Keep it coming Rocketeer...and,as always,let your son know our thoughts are with him.

More on the Mission:

Caution - Not PC and suspect OPSEC in part as names revealed!! [LOL ]

" After much running around playing musical jeeps, and then waiting for the arrival of our ' national monitors ' [ every UNMO patrol that goes out is accompanied by an officer from the SAF and the SPLA ] who are not the earliest of risers, we headed off for a village called Arik at 0940. In addition to the 2 ' monitors ', the patrol consisted of a Capt. from Brazil, a Captain from Guinea, Me and Captain Kapuma Fungafunga from Zambia...

I drove the second truck, with Fungafunga and a Major from the SAF. There are no CD players in the vehicles, so we had to suffer through Fungafunga's cassette of Top 50 Great American Hurtin' Songs there and back. Fungafunga himself is a bit of a loose cannon - I had to ask him more than once not to smoke in the jeep, and he concluded his lunch of tinned peaches and sardines by pitching the tins out the window - also quite the womanizer! The Zambians seem to be willing to send anyone with a heartbeat over here as an UNMO: Fungafunga himself is the country's sole military psychiatrist!!, while the other Zambian UNMO [ equally useless ] is actually a Chaplain! [ Since the 4 of us Commonwealth-ers have been enjoined from swearing ' fungafunga ' has become the standard substitute for another f- word. ]....

the ' road ' we followed was really two tyre tracks across the savannah, rutted and washed out by the rain in many places, so on several occasions we ended up blazing our own trail through the bush - a good go if you're the driver - although we had to stop periodically to gather up the radio aerials that had been dislodged by the low tree canopy...

It was about an hour to Arik [ you make a right turn at the skull in the tree ], a village of maybe 300 people [ the chief said 48 households, but I saw maybe a dozen or so ], housed in grass huts in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea how anyone found it the first time 'round. When we arrived, the women all gathered under a tree, and all the men [ young and old ] came out to shake our hands. although the former were all dressed ' tradionally ', the men were all in western attire ,complete with Nike swooshes and Adidas trefoils....

Literally in the middle of the village, the baker was starting a fire in a mud oven and kneading dough for the day's bread...

We were ushered to some handmade wooden chairs, while the village elders sat on some twisted branches, guarded by two local constables armed with AK-47's...

although the mission is meant to be concerned with security [ there was shooting thereabout a month ago where one man was killed and another wounded ], the major concern of the village elders was water, medicine, and food. they apologized profusely for not being able to offer us anything to drink, but they had sent the watering party off at first light, and it would not return until evening...

the deputy police chief said he didn't even know why he should be talking to us; he had made the same points at every UN visit and nothing had been done, while the chief said he was considering uprooting the village and moving [ which makes me wonder why they settled there in the first place ]. Of course, our standard line is that we can report it to the appropriate agencies, but we can't promise anything. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the ' appropriate agencies ' have made any effort to visit the place...

When we were leaving, I took my camera out to snap some photos, and was swarmed by people wanting to be in a picture with me...I've got a couple of decent shots of the baker in the village square...

we got back to camp around 1330.. A-- and L-- were meant to have headed out to Higlig to await the convoy but it was already on the move, so they were held here. the convoy arrived in Abyei last night and was supposed to carry on another 10 or 15 kliks south to the river Kiir, but was held up by another celebration in its honour so it's anyone's guess whether they'll carry on today or not...

Maintenance day today, then an ' interagency ' barbeque tonight...

[ Seems the kid is starting to feel the frustration of the ' limitations' of the UN mission to ' save ' this part of the world from itself...Fungafunga, indeed ]

Lad has checked in after a few quiet days:

"... the Friday night party was a very welcome opportunity to blow off steam and eat real meat, although the ' interagency ' part was a bit of a misnomer; apart from a doctor and nurse from GOAL, it was only the military and police types here at the teamsite....We feasted on goat bits barbequed on a charcoal fire built in half an oil drum, washed down with an assortment of beverages from Kenyan beer to Ugandan whisky [ which comes in plastic bags ] Ethiopian Gin - the party was organized by a Captain of the Greek Airforce all to the accompanyment of disco and techno-pop..."

"... Saturday morning...' training ' on 4X4 driving and the use of the winch for vehicle recovery, a waste of time for anyone who was already familiar with the vehicle and far too little for anyone who was not..."

"... it rained overnight and into the morning - not heavily enough to be problematic but just enough to turn the camp and all but the main road into town into a slick muddy paste. The rain did not dampen the spirits of the SPLA convoy..who rolled past the camp at 0730, singing and cheering on the back of ten-tonne trucks..."

