Stoopid 'net

It is kind of amazing, but never the less through: My internet connection worked better in Yei - which is at the back of the beyond - than it has the last few days in Juba - which is the largest and most modern city in South Sudan. Most likely it has a lot to do with the near explosive growth Juba have experienced; the building of infrastructure don't manage to keep pace with the growth in users.

In a couple more days it won't matter anymore, at least not for me. Tomorrow afternoon we'll be heading to the airport, and the day after I'll be in Norway. We'll be picked up from the airport, given a quick medical checkout and debrief before we're free to go home - with a bit of luck I'll be home for dinner.

The very last day of my mission

Today was the last official day of my mission in South Sudan, and it was a day full of frustration - mostly because the lock on the door to my door decided to break, and break in such a way as to prevent me from getting the door open. It took seven (!) hours for the landlord to send someone over to fix it, so my entire schedule for the day got messed up majorly.

My boxes and bags are repackages again, this time inventoried and signed off. Now I just need a cargo number from the UN, and I can hand them over to the AdmOff for further processing. Without the UN cargo number it can be months before I see them again... I found it better to get everything sorted out today, just in case.

I also got a bad case of travel fever.  A couple of days ago I would happily have stayed on a couple months more, now I can't wait to get home.

End of Mission Barbecue

Yesterday was pretty busy - we had a "going away barbecue" in the Norwegian House, and everyone had a task to do (and most volunteered for a lot more along the way).

Backing up a couple of steps: While the FHQ - and thus the Norwegian House - was in Khartoum it was a tradition that when a group of UNMOs / SOs had their End Of Mission held a more-or-less formal dinner at a high end restaurant, with speeches, handing over of medals, toasts* and so on and so forth.

Fast forward to the present day: FHQ has relocated to Juba,  therefore the Norwegian House has as well. And while there is plenty of pretty good restaurants in Juba, there isn't any that we're aware of that offers the requisite combination of good dining, privacy for a large group and reasonable cost**.

Logical solution: Do it ourselves - we're officers and UNMOs/MLOs and therefore fully capable of organizing something out of nothing.

A barbecue was borrowed, coal bought, enough food and drinks for 20 or so hungry 'weges was hunted down from a cross section of the shops and markets in Juba. My task was - along with a couple of others - to put meat and fowl on the barbecue and make sure it didn't turn into carbon... off course, I couldn't resist doing a bit more than that. So in the morning I joined forces with the group that went shopping for drinks and vegetables, then I pitched in a bit in the kitchen before I lent a hand in setting up the barbecue.

The barbecue was a rousing success. Enough food, enough drinks, and lots of happy faces. Speeches were made, medals handed out to everyone found deserving - in other words, everyone who have been in the mission for long enough - and most people were still hanging out and talking well past midnight. Lets just say Im getting a hunch it won't be the last barbecue in the New Norwegian House.

*) In Khartoum, toasts were done with non-alcoholic drinks off course.
**) Seeing as how the going-away-party is a semi-official occasion, it is paid for by the Norwegian House - which ultimately means it's paid for by our tax-money.

Last working day of the mission

Yes, I did in fact get my package today - one "under armour" shirt (a cool-max t-shirt torso with uniform jacket sleeves) and one envelope with a birthday letter and a small present from my parents! Only took it about three months to get to me... way to go, MovCon. Fair is fair though, a lot of the delay was due to a severe lack of forward planning from UN.

Most of the morning was spent sipping coffee in the cafeteria down in Camp, waiting for our tickets and travel authorizations to come through - which they haven't so far. So me and some of the others decided to give up and return on Monday, walking back to the Norwegian House and have a simple lunch. Even though Sunday is technically our last day in the mission, getting into camp should be no trouble at all.

Tomorrow we're going to have a farewell party for the six of us that are going home, so this afternoon we'll have to go shopping.

