It Is HOT!!! Here

So what can I say about Sudan. Khartoum is unbelievably hot... high 40's Celcius. But I am enduring, no problem there. It seems that most of us are pretty much coping we haven't been doing anything too strenuous.

The airport was hilarious...or I should say the check in with customs. You go to one counter fill out a form... visa I think. Then you wait with a cat in the customs area. A lady comes over with another form fill that one out and you realize it is exactly the same info that was on the first form. Then we go get our bags... all seven of us got all our bags none went missing. The first group one guy had his bags come in on a different flight so he had to wait a couple days. No big deal there. All in all when you sum things up everything went relatively smooth.

While in Khartoum we are staying at a huge house with two apartments all 20 of us.
It is a good drive from the house to the UN headquarters so it might change after awhile. The accommodations are great. The house is cool all air-conditioned, while you are in it. You have to turn off all electrical appliances when you leave b/c you buy hydro like you buy gasoline here. Once you use it up you have to go and buy some more.

We are waiting to get our work assignments. Most of us will be heading to one the 22 team sites in the south about six or seven will be given jobs in Khartoum. I am definitely going somewhere south. I should find out in the next couple days where exactly.

As far the internet goes it is not too bad here in Khartoum, but I am not getting a very good impression of it for the rest of the country. I am hoping to get my laptop set up with internet sometime next week then while I am in Khartoum I can get on more and write and update the blog more. I haven't been able to get on the blog once since I have here. We should be getting a UN pin which will allow us to use the UN phone system to call anywhere in the world at really cheap rates. So that will be a bonus. I will probably get that pin next week also.

Fridays and Saturdays are the weekend here in Sudan so we were out of training by 12:30 pm we went home got changed and a couple of us went for a walk to the Blue Nile. Our house is just northeast of the airport in Khartoum and basically south of the Blue Nile. Not much to see just some small farm plots some internally displaced persons living along the river and a couple bridges. The Blue Nile and the White Nile meet at Khartoum and form the Nile which then runs north to Egypt and the Mediterranean. We took a really long taxi ride to this hotel called the Rotana which is absolutely beautiful the kind of place you feel out of place in North America. But because you are foreigners and they are the only people that stay at the hotel you feel right at home... weird. We also visited the Canadian Forces at Canada House here in Khartoum there are about 50 DND staff in Sudan acting as UNMO's (United Nation Military Observers). It is awesome to be in the same mission as those guys. They are always glad to see you and are a wealth of information and always willing to help. My only regret from Kosovo was that there were no Canadian Forces personnel there when I was there.

Another thing that really sticks out about Sudan is the traffic in Khartoum. In one word... Holy blinkity blankity jumper muther ....!!! At first that is what you think. No one drives in the lanes on the road and most interesections don't have traffic lights. Stop signs are totally ignored. You get the impression that it is the wild wild west as far traffic laws go, but then if you look more attentively, after you stop thinking that you are going to be T-boned at every intersection, you see that in all the chaos and bedlum there are rules that are being adhered to and this is what they seem to be:
1. You only stop at a stop signs if there is a bigger vehicle approaching or one that is travelling faster than you are.
2. When you see a pedstrian crossing the road it is very important to swerve toward them so they know you are coming.
3. Instead of brakes use your horn unless it is broken then drive your car until the brakes start to squeal, only then can you use your brakes
4. When you approach a traffic circle... and there is a really big one in Khartoum...you jump into the middle because it is social hour and you wave and yell at all your friends.
5. Traffic lights, stops signs, lane markings, yeild signs, all merely suggestions.

So that's it for now. All in all Khartoum seems like a very cool city dispite the cynisism. We have built a really strong relationship with these tiny little vans they use for taxis Daewoo Damas look them up in Google and picture six or seven fully grown men piling into one. And there are a couple very good restaurants here. I have been tentativley posted to Abyei, look that up on Google, except for Heather. Heather they are sending me to Santorini... just kidding. More to come.