".. I was tasked with driving this morning's patrol.. head into Abyei ahead of time to pick up SPLA monitor...we were able to make it to Wun Chuai to visit the 1st Batt SPLA, albeit somewhat delayed owing to the tardiness of ...Capt. Fungafunga..."

"... we passed the convoy, which has moved just south of the River Kiir, and will likely bivouac along side of the road for the next couple of months, since the road to their final destination, Akur, is not passable when wet.."

"... the drive to Wun Chuai took maybe frty-five minutes, but didn't require any trail blazing like the trip to Arik. we met the DCO of the 1st, whose remarks were almost word for word what we heard from the chief of Arik; as far as security is concerned ' maafi mushkelah ' [- no problem-] but only one handpump for water [ the water table is extremely deep over 250m ] no realiable source of food, and no books or school supplies for the soldiers or their dependnets. they have even asked the UN for soccer balls. the problem is, of cvourse that the UNMIS has no mandate to provide any of these things - we are here to monitor rthe ceasefire so as to provide a ' safe and secure environment ' [ SASE is the current buzzword ]... the party line is to remind people that we are only military observers and we can only pass on these requests to theappropriate authorities, but that only goes so far; we are not only the eyes and ears of the UN, but its face as well, and we're soon going to make ourselves and the entire institution unpopular if it seems we are not contributing anything to the situation..."

"...secured new quarters..now each ensconced in an individual container and able to unpack things somewhat.Somehow I lucked into a mattress in my room, so with the aid of some surplus pillows I have a chsterfield/couch in addition to my plastic patio table and folding chair. my ' shemag ' draped over a milk crate makes a decent table and I've a large piece of cardboard at the front door to keep the mud at bay..looking for something more' upmarket ' tomorrow..."

"... the last patrol I did was on Tuesday, to the village of Agok. It's smaller than Abyei, but in some ways is better kitted out, since it's closer to major places in the south, and the Chinese oil road runs right past it, or will once completed. It's also the HQ of the regional commissioner, and has a police station [ two grass huts behind a wall of reeds with an actual blue and white painted sign! ]"

" typical of the way things are carried out here, no one bothered to inform any of the town officials that we'd be patrolling their way...neither the chief of police nor the commissioner were present, having headed out to till their fields for the day..."

" outside the commissioner's office, there is a rather impressive monument to the the new Southern Sudan surmounted by the ' national ' flag; unfortunately I was not permitted to take a photo of it, likely because they didn't want me to get the piles of ammunition crates and 82mm mortar bombs in the background..."

"... we ambled through the Agok market. One is able to purchase alcohol rather more freely here, but they wouldn't let us buy any beer, because they were concerned we wouldn't bring back the empties...It's compelling to see how bouyant are the spirits of the people here, considering how little they actually have, and how resourceful. all over one can find buildings made from flattened olive oil cans, sandals made from tyres, and pull toys put together from a milk carton and four plastic bottle caps.."

"...journey to and from Agok took us past Wun Chuai where the infamous convoy has come to rest; the place looks like every other army biv I've ever seen, with hootches and bug bars and blokes brushing their teeth in their canteen cups, although there are some grass huts going up, so it may be that they are settling in for the long haul. there has been some concern raised, because these soldiers have been driving into Abyei to vist their comrades stationed there, and to shop at the market with their AK-47's still on their backs; and the 12.7mm MG's cocked and ready on the back of their Toyota pickups.. Add to the fact that the SPLA members of the Abyei JIU have not been paid, and tension in the town begins to mount a little..."

"..went across the road to the little cafe for coffee and donuts. the sudanese like their hot drinks very sweet - I'm not exaggerating when I tell you our hostess added an ice cream scoop of sugar to the juice glass full of coffee or tea...local ' variant ' is karcadel- hibiscus tea made with heaps of sugar.."

"...supper last night of instant mashed potatoes and ration-pack meatloaf, first time i can say that IMP food was a welcome addition to my diet!...piece de resistance was rice pudding made with trail mix, fresh apples and pears courtesy of the Indian Army Corps of signals, and a tube! of condensed milk.."

"...I picked up some incense sticks in the hope of combatting the musty smell in my container...also discovered a local barber..have a bit of a sidey-growing competition on at the moment but its' getting ' nonstandard '.. A-- is growing a beard -he's Navy so it's allowed .."

