Hello Again

Well I apologise because it has been a while since I have added anything here. I have been busy with work and working out.... I am so buff right now..... ha ha ha I wish. Seriously though work has been quite busy and yes I am working over here, Otis.

So what the heck do I do you might ask? Well I work in an office,.. uuugh! for Re-construction, Re-development, and Re-intigration, RRR in UN terminology. I think I have mentioned it before. So basically what I do all day long is this;

For a really short form we call it RR or rest and relaxation....ha ha

At times what we do is either monitor or commence different "Quick Impact Projects" for the local police units. What this has entailed in the past is building a new police station in a village, renovating an existing police station, supplying fuel on a short term basis for the local police so they can do their patrols,etc. We have also monitored the progress of each project, and the paperwork that goes along with it. We have built temporary police posts in villages that are within the Misseriya migration routes. These villages have been the location of some serious incidents in the past, especially at this time of the year when the nomads are starting to make their way back north. Some of the incidents invovled stealing, shootings, and general harassment. So the police post are meant as a deterrant and a sense of security for the villagers.

Another big project that we have monitored and I say monitor but in reality what we do is put in reports on a daily basis of what is happening with the project and keep all the paperwork and make sure all the money gets to the right people, is building a communication system for the local police. This project has just started with the construction phase and installing of antennae towers. The epuipment has been supplied by a German developement firm. There is so much that can be done here and you actually get to see something accomplished when the project is complete. There is a rush to get as much done as we can now ecause the rainy season is upon us and when the rain starts all else stops. I am told that we have had a break here because apparently by now we should be well into the rains, but we haven't had any substantial rainfall since the end of April when everything got blown away. So we wait and try to get as much done as we can.

So basically that's what I have been doing for the last couple weeks is trying to get my head around the ins and outs of the new digs. The RR office in Abyei is myself, a Zambian officer, and a Jordanian officer. The Zambian is getting transfered to another team site, so we are wishing him well in his future endeavours. We have a temporary liaison officer assigned to the team to oversee the communication project. He is from the Phillipines.

Our office is basically one of 11 computers in a large room that serves as our team site, our sector HQ, training office, personnel and logistics office and briefing room. Abyei is unique from other sectors in that it really doesn't have any outlying posts or teamsites. The UN in this sector is restricted to a very small part of what our actual sector is. The reason for the restriciton which comes from the Sudanese government is for internal security. So where in other sectors they have sector HQ in one spot along with all it's sub offices, like training and RR and then there are team sites spread throughout the sector in different villages and towns, in Abyei everything is in one location.

My colleagues in this sector/teamsite are of course from everwhere you can think of, Australia, Nigeria, Philipines, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwae, Namibia, Ghana, Fiji, Turkey and India, pretty cool. I am trying to collect police shoulder patches from all of them. Here is a photo of some of us.