Abyei! Abyei! Abby Yeah!!!

Well everyone I got to my post in Abyei yesterday and confirmed my intel that the internet here is very sketchy. I have only been able to post one short post so far but I have so much more to share with you, and as I type this I can see that my connection is going again so I am not sure if I will even get this posted.

To me Abyei is Africa... Khartoum seems like the middle east it doesn't look like what I stereotypically think of when I think of Africa. Khartoum and the north of Sudan is all desert. From the air it is a brownish red puncuated by spots of beige and scared by dried up water courses. The city itself is quite big and you can't help niavely slipping into thoughts of the sea and beaches given all the palm trees that line the boulevards and yards. As you fly south you notice a shift in the landscape from red to an olive, and almost khaki appearance and from 20,000 feet it almost looks like military combat pattern with dark spots here and there in some places and everywhere in others that are villages and towns. Keep going further south and you start seeing more and more vegetation. It starts out in the dried up river beds then patches appear on different coloured soil than the red stuff that still persists until suddenly south a good sized river it all changes. As we touched down in Kadugli, where we changed flights, the hills and mountains there reminded me of the southwestern US like Nevada. There is abundant vegetation but it is incredibly dry.

The red earth returns in Abyei, it is everywhere and like talcum powder. It gets into everything especially electronics and sticks to your clothes and shoes and your sweaty face because it is very hot here. I know I have made that statement before but the tempurature here is atleast 10 maybe 15 degrees hotter than in Khartoum and at night it doesn't change. 9:30 pm we left the canteen on the UN base, (everyone that is working for the UN and is a foreigner stays on the UN base there is nowhere else to stay if you were crazy enough to want to) and you are struck in the face with the hottest wind. You only cool down when you sweat or you go into an airconditioned room. Thankfully just about everywhere on the base has a/c.

The people in this region are Ngok Dinka for the most part. They have very black features, the blackest I have every seen and they are on average quite tall and slim. So far the only dwellings that I have seen are what they call tukul, (spelling... someone help?) pronounced too cool and you drop the "L" at the end. Basically mud or stone and wood huts usually round in shape covered with a straw thatched roof. There is no plumbing or electricity at any of the houses and some of the richer people have 6 foot straw walls around their yards. There is dust everywhere. The main road that goes from Abyei to Agok to the south is dirt and when the rainy season hits in about a month will be impassable.

The vegetation here is abundant but the trees are not very tall not like in a forest, but more like bush and they are brown. I am told that in the rainy season everything is green... and brown of course, you cannot forget the mud. You eat, breath and sleep with it.

As far as wild life goes so far we have seen a pair of baboons. They are big and strong and sometimes apparently they can get quite cocky. If approached sometimes they point at you with their index fingers. They also start slapping trees or the ground as if to say... "come and get some!" I think I saw one doiong donuts in a parking lot in a red Pontiac Trans Am with flames down the sides. Ha Ha.!

Well I have a lot more to share with everyone but I have to try to save this somehow and start with a new post. I also have some photos to share so stay tuned.