A-- been in the clinic since this morning...doctor suspects malaria, although the blood tests haven't come back yet...bit ironic, actually, as A--has been the one of us who is paranoid about the bugs; we've been teasing him that it's because he's too used to the cushy life aboard ship, while us Army types have built up immunity through years of living in the mud. I'm sure our turn will come... "


thus endeth the lesson for this week...

During my deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan the best repellent I used was Skin so Soft by Avon, the cream with the orange cap was the best, and the spray worked as well.

lumpy is correct on that one.

Got a call from the son via sat-tel..seems he's getting tired of eating goat and is hoping I can include some ' jiffy-pop' stove top popcorn among other things in a care pack [ harder to find in these days of microwaves..]

Anyway here's the poop hot off the scoop..

" it turned out A-- did have malaria, but after a few shots in the ass and several pills, he seems well on the way to recovery..."

"...routine patrol to the village of Rumamier...Maj. from Gabon, Capt. from Brazil, Major from Peru, two national monitors and I..set off along the main gravel road heading south... improvised checkpoint outside hamlet of Banton [ SAF and SPLA platoons of the JIU are camped on opposite sides of the road ] some delay but the national monitors got us waved through.. ..turned off the ' main road ' and headed more or less cross country. we stuck it for 40 minutes in four-wheel drive, never getting out of second gear before the vehicle got bogged...decided to pack it in. turning around in the woods took a bit of effort, the trees being just far enough apart for the jeeps to squeak through, but we did manage to get ourselves headed back...and still hang onto antennae and mirrors.. The vehicle ahead of us got well and truly stuck in a ...deep set of ruts, but thankfully there was room to pass and get our car on firmer ground before stopping to help. You've never seen mud like this before - worse even than that horrible orange stuff at Fort Benning, Georgia - thick and black, dries hard as concrete..four wheel low, differential locked, some logs under the tyres finally got them going again..."

"... brief spurt of excitement...L-- leading a patrol to Akengial, the group got out to talk to the locals and were off radio longer than the one hour they had forecast...great panic, and standy patrol was called up to go and find out what was going on [ me ] What a complete schmozzle - we took off with no briefing, no protection party, nor indeed would we have had a first aid kit if I hadn't brought mine along with the other bug out gear..The other three guys in the patrol jumped into the vehicles without even hats or water bottles and the so-called patrol leader turned to me and asked if I knew how to get to Akengial.. we were only a few clicks down the road when the other patrol reported in...no crisis... There was quite a heated discussion about the whole thing at the afternoon's briefing, the commonwealth contingent leading the charge to tighten up the SOP's around here, but nothing is likely to change...[ I know howe Capt. Nolan felt at Balaclava, I just hope I don't end up suffering his fate ].."

" Apparently the UN logistical system has some new trucks for us, seems like I'm getting to fly to El Obeid and drive one of them back sometime this week, interesting change of scenery at least. "

"...started out with the Patrol Commander calling me on the radio at 0730 and telling me I had to drive to Abyei to pick up the national monitors for a ptrol...what's ridiculous about this is that he lives literally next door to the SAF compound and has to pass the SPLA bivouac on his way to the UN camp..."

".. both patrol commanders agreed that the comprehensive peace agreement was alive and well in their little piece of Abyei, that the former enemy soldiers ate together, played cards and even went to school together, although this last would have been made more convenient if the UN could provide them with a blackboard..."

"... headed into town to poke around the marketplace...On the way a bus full of IDP's, its roof racks piled up with personal belongings, passed us - everything from stick and string bedsteads to bicycles - like that VW bug in the IKEA commercials... "

".. met a local ' wag '..he spoke fluent French , he led us into the ' best places ' [ no tourist trap- authentic bits ].. discovered with his help a ' coffee shop ' - a tiny grass hut where a woman was brewing hot drinks on a charcoal burner fashioned from flattened tin cans..... His observations on the situation ..was the lack of even small quantities of capital to finance purchases of things like tractors. Consquently, production never manages to rise above subsistence level, even though there are billions being made from the extraction of oil. Yet at the same time, the market is full of Ray-Ban and Rolex knock-offs [ we even saw an Osama Bin Laden watch for the princely sum of 800 dinars ], Coke and Pepsi....it is the most peculiar intermingling of abject poverty and conspicuous consumption.. Our friend also told us to come back and find him before going shopping again, apparently [ and we had already suspected as much ] like the Moroccan milliner in Casablanca, the merchants have two prices for everything.."

