Awesome Experience

Well I was a little board this afternoon and I wanted to see the local market so I would know what they have in case I needed to order some food to be shipped to me. I hooked up with Canadian UNPOL (UN Police) David f4om the OPP Orillia branch.

We grabbed a truck and headed along what some folks call a road...into town.

David has been here for 8 months and knows his way around. He took me across the Nile where the Chinese are building a MASSIVE dam to make electricity for the NORTH Sudan and the Chinese oil fields. Remember I am north of the 1-1-56 line and I am in a Contested Area - after the election this could become South or North Sudan - see what I am getting at... this Hydroelectric dam is a HOT area.

So we crossed into a true African village and David took me to a local UN QIP (quick incentive project) (LOL nothing in the UN is quick) This centre for woman and children has been being built now for 3 years and is getting close to be finished.

As we drove through the village David opened his window and waved and says hi to everyone... When we stopped at the centre (small brick structure) we were quickly approached by about 5 children, then 5 more and eventually I counted about 14. They were all smiling. They are afraid to approach us and sta about 10 feet back. David becomes a police officer and a dad and kneels down and extends his hand and speaks a little Arabic and then English - essentially teaching the children his name.

One brave 5 y/o finally comes forward to shake his hand. It was awesome...all the kids smiled and they all tried some English. One girl (prob 9-10) spoke up and said "Hello, How are you?" we don't think she really knew what it meant but she sounded great!

I then knelt down beside a 5 y/o that looked like he wanted to say hi. I spoke in Arabic and he smiled and came forward..He took my hand.

The mothers came out and watched and were smiling and waving. David was reminding me that some of the kids probably have never seen a white person before.

If this is part of my job I will love being in Africa!

Tomorrow at 1100am I fly to my team site. In the 24 hours that I have been at this UN camp I have met and shook hands with so many nice people from around the world. Most actually remember your name. That is my new goal is to remember names quickly.

I actually practiced it in class last week and I was working with a group of 12 people for about 14 min and I only got introduced once as we went around the circle of us. When we had to do our group presentation to the class 15 min later I was able to call all of my team by their name, what job they were doing and where they were from. They all really appreciated that.

Im off to bed.