Reads like some of my own deployment experiences! Deja-vu moments all throughout!

Keep em coming!

Nope...doesn't sound like Club Med. What in the world could a Mexican chrimp be. Ummm... maybe I don't want to know, but tell him to stay smart and continue to avoid them.

Tell the boy he's in my thoughts and to keep the updates coming.

Got a brief note from the lad:

" yesterday was the last day of induction training: the morning spent on security, during which we and the Australians spent most of the time taking the security personnel to task. since we've been here, the ' security level ' has been heightened, but it's not posted or announced anywhere. the answer is that security updates [ and apparently everything else we need to know ] are sent via the UNMIS internal E-mail, to which we will not have access until we get to our sectors. So here in Khartoum it's Level II, while in some places down south it's at Level IV [ Level V being " Get the Hell out of Dodge "]

"...Last night wandered over to the internet cafe, but on the way back had to literally run to beat the haboob back to the house...dust storm knocked out satellite...Tv came back on just in time to see Oilers score overtime goal in Stanley Cup finals ." [ that's hockey for you US types ]

" to the market where we were able to wander around and speak to the locals [ who are incredibly friendly ] and then enjoyed a fantastic meal of deep fried Nile perch. Sudanese coffee [ thick, black and sweet spiced with cloves ]..."

"...went in search of camping store which was listed in tourist guide, but couldn't find it to save our souls [ no street addresses here ]. we did, however, come across the immaculately maintained commonwealth war cemetery. the gate was locked but an obliging caretaker unscrewed some fence pickets [!] so we could sneak in and wander about. graves dating from the 1880's right up to WWII, including 8 Canadians, all RCAF. we were then invited into the [ Coptic?] Christian church adjacent to the cemetery. had to take our shoes off to go in - fantastic music complete with bongoes, the preacher and several others dressed in brightly coloured vestements and birettas . "

".. headed to Afra Mall again... F--- started doing the grocery shopping: I snapped when I saw more tinned beef in the cart, and insisted we brave the meat department. Spaghetti with real meat sauce was the result [ and garlic bread home made by yours truly ] and there are now hamburgers and beef sausages [ no pork here for obvious reasons ] in the freezer, so maybe the days of tuna noodle caserole [ shudder ] are behind us at UNMO house."

" two new guys have just arrived and two more tomorrow, so we'll have quite the full house here for the next week or so..."

[ boy gets his posting this week coming ]

" Finally something happened almost the way it was meant to today. We all headed to UNMIS HQ then out to MOVCON [ love the acronyms ] for our driving test. For 30 of us there was only one driver-examiner and he arrived late. since it was the weekend all full-time staff are off, so we all stood outside in the sun [ 42C ] waiting for our turn at the wheel. In the meantime we had about 20 minutes of briefing on the vehicle [ Nissan Patrol - never seen one in Canada ] crammed into a 90 minute session by a Ugandan guy who made an art form out of flogging a dead horse..."

Waiting to hear where the lad gets sent.. at least know it won't be Darfur as the sudanese Government refuses to allow the UN to take over from the African Union ' monitoring' the cease fire because, according to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the " UN forces...would come to Sudan with colonial and imperial ambitions "..

More intel from the boyo:

"....collected my first Mission Subsistence allowance cheque....I got a haircut [ much better this time ] and a cappuccino [ funny that the latter cost more than the former.]...we ran into a Warrant Officer from the Calgary Highlanders who is here as the Grizzly [ armoured vehicle ] expert for the AU mission in Darfur ..."

"...decided to go to the German Embassy to watch the World Cup game between Australia and Brazil [ and the cold beer to be had there ] ..En route we ran into a celebration outside the Sudanese National Football Club, and were introduced to [ whome we presume were ] some of the star players on the Sudanese national team ..."

"...we started our UNMO-specific training...lectures on the duties of a military observer and mediation and negotiation, and, this afternoon - mine awareness - taught by a Croation Captain who had laid a few minefields himself - along with a presentation from a Sudanese Major on the role of national monitors. here in the Sudan we are accompanied on our patrols by both an SAF and an SPLA representative - should make for an interesting time. "

"... a platoon of Chinese police advisors has arrived here to help train the Sudanese constabulary - there's the UN for you. "

"... started off with a session on civil-military co-operation and what the UN calls Quick Impact Projects: small initiatives like drilling wells, replacing school roofs, etc., that are initiated by the military rather than the UNDP or similar agencies. Apparently the civilian branches resent this as encroaching on their turf..."