"... emergency meeting of the Area Joint Monitoring Committee had to be called this morning. The details are rather sketchy, but SAF is alleging some illegal movement of large numbers of SPLA troops into town during the night..extremly poor communication...I imagine it'll take some time before anything trickles down to our level.. "

more to come...

the report continues...

" ...it seems like you all have more information about the situation in Sudan through the Canadian media than we do through official channels...If you take a look at a map of the country, you'll notice that Abyei is rather precariously located between Southern Darfur, where several people were ambushed over the past couple of days, and Unity State, where tribal violence has recently erupted, and whence numerous foreign nationals have recently been evacuated. It was only through a casual conversation with one of the Zambian platoon commanders that we discovered, between mouthfuls of dried fish and fried caterpillers, that our own protection force had been stood-to the night before last, but no one in the UNMO chain of command had bothered to inform us..."

"..This morning I commanded the M and V patrol [ Monitoring and Verification ] that, along with a couple of UNCivPol officers, went to visit the now-notorious convoy encamped at Manyang and Wunchuai. the roads around the bivouac are now clogged with AK-47-toting guerillas carrying bundles of twigs and thatch for the construction of their huts, while the commander still insists their stay here is temporary. The local situation seems to have stabilized, but there is growing tension between the SPLA commander and the sudanese authorities in the northern part of our sector, owing to the death of an SPLA soldier in a grenade incident in the town of Al Muglad. there's some suggestion that the northern police may be dragging their heels on the investigation, and the southern forces are threatening to take the law into their own hands if the results are not forthcoming. Problem is that the GoS prevents us from patrolling north to Al Muglad, so we're not in a position to resolve the issue either. we'll see how this plays out over the next few days..."

" The UN Force Commander, an Indian Army Lt.Gen., was meant to visit us tomorrow, but I hear that may have to be cancelled now..."

the saga continues...

" the Force Commander, Lt. Gen. Jasbir Lidder, Indian Army [ his bio and photo are on the UNMIS website ] did indeed make a visit to Abyei on monday, so as a consequence all of our patrol activities were suspended for the day. We expected him at 1100 but he didn't touch down until 1330. He spoke very eloquently, if briefly, about the central role of the UNMOs in the mission, and the dormant volcano that is Abyei - he continues to hold out hope that the GoS will lift the movement restriction here in Sector Six so that we can begin patrolling north of the town...we shall see..."

" The report I filed about the grenade incident made its way into the official UNMIS Sitrep [ also on the website ]and force HQ tasked us to find out more about it. Unfortunately here in Abyei, that was translated into asking the local National Security Service Agent to recount the official story, rather than look into the incident or the conduct of the investigation. I was actually tasked as a member, but not the leader, of a ' patrol ' to drive into town and meet this agent, until it was pointed out that her wasactually in the UN camp, as he is every Tuesday, for the regular monitoring committee meeting..."

"...two Dutch policemen arrived here on Monday, and they've been joining us for meals until their stuff arrives; like us, they are already a little dismayed at the pace of activitiy here in sunny Abyei. At least as far as the camp is concerned, however, things may be improving, because the UN finally appointed a new RAO [ Regional Administration Officer ] top oversee the UN support infrastructure in the sector and he seems determined to make rapid and significant improvements. Most importantly, he seems to have been around the UN for some time and has the personal contacts to get things done..."

"..it rained very heavily...and the camp has become a swamp. everyone is shambling around in black Wellington boots looking like camouflaged Yorkshiremen from some monty Python sketch gone awry, and I expect a mosquito infestation of biblical proportions to be visited upon us anyday now... heat is intense;I had barely hung my washing on the line before it was dry, although I think my load of whites is dirtier now than when it went into the machine..."

"...the patrol I was on today was supposed to go and visit the alphabet soup of UN agencies in and around Abyei [ UNDP, WFP, FAO, OCHA, UNICEF, ETC..] conducting what is called ' periodic liaison '..problem is that no one seems to be able to get their non-English tongues around this phrase so it comes out more like ' robotic lazing ' which may, in fact, be a better description of what goes on here most days... "

the Sudanese Comedy Hour:

the lad checks in...