Almost tangible package

In the continuing saga about my box I can report almost tangible results... while I didn't find it while I visited MovCon LogBase today, they called me pretty much as soon as I got back to the Norweigan House and told me they had found it and had put it aside for me. As an added bonus I spotted a bag one of the other Norwegians have been hunting for since June as well, so that's a win-win. We're both getting our long missed stuff tomorrow morning!

I was also told today that our tickets have been booked; leaving next Wednesday and flying much the same route to Norway as I did the last time I was on leave. So while it might been fun to have gone via Entebbe and cross out yet another country from my list of places to go, it's even nicer not having to learn the layout of yet another airport I won't come back to anytime soon. And I'll get to pick up a few souvenirs from Ethiopia as well... just like I'm planning to pick up a couple of t-shirts from South Sudan tomorrow or Monday.

Been a sort of lazy Wednesday

Only... not really. Yes; I didn't get too much done today, but getting it done took a lot of footwork. I started trying to track down my package I started out at MovCon down at the terminal, then wandered off to the MovCon office in the main camp before waking all the way over to the Logistics Base on the outskirts of camp... and then I had to go through several lists of stuff that just arrived from Juba on paper ("Computers? What computers?")...

Got lucky though; my box IS in Juba, but the container it is in arrived last Friday and have yet to be unpacked. And since it was stacked on top of two others... They will unearth it for me though, so I can pick it up tomorrow after lunchtime. I'm excited - apparently one of the things in the box is a birthday present from my parents.

After doing that, and having lunch with the other Norwegians in the tukul, I came to the realization that  I didn't want to sit around in camp until the others were done at work... so I walked up to the Norwegian House. 2.59km done in 28 minutes, on dusty and muddy dirt roads, surrounded by the locals, a burning sun in a cloudless sky, and around 40 degrees Celsius - my uniform was soaked with sweat when I arrived. Welcome to Afria - I'm most assuredly not from around here.

Checked out - more or less

In the great UNMISS scavenger hunt for signatures I'm done - a check out that "should" take five working days finished in two. Being organised and having all my papers in order helped immensely off course, since that meant I didn't have to spend the time calling the Team Site and have them send me this, that and the other.

So I'm done walking around in the heat for now; only thing I got to do tomorrow is to head down to MovCon and hunt for that package that was sent to me in middle of June... with luck, it's here in Juba and not in Khartoum still.

The GPS track from my check out, click to make bigger. The main gate for the UN camp is in the bottom right corner. The outside temperature yesterday and today was around 35-36 Celsius... great weather to be walking on concrete paths among metal buildings!

Started to check out

Most of today was spend chasing signatures and proving that the stuff I had singed over was in fact signed over - or in one cause, actually handed over to me in the first place. Got quite a bit of it done though, so I'll probably be finished checking out well before the end of the week. Won't get me home any sooner though...

Later we went for dinner at a local place owned by a Norwegian of all people, and had some pretty damn good pizza. I think it's the best pizza I've had in Sudan so far, North or South.

Drive through Juba and lunch by the Nile - the movie

The video is just long enough for a coffee break, so enjoy.

Lazy sunday

I got to play tourist today in Juba; first a few of us went down to the Nile (which is a river in Egypt, but more so in Sudan and South Sudan) for lunch on the riverbank. Afterwards we headed over to the Norwegian Embassy for a dip in the pool and some sunbathing, which is the first (!) time I've sunbathed since I arrived in Sudan last year. After all that we were so worn out we had to stop on the road back to the Norwegian House for another pizza...

Yeah, a lazy, touristy kind of day.

Which is kinda funny because ten years ago on the day I was also in a touristy mood, having just gotten off the flight to Thailand and all... just got to my hotel room, dumped down on the bed and decided to channel surf while relaxing on the bed for a bit - it was a loooong flight from Norway to Phuket Beach. The third or fourth channel was CNN - and they were reporting that about five minutes previously an aircraft had crashed into the World Trade Center. Not a good start on my vacation...