"... radio voice procedure exercise [ VPX] conducted by the CO of the Indian Army Signals battalion. He split us up into groups [ making sure that each one had an Aussie and a Canadian ] to run through routine communications stuff. It's here that the training differential between armies is starting to show; the question of English proficiency notwithstanding, many of these other guys are way out of ther depth even speaking in the radio. we had Gabonese and Peruvians in our group, so I spent most of the time explaining in French and Spanish what was going on..."

"...In this mission every individual [ i.e. not including the troops who are part of formed units ] has his or her own radio - that means literally thousands of callsigns all operating on the same frequency - and has to conduct a daily radio check with the duty centre. rather than the control station initiating a collective call and allowing the individuals to respond in order [ which is the standard military way ] the radio room calls each callsign individually. In Juba, for example, where there are 300+ radios, the check takes an hour and a half. I can only guess how long it takes here in Khartoum where there are over 1000 outstations on the net!..."

".. very rushed briefing by the J2, an Egyptian Major, who glossed over most of everything that I would have thought was important...last briefing was about our leave entitlement - rapt attention for this one... "

"... more death by Power Point, today...Particularly frightening was the whole 45 minutes devoted to first aid - and the accompanying realization that the vast majority of our fellow military observers know little or nothing about providing emergency medical care. we may be equipped as paramedics, but if something happens to us, we'll be suturing our own wounds. "

"... one curious thing came up in our lecture about Disamrament, Demobilization and Reintegration - the process by which armed groups are returned to civil society. In every other UN Mission, this has been the task of the UN military observers, but here in Sudan, it is carried out by the government of Sudan, with advice, but no oversight, from the UN. Generally weapons collected are accounted for and destroyed by the UN, but here we have no idea what becomes of them after they are turned in to the government. "

"... headed out to see the pyramids of Meroe, about 2 and a half hours from Khartoum. Outside the city things are pretty desolate -desert as far as the eye can see, other than the green belt that follows the Nile. The highway is fairly decent, having been contructed with money from Osama Bin Laden. the pyramids are much less imposing than those at Giza...but far more accessible. we rode our camels right up to them and walked around inside...on the way back...we stopped for gelato and cappuccino at ' O-Zone ' a popular and very western coffee house in Khartoum2, complete with shady trees and a constant mist of water to keep one cool..."

Thanks for posting on your son's deployment.
Very interesting..keep'em coming and please give him our best wishes!

Message from Son: Good, Bad and Ugly...

" Finished our UNMO training on Saturday with a half-day exercise: escaped from a burning vehicle in a minefield; negotiated our way through a roadblock, performed FA on an injured civilian, etc. etc.. a warning to everyone - if you ever suffer a spinal injury, hope that a Rwandan medical team is nowhere around..."

"... Sunday morning we headed back to UNMIS HQ for some wrap up briefings by the Chief of Operations and the Deputy Force Commander, along with several others which we were hearing for the third time around....we're all anxious to be deployed and now we'll have spent 30 days here before we'll start our jobs in the sectors..."

" finally this morning we got the news - A--and I are off to ABYEI [ Sector Six ].The smallest sector, close to Southern Darfur and currently the subject of considerable dispute between the UN and the government of Sudan over the issue of Freedom of Movement. some of the SPLA troops redeploying from the north and east are supposed to begin passing through on their way south, while the annual cattle drives are apparently causing tension among the local tribespeople..Abyei itself has special status under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, its inhabitants holding citizenship in both Northern and Southern Sudan. Come 2011 when the south will vote on independence, Abyei will vote whether to join them or the North, hopefully resolving a conflict that has been raging since 1905 [ 50 years before independence ]."

" rest of the day was spent sorting paperwork, collecting walkie-talkies, etc... all together will be 10 guys in Abyei including 2 Australians...shipping out this week and first of next ..."

NOTE: the lad suffered an injury when a faulty generator decided to spittyspark.. Boyo has lost feeling and use of right arm and some finger mobility.. Medics say this is temporary and will return to normal in few days...[ fun start to things ]

Glad to see that your son is doing well. Reckon he learned about generators real fast huh?

Zap doesn't seem to have slowed him down any.. got this message this morning:

"...all shipping out this week...A-- and I on Thursday....we fly by small plane and then a helicopter, most of our luggage has to be shipped seperately...I have to pack my laptop so it might be a few days before I'm able to send another real update..."

" I hear that Abyei has pretty good internet access [ of course I've also heard that it's the worst area for mine incidents as well ]..."

" Sector Six also has a remote team site quite a bit further north at a place called Al Fula, on the railway line to Darfur, so we might fly into there for a few days at a time..."

