Another Week in Sudan

Well it has been another interesting week in the Sudan.

The week started on Sat with a training exercise and debrief occurring at my team site. The exercise was the first of its kind being run here in the Sudan by UNMIS. The good news it that the exercise highlighted all of the problems that I have already pointed out to my team mates and others in the chain of command. I find that it is amazing that there are so many people here who sole job it is to forward an email without ever reading it or analyzing it for its relevant information. We were directed (ordered) from our sector to patrol various areas and villages over the past three days that DID NOT EXIST!! That’s right! The next level of command here failed to realize what was real and what was part of a training exercise. When we informed them they just said…Um just go anyways and see. In other words they can't and not are not willing to make a critical decision and question their superiors on what the actual intention is and how they would like it carried out. This did cause us to waste 2 days and 15 hours of driving on nothing! I was mad! I finally took the reins and went around my team site leader and started asking many questions and formulating answers then manipulating other service officers until I received the answers I wanted. From there I developed a plan that went against orders and I implemented it with the approval of only one person. It worked out great.

The best part of this exercise was that I was asked to brief the Task Force Commander of UNMIS on the exercise and related matters. For 35 minutes I had the full attention of the commander, his deputy, my sector commander and his deputy and about 24 other decision makers. I, one they asked me specific questions, was able to express to these people the concerns that our team site has had and have been trying to deal with for over 6 months. All of the items were given approval and changes were made within hours of the briefing. Finally something has gone right! The sad part is that in order to get a simple tool to make the job safer I had to speak to the highest military person. That is a poor command system.

Over the past two days the temperature has climbed very hi. The other day it was 36 degrees in my cabin with the A/C on full. Yesterday I was on a long range patrol and we had the A/C in the car on full and we were still sweating the entire trip. Last night I slept outside (as we were on the patrol) and there was a large (massive) rock near us. At 1000pm we could still feel the heat coming off of the rock! It was very hard to sleep last night as it was hot and muggy. I figured by 1000pm it was about 36-38 degrees. They say it will get hotter as we move closer to the rainy season in Apr/May.

On Monday I finished teaching first aid to the local police officer who were on the Crowd control course. They loved the information and had some interesting questions. It is really unusual to teach to people who have nothing. When I was looking for medical supplies (bandages, splints, slings) I went through the pile of garbage behind the police station. I will send pics soon…I hope. I was telling them that if someone feels faint you should lay them down. Then when they feel better sit them up on the ground for a few minutes. After that sit them in a chair and then slowly allow them to stand up and see how they feel. A question was raised… “we don’t have any chairs, what should we do”. Other questions included if someone is bleeding what do we do. So the answer is; stop/control the bleed and get them to a Dr. Of course I was reminded that a Dr is probably a 4 – 8 hour donkey ride away!!! Two men had very interesting questions about what to do if a woman’s menstrual period doesn’t stop and she keeps bleeding. What can they do for her? Remember in Sudan a large number of women die during child birth compared to an industrialized nation. I also had to remember that in order for the woman to get help it would once again mean a donkey or truck ride for several hours.

We celebrated the Chinese New Years the other day with a nice Chinese dinner prepared by our two Chinese officers. We even had Chinese music and chop sticks! The food was great!

We now have a pet Dog at the UNMO house. He was given to one of my team mates during a patrol. The dog (5 months old) would not leave the members side during the meeting with the village elder. As the patrol was about to leave the elder gave the dog to the patrol member who was the driver. The dog sat on his lap and curled up and didn’t more for the 2 hour drive back to the base. Again pics as soon as I can.

I was introducing a new UNMO to the town by patrolling through the village and showing him all of the important areas. There was a group of kids smiling and waving at us so we decided to stop and say hi. I introduced them to BUBBLES and gave away four bottles of bubbles for them to play with… They loved it and were fascinated by them.

We have been hearing rumours of the south force doing some bad things but we have never been able to confirm it or find proof. This week has been a good one for me as I have confirmed a place that was only a rumour and I was witness to another action by the south which is considered illegal by international standards. A good week!

Time is flying by at this point. I just looked at the calendar and realized that I only have 2 months left in Sudan. 10 weeks total! I still have one more CTO (holiday) where I will be visiting Tanzania, Africa and Cairo, Egypt.

I will try to get some pics us as soon as I can however the internet has been extremely slow this week.

Mike