Home Again! Home Again!

That is if I survive the paperwork to get me there. More forms, MOPs and security clearances and stamps and signatures and maybe on the 21Jul I will be leaving Abyei for a nice long trip home, 23 days. I actually don't fly out of Sudan until the 24Jul at 0115 am and get to Toronto at 3:45 pm local time. So this will be the last post from Abyei. Hope I see more of you this time around. maAa assalama.

Here Is A Little Contest For A Special Prize

If anyone can guess what this picture is of I will give them a prize but you have to be the person to post or email me with the right answer. The prize is a surprise.

Abyei Turns Green With A Bit of Rain

The only problem is that the water just sits there and stagnates in the heat. It doesn't drain away because the land is so flat as you can see.

The Biggest Helicopter In the World Mi-26

With the big announcement from the PCA in The Hague about the Abyei borders coming up next week (22Jul) the UN has been trying to prepare itself for any contingency. So basically Abyei UNMIS is getting full attention of the UN. Everything is being bolstered and upgraded. So we went from one helicopter flight a day maybe two, to four sometimes five a day. The other day this behemoth landed with all sorts of stuff in the back.

SCORPIONS

Found this little critter in my container a couple nights ago.

The First Vice President of Sudan Visits Abyei

Mr. Salva Kiir is the First Vice President of Sudan. He is also the President of the Government fo South Sudan. It's complicated but trust me he is a very popular man like I mentioned before and there were thousands of people out to see him, including some international police officers. I was able to get into a line up to be greeted by him but he met one person at the beginning of the line and then took off. Oh well it was a nice try. Here are some photos. WARNING!!!!! The very last photo is of a cow being sacrificed, not for the squeamish or young ones. There are nine Dinka chiefdoms/clans and they sacrificed nine cows infront of Mr. Kiir as a sign of unity. It was all part of the festivities. But beware, the photo is quite graphic, it is the very last photo in this set.

It was another one of those very cultural things there was lots of dancing

Lots of people

Lots of Toyota Landcruisers

Lots of security

And your token OPP police officer, as well as 1 Jordanian, 3 Filipinos, 2 Nigerians, 2 Zimbabweans, 1 Turk, 2 Yemenis, and I think my Canadian counterpart was somewhere around the big crowd.

And last but not least lots of dead cows, 9 to be exact

The Countdown Is On

Well it is less that two weeks now to the announcement from the PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration) in the Hague that settles once and for all the disputed borders of the Abyei Roadmap Area.

Because of this impending ruling UNMIS in Abyei has taken a more robust stance. It is now using APC's to patrol the area, sending them out to the populated centres as well as in Abyei itself.

In addition to a stronger military presence there is a lot more dignitary presence in Abyei. Almost everyday from now until the final date for the decission is filled with VIP's and upper echelon types arriving in the area. Yesterday it was the UN SRSG from Khartoum, he is the head guy for the whole mission, the UNITED NATIONS representative/envoy in Sudan. Today it was the South Sudanese President and VP of GOS (Government of Sudan) Mr. Salva Kiir, a very popular figure with the people in this area. From what I understand he well respected by both sides in Sudan. And of course with these figures comes reems of assistants and what-nots.

So it goes without saying that the last week or so has been very busy. I have been at the office responding to questions on email from the brass (and you can drop the first two letters if you want) on things that we send daily, weekly and quarterly reports on until all hours of the night.

Anyways regardless of all the hours I spend staring at Lotus Notes, yeach!, and typing emails and hitting send, or answering questions on the phone, or running to meetings that I have no idea what they are about (every meeting has an acronym that not many people know the meaning of.. I have asked..ASC, ASC(that's not a typo there are two of them), PoC, SMM, AJMC, ASMT, CJMC, AWSG, ACG) and these are the ones that I am not invited to, just kidding, but I do know what they all stand for. Despite running around doing all this "stuff" that really isn't me, it is quite amazing to be part of something so important and historical, and I am at the helm, so to speak because the actual Sector Commander is away on holidays. It's a small ship in a huge armada but here I am staring across the bow spit at all these huge waves, and it's ok... so far. I think. And above all it is still exciting.

The Canadian Medal Parade

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Canada's 142 nd birthday.

The Canadian Sudanese Contigent received their UN medals today.