"English language papers here are full of reports about the government's adamant opposition to UN involvement in Darfur, so we may begin to see some fallout from that as things progress...."

More Tales from the Dark Continent:

" Arrived in Abyei yesterday about noon after a 1 hour flight on an MD-81 from Khartoum to Kadugli and then another hour on an Indian Airforce Mi-17 Helicopter. Our baggage is still in Khartoum so at the moment we are living out of our patrol sacks. Although there is meant to be accommodation in the camp, it is currently all full up. there are 2 houses that will pass the UN security inspection in the village [ i.e. - made of brick not sticks and mud ] but they lack water, power and toilets, and are full of UNMO's trying to make the most of their UN living allowance.
Consequently A-- and I, along with J-- and L-- from Australia are sharing a container. L-- is a pretty good scrounger, so we've been able to make a pretty good go of things here at ' Stalag Luft -12 '. I cooked pasta for everyone in my canteen cup last night and strained coffee through some paper towel and a slotted spoon. today we bought some pots nad pans and a kettle in the Abyei market [ the Aussies have a budget for this so they billed it all to their government! ]

On the other hand. we've got more sleeping space than we did in Khartoum, including mattresses instead of camp cots, and actual heated water for washing, so it might end up being worth the US $ 54 the UN deducts for staying in the camp.

So far all we've done is meet the rest of the team and the officers from the Zambian force protection element [ including the CO who has a penchant for gold-rimmed sunglasses that make him look every inch the African dictator ]. seem the four of us from the Dominions are all wired too tight for Abyei. The four of us were particularly cautioned that although English is the working language of the mission, it is UN English and not Aussie or Canuck English, which apparently involves punctuating every sentence with ' f*ck '.

Apart from that, the pace of life is very slow - we've spenmt more time playing cards than anything else, and A-- and L-- are planting a vegetable garden [ hopefully we can keep the camp goats away from it ]. I have a feeling that we may insert ourselves into some key positions so we can ramp things up a little bit otherwise we'll soon be digging tunnels..."

Code Orange from the Lad: Seems there's a spot of trouble...

" First some background:
Over the 20+ years of the war, in addition to the two major warring parties, the Sudanese Armed forces [ SAF ] and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army [ SPLA ], there sprang up a number of OAG's [ Other Armed Groups ]; some of these were proxy forces, such as the South Sudanese Defence Force supported by the SAF, others were basically gangs of thugs hoping to capitalize on the situation. according to the peace agreement, each of these OAG's must be incorporated into one of the two ' conventional ' forces...

On top of that, in Abyei in particular there is a conflict that predates independence between the local Dinka tribe in the south and the Misseriya Arab Nomads in the north, further complicated by the fact that Abyei is one of the richest oil regions in the country. consequently, Abyei rates a special protocol in the CPA, most of the provisions of which have yet to be realized.

One of the leaders of a wartime armed group, a Major Thomas Thiel, declared for the SAF, and was made a Lieutenant Colonel. although nominally a member of the government forces, he remains a rogue element; he has been implicated in the springing of an ambush in March that killed 11 unarmed SPLA members and the wounding of about 2 dozen more. The Government has done nothing to effect his capture and he remains very much at large in the town of Abyei, much to the consternation of the public; the UN mandate prevents us from doing anything about it....

yesterday, he delivered an ultimatum to the UNMO and the UN Police officers living in the town, requiring them to leave their accomodation by 1800 hours. despite assurances by the local SAF commander to the UN Head of Office here, he repeated his threats and everyone has now retired to the camp. Thomas himself was here for a meeting - he introduced himself to me and shook my hand - to resolve the situation, but as of now, I'm not clear on the results....

apart from that, it is becoming quite clear to the four of us...that a bit of commonwealth expertise is going to be required to put this place to rights, and we are planning a palace coup as we speak. L-- has already taken over the G1 job and I expect the G3, G2 and G7 positions to follow in short order....
Just as one example - J-- was snagged for an overnight patrol this morning and was meant to depart at 0630. It's almost 0800 and he is just now receiving his ' briefing ' - who knows when they'll get gas for the cars....

We've already ensconced ourselves quite comfortably in our shared room and we are making the best of the eclectic foods we have at hand, although with the evacuation of the town, we are restricted in our access to the market...

The Indian Army Signallers here have greeted us like the characters from ' The Man Who Would Be King ' with hearty handshakes and cups of sweet tea....With only one patrol per day [ perhaps ] to track, it seems like they are bored stiff.."