" ...I've been told by many sudanese that ' C--' is far too difficult to pronounce, it's customary in sudan for everyone, even high-ranking military and political officials, to be addressed and referred to by their first names, so this is causing some consternation. Added to the confusion is that some of the other militaries have put their first names on their nametags for their deployment here, so nobody really knows from day to day what anyone is really called, especially when you throw in groups kie the Chinese into the mix, whose family name generally comes first anyway. Up to and including Sunday, when I was the patrol leader, I was ' F-- ' [ last name - one of the Sudanese blokes told me that was his grandfather's name ], but on Monday I became 'C -- 'for some reason. JV, on the other hand has been variously referred to as 'V' ' Vee' and now 'JV', while L-- and A-- are just " l and A ' but with a decided French pronunciation..Of course, there's a guy here whose given name is ' BigBoy ' so perhaps I ought not to complain..."

"... Wednesday...someone thought it would be a good idea to send four military observers [ 2 Peruvians, 1 Tanzanian and me ] plus the SAF and SPLA monitors, plus an Arabic interpreter, to visit all these aid agencies...we went first to the UNDP, all 7 of us traipsing in and causing the staff to scramble for more plastic garden furniture, only for the director to tell us he really didn't have time to talk because they were in the process of moving to a new compound, and then he was off to a meeting. If someone had told him we were coming, he could have put together a list of projects he's currently got on the go, but he didn't have it in his pocket..."

" ...from there we went to the WFP, and once again, shoehorned ourselves into the director's office. She was a little surprised that we were there, since all of her projects are usually discussed at the weekly interagency meeting ,apparently attended by the UNMO Coordinator and held [ wait ofr it ] Wednesdays. In the m,eantime, not only was she short of time because she was on hewr way to a meeting, but everyone else we wanted to see would be at the same event...we gave up and went back to camp...'

"... at our daily 1630 briefing [ through the window of the UNMO office, I could see the heads of all the agencies coming out of the very same interagency meeting ] I didn't make myself particularly popular by suggesting that a little bit of prior coordination might have saved us a lot of embarrassment in front of both the civilian aid workers [ many of whom are already contemptuous of the military ] andc some pretty senior SAF and SPLA officers. the team leader simply said ' make note not to visit the agencies on Wednesdays '..."

".. it might have made more sense for the CIMIC officer to conduct this liaison, but they sent him on a patrol 300 km north to Debab - to visit army barracks! instead..."

"... Thursday morning, I went with A-- and Lt. Col Pal Jak Jok to pay a visit to the local blacksmith. A-- and L-- are after some spearpoints [ still used by the locals for fishing and hunting ] to take home as souvenirs, and the Lt.Col. volunteered to make the connection for them. the smithy is set up in the centre of the market under a thatched awning and ,with methods unchanged from mediaeval times [ including the apprentice-driven bellows to keep the fire hot ] produces everything from axeheads to frying pans to scrap-metal charcoal burners. The smithy agreed to make spearpoints for the princely sum of 1000 SD dinars each.."

"... that night A-- and I were invited to a barbeque at the Zambian contingent's officer's mess. The party itself was hosted by Ahmed, a Somali-Canadian who now works here as the civil affiars officer and was recently made an honourary member of the mess. as a show of gratitude he arranged to have a couple of goats roasted, while the Zambians laid on several bags of Ugandan whisky to wash it down..."

" Saturday...J-- and I ventured into the meat market to purchase a couple kilos of beef, which the butcher hacked off the hanging carcass with a hatchet.."

"... L-- and I went back after the morning brieif with the sector commander to pick up Lt. Col. Pak's spearpoints...In the course of the conversation he told us about his family and how he was an oddity among his peers because he had only one wife. his observation was simply, ' well, if you have a wife and she's not meeting your needs, and you still have some cows to pay the bride price, then you get married again .."

".. he also commented that the local highschools are having trouble finding English teachers - I think in part because the UN has snapped them all up as interpreters - so we're now in the process of trying to set up a system whereby we can go and teach English once or twice a week when we're not on patrol.."

" Today is the 1st anniversary of the death [ under what some claim are suspicious circumstances ] of Dr. John Garang, former head of the SPLA. we're expecting some ' active ' demonstrations, including the obligatory firing of assault rifles into the air, so all UN programme activities have been suspended - we UNMOs and our UNCivPol colleagues, however, are still on patrol..we'll see what the evening holds..."

waiting for more from the lad..

Not found in the Official Reports:

the boy's latest...

"Well, no shooting into the air to commemmorate the death of Dr. Garang, but there was a murder in Abyei - one drunken SAF soldier got into a fight with some local civilians and knifed one of them in the ernsuing melee. strictly speaking occurrences like these are outside our purview as UNMOs rather they are the concern of the Sudanese police, with as much or as little assistance as they choose to accept from the UNCivPol. On the other hand, any time there are soldiers involved, these things have the potential to escalate into more serious security problems, so we try to keep a pretty close tab on the progress of the investigation..."

