somewhere in between Juba and Rumbeck, they managed to loose one of my boxes. It was not a huge deal, just had some of my rice, spagitti sauce, cleaning materials, and other stuff, that was on the 12th of this month. Well today, I was informed that the missing box has been located, they found it in Rumbeck ??? so I should be getting it on Tuesdays flight. It is the little things that make the biggest differences in the daily routine of a UN police officer. As the rainy season comes to an end, the daily temperatures are starting to rise, today's high will get to around 34, while next week is looking like the 40s. This job is very similar to the one I had before, the only difference is that I am responsibly for all UN police activities in the state of Northern Bahr El Ghazal. I have 26 UNPOL officers from country's such as India, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Gambia, Zambia, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and the Ukraine. Much like the officers in Yei, I am lucky to have a great core team in the state HQ, we have excellent communication, and lots of great work is being done. They still say that the Canadians have the heaviest accent of the bunch, I wasn't aware that I even had one, hum. My daily routine is routine, all but one of the UNPOLs live off the camp. They do that to save money, but on the flip side, since they do not have any air conditioning, they have the highest case load of malaria. At night I will either run or walk 6kms then off to the container for some supper and a movie on the laptop. Some of the movies I really recommend are: Hot Tub Time machine, Band of Brothers, Commando, well you get my drift, I could not imagine doing a mission without a laptop and movies.

Well first I have to apologize for my tardiness, the last few weeks have been interesting.  When I got back from my trip home, I applied for a open position in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, as a deputy state adviser, I know it sounds impressive, and it is, but it means in the office dealing with all the state related police issues. Well I got the job and the pay raise that goes with it........wait.........there is no pay raise, it's still 136 per day, everyday.
So I packed my stuff, and prepared to move from Yei to Aweil, with stops in Juba and Wau. Well here I am in Aweil, which used to be a team site, now it is the state HQ for CSB Aweil and CSB Gok Machar. The team site is nice, there are a couple of hundred Mango trees, that were planted by the British in the early 60s, and have they grown, and they are a godsend from the repressive heat that is the most consistent factor here. The dogs, all they do is fight, and bark and yelp, enough to drive a person crazy, but nobody wants to remove them, I'm told that they keep the snakes away; that is good enough for me.  i am down to 80 days or so from the 365, and the talk amonst the contingent members is centered around the last cto, and of course checkout. The UN has put a restriction on CTO over christmas so many of the people will no doubt spend it at their respective team sites. I on the other hand am planning my last trip, which will take place from the 5th of December to the 21st. I am going back to CapeTown, it should be quite interesting, as it will be summmer in December. There are some other things that I am working on, I am trying to get the most out of my last couple of months here in the mission. I have taken some pictures of the teamsite, and will post them when the internet will allow me to do so. Until next time

Well its been 9 months to the day that I departed Calgary, I can tell you all that the time has gone by very quickly. I just returned from a quick 2 week trip home, it was nice to sleep in my own bed, drive my car on roads that don't shake your fillings loose, and eat something other than chicken and rice. I think that much has happened. The UN has decided to turn Yei into a long range patrol base, this means that officers will have to travel 3 hours from Juba to deliver much needed advise and training to the SSPS, on a part time basis. I don't understand how 10 unpol officers operating 7 days a week, and just keeping up can be replaced by a few unpol officers on a part time basis. Welcome to the UN.
Some other news that was interesting was that I had to compete for my current position as team site leader, because the old mission (UNMIS) has been replaced with the new mission (UNMISS) all the key positions were up for grab. It was the same old process, submit your package, conduct an interview and wait, when I was on CTO I was informed that I was successful. However, when I returned from my trip home, I spent a couple of days in Juba, when I was informed that a new position Deputy state adviser had become available, so once again I applied, but this time since I was already in Juba the board conducted a interview to ascertain my abilities to fulfill this important position. I felt that I had a good interview, and I should hear something very soon. There are 10 states in Southern Sudan, and each state has 2 key positions, a state adviser, which is a full time UN position filled by a UN civilian, and a deputy state adviser, who is the highest ranking police officer in that state, and that was the position I was applying for. If I am successful, I will be moving north to Aweil located in the State of Northern Bahr El Ghazal, so stay tuned for any updates. The weather, well when your a few degrees off the equator, it doesn't change much. The rainy season is starting to come to an end, and as the sun moves from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere the daily temperatures are slowly increasing. Thats it from Yei for now.