King Cobra!

Snakes are becoming more and more visible with the rains they come out of their holes and start moving around. We came across this cobra along the side of the road. It had been run over by a a vehicle.

OOPS!

We got bored in the office a couple days ago and we decided to go for a qick little patrol in some of the villages. We come up to a little mud puddle and I swear that it didn't look that deep.

Thanks to the expert winching capabilities of some of our collegues who just happen to be coming our way we got out.

No matter where you go, you get stuck and you draw a crowd.

Mending Broken Fences

So as of yesterday, 24Jun, I have been the acting sector commander, being the deputy that is what you do when the sector commander goes away. It has been interesting. My first full day and I had to deal with us, the UNPOL's, getting banned from going to the local police station. If we can't go there we cannot do what we came here to do. And of course the local commander knows this and uses it as a tool of influence.

It all stemmed over the local police being able to use the UN flights to travel or not. It takes days to get anywhere in this country by car and I could see how it would be of benefit to them. The problem is when some are allowed and some aren't then it gets a little tricky and it really has nothing to do with UNPOL because we don't set UN policy but we sure take the brunt of the backlash.

So we get banned this morning, almost like being BCR'd (band council resolution) off an Indian reservation in Canada but less formal and way more political, possibly international implications. Our headquarters in Khartoum finds out about it, rather quickly I might add, and the phone starts ringing. Everyone wants to know what sort of ship the new guy is running.

Thanks to a couple of very dialed in Arabic UNPOLs and some fancy foot work by our Acting Head of Office ( the civilian boss in each sector) we were able to mend the fence that the neighbour's kid broke. So we are back in action, today went really fast. Not very exciting stuff, just another day.

Checkout these clouds

Well the rainy season is officially here, there is no date or hour of the day to make the actual time, just a lot of rain, all day yesterday basically. It started in the morning and didn't stop evening. That is the first time I have seen that since I have been here and the most rain I have seen in a long time. We also got a pretty cool show in the morning before it rained. These photos were taken yesterday and the day before in the morning just before the rain started.

Take a look at the wind sock in the third photo. It's parallel to the ground and just above the containers in the bottom right hand corner of the photo.

These first two photos were taken the day before and we didn't get any rain.

The less dramatic ones brought all the precipitation.

The Heroes of UNMIS Abyei - Zambian TCC

Every sector within UNMIS has a Troop Contributing Country or TCC. They are the UN muscle. The guys with the guns who protect the unarmed UN observers. In Abyei it is the Zambian TCC and I just wanted to use this post to give tribute to all their members. They do a lot for us here in Abyei and not just the armed stuff. They also have an engineering company here who gets stuck with all the manual labour in the camp, consturction jobs, and to put it bluntly all the crap jobs, like loading and unloading cargo and luggage from the helicopter when we fly out, gathering up garbage around the camp, general maintenance, etc. The list goes on. They had their medal parade two days ago, and received their UN Peacekeeping Medal. Congratulations and Thank you.






Two months ago the Zambians also also put on "Zambian Night" where they put on a show for the whole camp, again thank you.

My Home Away From Home...Kind of

I just realized that I haven't posted any photos of my accommodations here in Abyei. These are the containers we live and the chicken that hangs around our row.

20 Minutes of rain

The chicken

The kitchen where I do my best work...... ha ha ha

I am the first one on the left C11B

Livin' life large

What Does It Feel Like To Drive Over An UXO

Ask anyone who has been driving in Abyei in the last 13 or 14 months and they can tell you exactly what it feels like to drive over an unexploded ordinance or UXO, including myself. All of us can now put it in the "been there done that" file. You are all probably wondering what in blue bloody.... is he talking about.

Well about a week ago someone discovered what they thought was a landmine right in the middle of the road just 150 metres from the entrance of our camp. So the army went and looked at it and yep it was, well not a landmine, but an unexploded mortor round. I do not exaggerate either when I say it was right in the middle of the road. The same road that goes into Abyei from the south. Everyone drives it if you are going into town. It is a dirt road and the UXO was right in the inside(right) wheel track. It obviously failed to detonate, probably last May when the big clash happened here. When they re-did the road it must have gotten bulldozed over and over time the fins started showing, I can see how it would look like a landmine. It sort of looks like one of those little ones with the fins on them, take a look at the photos.

The first picture is looking south down the road, just past the trucks on the right is the UN camp

This next photo is of the tail end of the mortar sticking up out of the ground in the road.

Close up of above photo

In answer to the question; I didn't feel anything at all.

More From Abyei

So I am still here... that is to say, I have forgotten about the blog. It has been a while since I posted anything, the reason two fold, first the web connection here has blown big time since I have been back and secondly, I am bored. Yes I know, new job why am I bored, well I am still trying to get it defined somewhat for me as to what I am going to be doing. What I think I am going to be doing is my old job most of the time and this new command position as a back up. I am not sure though. What I do know is that I am not outside doing patrols as much and being in a state of placid suspension doesn't really thrill me. I will have to change something.

So that's my job situation, blaaahhh. For now. As far as news from the area, well we are all sitting around the collective camp fire biting our nails waiting for the 22nd of July 2009. That's when I take my next CTO, and hopefully, I pray to you know who, that I am heading home for 23 days. But of course I am the only one thinking about that here. Everyone else is thinking about another milestone decision from The Hague regarding the Abyei area.

As I have said before Abyei sits smack in between what is considered Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan, basically the sides that have been at war for the past several decades. Since the signing of the peace agreement there has been a dispute as to what the boundaries of Abyei are and should be. So the decision was placed in the hands of an arbitration court in The Hague who will be announcing the decision on or around the 22nd of July 2009.

Now this is an extremely hot political potatoe and of course both sides want the decision to favour them. The problem is that there is a lot of "manuevering" on both sides to prevent the other from unilaterally deciding what the borders are going to be. Plainly Abyei is being squished by two forces that don't have a history of diplomacy with each other. Needless to say things are tense and the next month and a half is going to be quite interesting around here.

Back In Abyei

I got back to Abyei on the 04Jun so 2 days ago... with all my bags thank you very much(one of them was a little late getting to Khartoum from Frankfurt, 24 hrs to be exact). Not much has changed in Abyei in the last couple of weeks it is still sunny and hot but not as hot as in Khartoum and there hasn't been much rain.

I am gathering that "things" are slightly more tense now but calm in the area. There is another big decision coming down from The Hague. An arbitration court there will be making a decision sometime in July on a border dispute in this area. So the two sides here have been positioning themselves to respond to that decision. We will have to wait and see what that response will be.

The helicopter landed in Abyei at about 10:55 am and by 3 pm I found out that we had a new Sector Commander and a new Deputy Sector Commander. The new sector commander is a great guy easy to get along with, he is a police superintendant from Ghana and has his head in the right the spot. The problem is the new deputy sector commander... oh man this guy is going to be problems. Actually Iam just kidding around. I am the new deputy sector commander for UNMIS Sector 6 Abyei. How do like that? I have been here 2 and half months and this is my third job, hmm?? I am still doing the RR thing for now and might be for awhile, the new job took affect immediately but nothing has come down about the old one. I came over for a challenge and a challenge I have been handed. It is very exciting. I am really looking forward to working with the new boss we get along great actually he gets along great with everyone. I am always wary about stating people's names on this blog until I a have talked with them about it so for now he is the "new boss".



So I have some busy days and months ahead I am hoping keep up with the blog for the entire nine months that I am here regardless of what my job is so stay tuned folks.