"...In anticipation of the departure this week of our inanimate training officer, L-- and I spent most of our day putting together a training plan to try and cover some of the rather egregious gaps in the capability of some of our peers - everything from first aid to off-road driving to Dinka language training..."

"...patrol on Sunday..was noteworthy as an example of the complete ineptitude of the UNMO leadership here. The regular monitoring patrol to Mayang and Wunchuai returned and reported that, contrary to what we had been told many times before, there were no troops belonging to the convoy stationed at Wunchuai. add to that the observation by a second patrol that a large number of troops had set up a new bivouac in the woods, complete with 12.7mm machine guns covering the key bridge over the River Kiir, and a normal person would think it 1] worth reporting to the force headquarters and 2] investigating further. Instead, the sector UNMO coordinator ordered the Operations Officer to ' correct' the report, so it no longer included these observations..And if that wasn't enough, he handed my training plan to the Major from Gabon and appointed him the new G7! [ seems like one hour every second week is all the time the hierarchy is willing to devote to professional development - A--, J--, L-- and I just keep carrying our FA kits and hope we're never the victims..]"

"...I was on patrol tasked to visit the village of Wunkun, but again, we were stopped short owing to the poor condition of the road [ attributable not only to heavy rains, but also the fact that they had been ploughed and sewn with sorghum by the local farmers ].."

"...another party in the Zambian officers' mess, this one a send-off for the Sector Head of Office [ Senior UN Civilian here in Abyei ]..
..I was reminded of a quotation by that famous orator, B.A. Barakus, who said of Hannibal Smith's plans ' they never work right, they just work '.. For if the ' official ' UN has fallen down on the job of promoting peace and security, it is more than being made up for by the people on the front line: by the Nigerian policewoman and the Indian doctor, the moroccan IT tech and the Zambian nurse, the Greek pilot and the French aidworker - for the sake of a very few examples - drinking Ugandan whisky and eritrean gin, smoking Kenyan cigarettes and dancing to the music [ scareley audible over the sound of rain on corrugated tin roofs ]of the Village People performed by a Sudanese cover band. So, after all the griping about the efficiency of the UN, there might just be something salvageable here after all.."

"... Canadian and australian contingent Commanders, bearing gifts of beef jerky and beer, flew in to visit us for a couple of hours en route to a conference in Kadugli..we treated them to a typical Abyei lunch of tuna and onions on kisra, washed down with orange Tang, before running them through a whirlwind tour of the camp and village. Since both of them work in logistics in Khartoum, there may now a chance we'll get some of the essentials we've been requisitioning for months - AA batteries, jumper cables, toilet tissue - they stayed only about 90 minutes, but I think they had their fill of Abyei by the time they left..."

".. two more parties..one hosted by the ' National " [ read Sudanese ] staff and another by the Indian singallers [ who are fantastic cooks ] Never had Indian Scotch before, but it's actually quite good [ although I'm not sure about this idea of mixing it with apple juice ]..."

"... I put together an aerial recconnaissance plan to try and get around the problem of the roads. I got the blessing of the teamsite commander, who signed off on it without revision, but got a lot of resistance from the acting G3 [ a Sri Lankan Air Force Suadron Leader wh owas grounded after thumping one of his subordinates ], primarily, I think because it will require him to plan more than 12 hours in advance. We'll see; I think there's a better chance of getting some of these guys to fly than get out of the jeeps and actually walk a click or two to the villages we're supposed to visit, but the next hurdle will be getting the LZ's cleared by the Mine Action Office, or else the only place to land is on the roads anyway.."

"...was part of a patrol to once again check out the convoy at Manyang and Wunchuai...some interesting developments here; the SPLA seems to be shifting its forces around [ L-- led another patrol to check out the defensive position in the woods ], either because they are playing a shell game to cover for formations that really don't exist, or else deploying in anticipation of something more significant. In any case, I should be grateful to them, cause it seems like we might have to do some serious reverification of the sketchy information they've been feeding us the last little while, and it may result in some real work for a few days..."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rocketeer,

You just can't make this stuff up!

more from the Sudan:

"...Seems like my air recce idea will go ahead without me; it's been shifted to Wednesday this week ' cause the G3 couldn't get his act together to e-mail the paperwork, and I'm supposed to be on my way back to Khartoum that afternoon..."