Later entry:

" L-- was duty officer yesterday, nme today, and A-- tomorrow..It looked like J-- was lucky insofar as he got picked for a patrol, but he has now been in the town of Higlig almost 2 days waiting for an SPLA military convoy that is still sitting in Bentiu with no word on when it will move...Consequently my job as DO has been pretty damn boring: there's nothing to monitor.

The Thomas Thiel situation remains unresolved - everyone is restricted to the camp between 1900 and 0700 and everyone who was living out now has their stuff stored in UN vehicles, with the result that we're short trucks for actual patrolling. Of course, we wouldn't know where to go, since the UN has provided GPS, but no batteries...

For the army guys - the camp here is supposed to be defensible, but it's really a joke. there are stand-to positions around the perimetre, but they are simply parapets of loose earth, about 4.5 high; they offer no protection from even SA fire, and are not mutually supporting. the perimetre is a sort of half-assed type 3 fence and there are no bunkers; apparently there was an exercise on the day we arrived, but we've yet to have any briefing on emergency measures, despite having asked. there are no such things as RO's or CSO's [ Camp Standing Orders ]...

the rest of my kit arrived so I can make a decent cup of coffee to go with my strawberry jam and onion sandwiches...."

Poos kid...

And the ordinary folk wonder why the UN can't get anything done to solve the ills of the world..Sounds like a perfectly good ClusterF**k in progress...

Rocketeer.....these reports really give one a taste of what your son is dealing with on a day to day basis. I know its gotta be hard on you and the good Padre.

Gunny:

it is a bit of an eye opener when you realize all the high falutin' rhetoric spouted at the UN Assembly filters down into a small time cluster of tippie toeing around beligerants and mass murderers so as to not ruffle feathers and upset a' balance' in the hopes that maybe six kids get fed this week instead of four and that maybe, just maybe, a few more families live another day in abject poverty...

when you ralize that any half-assed western power could walk in and with barely a dent in its GNP buy the damn country out of debt and despair in no time..

We're all helping China achieve superpower status by making cheap shirts for us -seems to me that the poor downtrodden refugees in Darfur could make the same damn shirts for even cheaper and , despite the lefties screaming exploitation, they'd get enough of a pittance to at least have a clean glass of water each night before bed..

Got another 'report' from the lad and will post it later after its vetted for OPSEC...

Still Orange but with a Red tinge:

"...the convoy that we are supposed to be monitoring remains in Bentiu enjoying a barbeque that has been going on for three days now. we sent a new patrol out to relieve J-- and his crew, these guys arrived back around supper time last night...

Today we ventured a short patrol into the town of Abyei to effect a liaison with the local military higher-ups. As part of the post-conflict reconciliation process, the two former warring parties agreed to create Joint/Integrated Units [ JIU's ] which will form the nucleus of the Sudanese National Armed Forces should the country agree to remain united following the referendum in 2011. In Abyei, however, the force is joint and integrated in name only; the SPLA and the SAF halves being encamped at opposite ends of the town, with the HQ of 31SAF Brigade smack in the centre. The CO of the SAF half of the JIU was not present when we arrived, but we [ the new UNMO's ] were introduced to the SAF Bde Commander, Colonel Ali Selim Ali, and the CO of the JIU Col. Valentino Tokomaki [ SPLA ]. In the latter instance, we met in a grass walled hut with a dirt floor, but he had a satellite TV and a refrigerator stocked with Coca-cola. here it is customary to offer something in the way of food or drink to all visitors, even if its just a glass of water, this can be awkward sometimes, since we don't always know whence the water has come, but it's considered bad from to refuse...

we finished the patrol by about 1100 and then the four of us ventured into the market to buy some bread, we also picked up some floormats woven from plastic sacks to make our little container feel more like home. we are becoming accustomed to haggling with the merchants, but after the fact it seems rather silly when we realize we have beaten them down by a whole 100 dinars - about 50 Canadian cents...

Tomorrow, A-- and L-- are off to Higlig in pursuit of the ever elusive patrol, while I'm headed to a place called Akur. It's actually in a disputed area, because the UN claims it belongs to sector 6 [ where I am ] while the SPLA says its Sector 2, immediately to the south. In any case there was apparently a violent incident there yesterday involving an alleged shooting by some SPLA during food distribution by the WFP and GOAL [ an NGO operating in our area ] we're going with some UN CivPol guys to investigate, along with our counterparts from Sector 2....

the last new UNMO, from the Ukraine, arrived today...

I'll keep you apprised..."

Couldn't imagine doing what your son is faced with each day. I certainly couldn't do what he is on a daily basis. While I have experience similar living situations and such, I always had the comfort of an automatic weapon at hand.