Weekend update

Well all of my UN training is complete. Thursday night we went out for a Lebanese dinner with some of my new Auz friends. The meal was really quite great as was the company. The joke here is that there are neither street names nor numbers and sometimes there are not any signs.

The restaurant we went to was hidden and we spent about 45 min driving up and down ally's roads and back lanes trying to find the location. We had finally given up hope and were heading to a place that we knew when we happened to pass a location that looked familiar....

We went out for ice cream after dinner... Here in Sudan Thursday night is our Friday. It is part of the culture to get together and meet with friends on a Friday night...the streets were full of people sitting around and socializing...some people and their families will walk to a park or an area near the main roads and they will sit and talk and play dominos all night. They will even end up sleeping there as it is cool and not as hot as being inside... some parks or areas will have over 100 people socializing.

Friday was a nice day off. I worked on my school homework while others went to swim at the Canadian Embassy. Friday night we had a going away BBQ with Tandori chicken, steaks, Veggies, Potato skins, 3 salads and dessert. It was awesome...Oh yeh and some beers. It was about 36 degrees outside on the patio.

Saturday went for an awesome breakfast at a local restaurant. Watched a few movies, got my hair cut and completed some more homework.

I will be the driver for three other Canadians who are leaving tonight. Two are heading back to Canada (one for end of mission and the other is on his 3 weeks holidays) and my roommate who is heading to his team site.

All else is good here. I have heard a great deal of good things about my team site and I am looking forward to getting there and finally getting settled in.

Mike