Ten years is a long time... and I did have a good vacation in Thailand, just as I had a good day today. If the internet cooperates there will be a video up tomorrow morning.

Shopping in Juba

Due to a severe shortage of coffee - the fuel that makes Norwegians tick - some of the guys staying in the Norwegian House went on an expedition over to JIT supermarket in downtown Juba, most also taking the opportunity to grab some food for the next few days. In my cause, I picked up a pre-sliced bread and a jar of peanut butter, in addition to some crackers and a couple of cup noodles.

On our way back, we made a stop at the Juba Wood Market. The prices were decent and the selection was good, so I picked up a couple of souvenirs.

The New Norwegian House still have a few teething problems, mostly caused by the fact that most of the items from the Old Norwegian House still haven't made it down here. Even so it's a comfortable place to hang out and talk to other Norwegians, getting me used to taking my mother tongue again...

Back in Juba

Been a long day... for some reason I woke up at five in the morning and figured I might as well just get up and get the last few things packed - even if I did take the time to give AC a good brushing and put the last few cat treats in a bow outside my door.

The helicopter arrived a little before it's normal time, but both me, the other Norwegian, the resident Canadian (going on leave) and one of my MLOs (also going on leave) were ready, so it didn't matter. despite the huge boxes that contain everything I own in Yei, we got the helicopter loaded and off the ground.

Juba is much the same as last time I was in town - warmer and muggier than Yei, and more expensive too. The Norwegian House is so full right now that I I have to borrow a room of a fellow officer who happen to be on CTo right now.

It was very emotional and touching to Leave Yei for the last time - but at the same time it is really nice to be going home for good - or at least for this time around.

Once more in Juba

The flights were... okay. Not great, but not horrible by any stretch of the imagination. Mostly they were just boring...
First leg from Oslo to Frankfurt introduced me to the worlds laziest sandwich as the airline food: A miniature sub with margarine on, served with coffee, tea or softdrink of your choice. Small wonder I hit McDonalds at the airport to get something a bit more substantial in my belly before the next leg of the journey...
Frankfurt to Adis Ababa was a code share flight, so instead of Lufthansa I got to fly with Ethiopian Air. The upside of that is that since their planes are slightly older, they have the older style seating - which is a lot more comfortable when you turn a row of three into a makeshift bed. I got several hours of decent sleep out of that without getting a kink in my neck. Most enjoyable - even if I missed out on the onboard breakfast.
That turned out to be a very minor issue though - along with two fellow officers (one German, one from New Zealand) I had some pizza in the terminal while waiting for the turboprop to take us the last leg to Juba.
That last leg was uneventful until arrival... for some reason my bag was put aside for extra inspection, something which lasted until I mentioned that I was with the UN. At that point any interest in  my bag disappeared like the morning dew, and I could go out and meet with the AdmOff who drove me back to the Norwegian House where a bed was waiting.
The Norwegian House still isn't fully operational, for instance the kitchen is still not up to spec. So dinner today will - I'm informed - be Thai food at a good restaurant. And then I will go to bed and sleep like a log...

Photos of the New Norwegian House

I've been a little slow updating my blog the last few days - but then again, I've been very busy being on leave!

As I was transferring files from my camera to the network storage on our home network, I came across the photos I snapped of the new Norwegian House in Juba. As mentioned, the term "house" is now a misnomer; it is actually a nice little compound. It contains a guard hut, a utility building, two accommodation buildings and the main building with offices, living room and kitchen.

 Bedrooms will now be one occupant only - unless you drag in collapsible field beds. Next to the bed, just out of the shot, is a small fridge and a wardrobe.

 Each room also features a proper desk and office chair, and as far as I understood a TV hooked up to the basic cable for those late night shows - also known as "can't get to sleep nights".

 In addition each room has it's own attached bath - no more queuing up in line first thing in the morning.