"...teamsite leader has been after the G2 to produce a map of the local area, since all the ones produced by the mission are at scales of 1:250 000 or greater and based on 1970's vintage Russian survey data...they are not much use to us for patrolling or plotting troop movements. After a week of hounding, he finally asked for a volunteer who knew something about maps to help the G2 sort it out...long story-short- I'm now the ' teamsite terrain analysis and cartography section ' and, after compiling and conflicting data from Google Earth, the University of Berne check it out www.cde.unibe.ch ] and the Russians and the OCHA GIS Section, the office now boasts a 4x4 hand drawn map of the area of responsibility [ it looks damn sharp if I say so myself ]"

"... for those of you who have been trying to find me on digital maps: Abyei is at 9 degrees 36 minutes 20 seconds North by 28 degrees 26 minutes 10 seconds East ..."

"... yesterday I was driving again, this time on a patrol to Madding Ashueng, a village of about 350 households [ as local leaders describe their populations ] on the banks of the Kiir River. We actually missed the ' turn off ' from the main road and had to double back..the roads are much worse for the rains and overgrowth.We got bogged down in the mud and despite the fact that the mud was only about 2 inched deep neither the 4L nor diff lock would budge us.. we succeeded by using the winch but it had been so poorly maintained - full of kinks and frays - that it wouldn't rewind and is now coiled up in the back of the jeep..yet another reason not to play the game of musical behicles like we do every morning.. "

" the population of Madding Asheung is predominantly IDP's returned from the north, there is a school-tent provided by UNICEF for the 137 students and four teachers but the only other structures in the village are the typical mud/grass tukuls which cover the countryside...as everywhere the villagers are extremely welcoming and friendly and they absolutely love to be in photographs..."

"... today I'm supposed to lead a patrol to confirm the wherabouts of these SPLA battalions that have taken to gabolling around the countryside, but we are starting to get some resistance from the local commanders who are refusing to disclose the strengths and dispositions for their forces..the CO of the Commando battalion has even refused to admit us to his compound until we complete the investigation - actually the responsibility of the local police - into the death of that soldier who blew himself up in Al Muglad..."

" patrol tomorrow to Wunchaui and Gongmobil to see the 1st Batt SPLA, but apparently they're not there anymore..so who knows... "

"... this morning's patrol was changed at the last minute to Leu... despite the fact that the other patrols had tried and failed to reach the village twice in the month of July, they insisted on sending us on this fool's errand...I was saddled with the ' winners' today - the grounded Sri Lankan pilot, the infamous Fungafunga and JV-- a dozy Peruvian naval infrantryman , all of who showed up for patrol without so much as a waterbottle..Fungafunga hadn't appeared by 0845 and I had dragooned L-- as being my fourth, but the former materiliazed just prior to our 0900 departure time.. "

" Our patrol took us across a field reminiscent of a Vietnamese rice paddy - the going was so bad that our Sudanese language assistant and I actually walked in front of the vehicles to pick out the best route until we came to what passed fro a road...we managed 6 kilomters [ the better part of a hour ] before the track became so swamped that we had no choice but to turn back, especially as it was threatening rain again..."

" one jeep bottomed out on the return journey, which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that neither of the trucks' winches had been properly maintained [ or checked by the drivers prior to departure; SOP is adhered to in the breech more or less ]..Adding to my concern were the several bovine skeletons - often an indicator that the area is mined -which we found in close proximity to our ' track '... .. luckily we were only about 900m from the rendevour point and I sent the second jeep to guide back a recovery vehicle..but to add insult to injury, when the tow truck arrived, it , too had a broken winch!!.. eventually we got free but what a fungafunga waste of time, fuel and manpower..."

" other than tripping over a snake with its mouthful of frog on my way to hang up some laundry not much else to tell.."

"...last message from the ' front ' for a while.. heading back to Khartoum and then 2 and bit weeks in Rome before returning to duty in Sector Six.. "

UN Cluster in action: ladreports...

"...extricating myself from the sudan has proven to be one of the most UN/Third world experiences I have had..."

" ...Wed. morning, the MOVCON staff officer in Abyei came to find me andask about my travel plans. This is always a bad sign - aircraft seats on UN flights are at a premium and it is common to find oneself bumped by someone in a higher travel priority. In this case, it was even worse; owing to a mechanical problem with the aircraft, the regular flight from Kadugli[ the major connecting hub in this part of the Sudan ] to Khartoum had been cancelled..."

