Long Trip North

It was my turn to go on another long range patrol to a village that is located at the very top (north) of our area of responsibility. We packed our gear and gassed our vehicles. I was the patrol navigator and communicator. I was located in the passenger seat of the 3rd vehicle. My driver is a nice guy who is a Major with the Chinese army. The only problem with him is that he speaks less than 1% English!!! There are only a couple of requirements to work as an UNMO and one is that you MUST speak English (even as a second or 5th language). From what I understand is that the English test they administer here in Sudan has been copied and circulated around many countries and the officers memorize what answers to check off in which box. The other problem is if they fail the test then there is a great deal of paperwork in order to send the person home. Also, knowing how the UN works, they would fear insulting the home country. So, I have a driver who, when you ask him “How are you” he quickly pulls out a pack of cigarettes and says Yes. That seems to be his main MO is to offer cigarettes to distract from the fact he has NO IDEA of what you just said! So it is going to be a LONG LONG 120kms!!!

Our wonderful UN tires, Notice no tread? Oh yah and the patch job...LOL

BTW just a reminder this is NOT the 401! 120kms can take 2 days! It's like the 401 in a snow storm.

So I make sure that I have my MP3 thumb drive that plugs into the lighter socket and plays through the stereo. As we head out the first tune is one that TODD made!! Before I left I asked him to make me a CD of all of his music. This is music (dance tracks) that he wrote, produced and edited! It was nice to have something familiar in this very quiet car…LOL

Along the road we passed many villages. The kids yell out Ka-wa-ga which means white man. Read the posts from Uganda… They are always smiling and eager to run to the road to meet you. As we drive I realized that I forgot to tell you that many of the areas remind me of fall back home. The leaves have changed colours and are falling to the ground. Winds make them fall quicker and there is always the crunching sound as you walk around. The main difference is that it is 40 degrees and dry! The leaves are falling and dying due to a lack of water. Some areas still have very green trees and it also depends on the type of tree. Some do better with very deep roots that can find deep water.

So it took us just over 7 hours to travel 120kms and arrive at our destination. The village, I am happy to say has done very well for itself and doesn’t need any support or help. The only thing it requests is a secondary school. These people are so keen for education for their children.
We did our task and began the 7 hour drive back to our team site. We ended up stopping in a small village just after dark where we met the Sheik. He invited us to stay at the local school overnight. Once camp was set up and the Pak Army was busy cooking our dinner I became bored. So I rummaged through my back pack and found the Frisbee that I was going to give to a school (only have one soccer ball left) and I found a glow stick. So in the middle of this dark school yard we taped a glow stick on to the underside of a Frisbee and had a game of Frisbee with the Sheik, school head master, our language assistant and my two German friends Matt and Kai. It was awesome and the sheik and teacher loved it. I did give them the Frisbee the next day as a gift for their school. I also gave the head master pencils from Lynda and books, erasers and bubbles from my mom. Ohhh they LOVED the bubbles. They had never seen such a thing and thought I was a little crazy! LOL. Even my language assistant (translator) asked if I had any more bubbles so he could give them to his little girl at home. Of course I did!

This is a tree in the middle of the school. Hanging in the tree is the school "bell" and on the ground are the hammers for ringing the bell. Please zoom in on the pic and look at the bell and the hammers... Thay are all Tank and rocket shells!!!


The night was spent under the stars. It was an awesome night. The temperature dropped a little and there was a slight breeze. There was no moon but the sky was clear and there are no city lights so the sky was crystal clear! I laid in my tent with no fly and fell asleep looking up at the stars. What a RUDE awaking! The sun comes up at about 615am. BUT at 0501am the local ROOSTER which was located about 100ft from us decided it was time for all of SUDAN to wake up!! Once he started then of course all other roosters with in 100miles decided to call out to him and challenge him to see who could be the loudest! If I only had a gun…. We had to get up by 6am as this would give us an hour to eat breakfast and get cleaned up to carry on our journey home. This was mainly due to the fact the kids arrive for school at 730am and we were sleeping in the middle of their school yard and inside their class rooms.LOL. Matt decided to sleep inside of the Tukul classroom that night. I was amazing to walk into this grass hut and feel the warmth that was trapped in there from the day’s heat. It was almost too warm. During the day the Tukul traps the night cold in for quite some time.

While driving to our camp location

I forgot to mention that this place we traveled to was the most northern place in our area and why this is significant is because our entire area is located NORTH of the 1-1-56 line and therefore is susposed to be 100% Northern controlled. But as you may recall my area is a contested area. MANY wars and battles were fought here over the past 24 years. The area is now controlled by the north and the south. So as we made this trip north we could notice the difference in flags being flown (review flags in the very first of my posts from Sep/Oct) and type of uniforms we would see.

There is also one other problem… With every war, especially in underdeveloped countries there is a heavy use of land mines. This trip north really drove that point home. On a very large leg of the trip there were non-stop rock markers of danger areas and areas that had been cleared. You always drive a little slower and more cautiously when you see the red rocks! Check out the pics for ideas on what the rocks look like.

Land Mine area Rock Markers.... White = Good, Red = Bad, Blue = We haven't figured that one out yet... LOL

So we got home safe. I had several calls from the CIMIC officer from Canada who works in Khartoum and she informs me that they liked my project ideas so much that they have gone ahead and completed all of the paperwork for me and did most of the leg work from the UN side. They want me to get at least 2 of the projects up and running when I return from my time off. It’s going to be busy when I return! We are no longer going to educate the children from the village where 6 kids have sustained major injuries from playing with landmines. Turns out there is a group already doing that. However they had never thought of, and absolutely love my idea, of making t-shirts for all of the kids that attend the training. On the shirt we will have a cartoon graphic that shows the kids that landmines and UXO’s are very dangerous. The kids will were the shirts for several years. It gives free lessons to anyone that looks at the shirt! The goal is to educate as many kids as possible before there are any more accidents.

Tomorrow I meet with one of the heads of the local government. I have been warned about him but he is also the one who I need to take the lead on my other projects of employment and education for locals and a recycling program.

I will let you know how it goes.

Matt and Kai, my German friends and camp mates.

Nite

PS: These are Nomads, the women are from the Nubian tribe, notice the costumes they wear. Thay all wear the same, the boys hair cuts are often shaped like Mohawks. Notice the braceletts.