"... MOVCON was going to try and find seats for J and me because we had already purchased tickets for international travel, on a special flight, but...no guarantees .... The Mi-17 from Abyei could get us to Kadugli, but we might be stuck there. As it was the helicopter arrived late in Abyei, and then had to fly the air recce mission I had arranged before itcould make the return trip to Kadugli..we were told clearly that there would be no flight once we reached Kadugli..."

"...Kadugli ' international ' airport was actually quite busy, an Egyptian military engineer contingent was flying home and in the process of loading their herc' when we landed [ in fact many of the soldiers flew home standing up or sitting on piles of baggage in the back of the aircraft in order to fit everything in ] and, of course, the terminal was packed with people now stranded on account of the cancellation of the flight. ..nonetheless, true to his word, despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the only travellers from Abyei to make it onto the ' special ' flight were J and I - we even bumped the head of Office of the UNDP who was heading to Khartoum for a conference..."

" This flight, a 15 passenger L-410 flown by a crew of greasy long-haired Russian contractors, was late in arriving from Wau and we literally ran across the tarmac to toss our kit on the rack in the cabin and buckle in..Our haste turned out to be unwarranted, however, because the pilot couldn't raise anyone on the radio to give him clearance to take off again. After several minutes, he switched off the engines and called over one of the ground crew to talk to him in person. as it turned out, since the flight was so late, the tower at Kadugli had closed for the day, but we were given authorization to fly VFR until picked up by the tower in El Obeid and thus IFR on to Khartoum."

"... flight took us through a violent thunderstorm with some not inconsequential flashes of lightning erupting very near to us and this little plane seemed to be tossed about like a paper boat in a spring creek. The co-pilot kept turning around in his cockpit [ which was not divided from the passenger cabin ] and flipping on the interior lights to check on something, but I'm not sure if it was us or something else..."

"... arrived Khartoum, although about five hours later than originally intended. we disembarked and were led by policemen to the unfinished terminal [ they had to move a piecvve of corrugated metal that was barring the open dorrway so we could pass through ] and thus out into the parking lot. Our driver, after waiting three hours had [ quite rightly ] given up and gone back to base...we got hold of the UN transport office to get a van dispatched, but since neither the driver nor most of the passengers spoke particularly good English it was quite a travail to get everyone where they wanted to go and we spent another hour and a half doubling back and driving in circles before finally reaching the Canadian house. ."

"... yesterday I had to go into Un HQ to pick up my signed leave pass, plane tickets, drop off some forms and withdraw some money from the bank...I waited more than 2 hours in the line up at the bank only for them to announce on opening [ 235 minutes late ] that they had no US currency in which the UN pays us all. I didn't think this would be a big problem since I needed Euros anyway, so I withdrew my money in dinars...the next step was to haul over to the Afra Mall [ despite the largest financial institution in the Suidan, the bank doesn't deal in anything but dinars and dollars ] where I could change my money into Euros, but.. the UN was locked down because of a massive demonstration being staged outside and we had to wait [ secure behind the AK=47's of the Rwandan D&S platoon ] for the protesters to disperse.."

"... a UN shuttle bus got me close to the mall, but still had to walk several blocks with my laptop case full of over a million dinars, and cross a street [ no mean feat in Khartoum..imagine trying to cross a multi-lane expressway without traffic lights with vehicles travelling at full throttle ] to the mall, where, once they decided to open up after their peculiar afternoon break [ orignially associated, I'm guessing, with Muslim prayers ]..the employees remain at their desks reading the newspaper and shooting the sh*t ..the three exchange bureaux could only scrape together 450 Euros between them, so I ended up with US$ [ which were in profusion here ] anyway, though not quite as many as I had originally withdrawn, thanks to the usual chicanery with buy/sell rates and ' processing fees '.."

"...the Unvan arrived at 0200 so I could arrive at the airport the requisite three hours before my departure time...the airport is proof positive that one is having a true third world experience...I shan't bore you with the details but, as an example, to board our flight [ which I only discovered was happening by keeping watch over the boarding passes that other passngers were handing to the ticket agents at the gate ]..we were driven out to the tarmac in a minibus, where we found all of our ' checked ' luggage spread out on the apron - we had to load it ourselves onto the conveyor belt so it made it onot the aircraft - I only hope it didn't require a similar effort on my part on my part to get it checked through to Rome since I haven't seen it since landing in Jordan.."

".. Royal Jordanian airlines is quite respectable..I ate my first egg in months for breakfast on the plane..there was a Starbucks in the terminal..but they took only Jordanian currency so I had to do without a decent cup until I reached Rome..."

Thanks for the update.

2 weeks in Rome...at least he's getting a great liberty port!