 A view from the middle of the compound. From the left: Guard hut. laundry room, two storage rooms, sheets drying, the car of the cable installer and the end of one of the accommodation buildings.

 The front of the main building. Living room windows on the left.

 From the left: Accommodation building, the back gate, the second accommodation building and the main building. The plastic chair under the tree is where the guard sits when it's too warm in his little hut.

 A better view of the accommodations. The opposite side is identical, giving a total of 14 rooms on the compound. One is set aside for exercise machinery and a second is the room where the cleaning crew can relax as well as store linens. So a total of 12 Norwegians can stay in the compound at any given time, which should be plenty of space.

 The living room. A little sparse so far, but considering the compound is barely finished that's to be expected.

 Another view of the living room. The kitchen can be seen through the opening in the wall - allowing whoever is doing the cooking to watch TV at the same time.

 The kitchen. Like the rest of the compound not quite finished when I visited. I'm quite curious to see what changes there are when I swing by on my return to Yei.

The stove was put in just hours before I snapped this photo... maybe when I come back it'll be plugged in so it works?

Almost home

The bags are packed, ticket and passport in my pocket and al I have left to do is wait. In a few hours time I'll be in Addis Ababa for the first time in my life, and just before midnight local time I'll be airborne and heading for Frakfurt. I'll arrive in Germany right around the crack of dawn, so it'll be nice to have almost two and a half hour there to grab some real food (the breakfast they servein the air don't count) and maybe do a little window shopping - one of my nepaese friends made a request on behalf of his son that I would like to honour>

The fight onward from Frankfurt to Oslo should only take two hours, which means that even taking into consideration the drive from the airport I wi be home around lunchtime. I must admit that I look forward to being home again... it's been about three months.

Quiet time in Juba

It has been a quiet day in Juba. The paperwork I was waiting for dumped into my in-box shortly after I got up, so I didn't have to go the UN camp to find it. With the day free, I ended up being the Acting Admin Officer's Assistant; in other words I helped keeping an eye on the local contractors installing the access points and the basic cable.

Later I went out with the acting AdmOff to procure various items... like a dozen lawn chairs and other outdoor furniture, as well as three Jerry cans worth of diesel for the generator. Later today we'll likely head out for dinner - yesterday I had a Chicago Beef, so I'm not sure what I'll have today. Depends where we're going I guess.

Tomorrow I'm out of here. I can hardly wait!

New Norwegian House

The term "Norwegian House" has become somewhat of a misnomer... It's more of a "Norwegian Compound". Four major buildings in a large and fairly new compound, complete with armed guards and concertina wire along the top of the outer wall. The biggest building contains the offices, kitchen and livingroom, with a second small living room if people can't agree on what to watch on the TV. There is two smaller buildings with 8 and 6 bedrooms respectively;  eah with an attached bathroom. Lastly there is the utility building which have a laundry room, storage room and the technical room.
It is still a state of "just moved in" down here, but I've gotten one of the furnished rooms to use while I'm here.

Tomorrow I will take some photos and see if I can't get them online - in addition to getting back to the UN compound and get some more face time in with various people. If I have to spend a day in Juba, at least I can try to be marginally productive about it.

Sore, but worth it

Today was the day of the Big Welfare Tour - three cars, eight guys and 150 km of bad road each way. We we're out of the Team Site for almost ten and a half hour, and only a little more than three of those hours were spent in Juba.

Well worth the long drive and the sore back though; I got to talk to a lot of people who so far have been voices on the phone, did a bit of shopping at the PX and had a huge cheeseburger with chips for lunch.

 The mountain right behind Juba; lots of small quarries suppling the booming construction industry in town. Large rocks are turned into smaller rocks by people beating on them with large hammers. Sounds unbelievable, but I saw it with my own two eyes.

 A nice anvil-shaped cloud. Lots of those around, but not often I get to capture one on film.

 The less pretty side of a growing city; there is no official landfill, the dump trucks simply drive "far enough" out into the countryside and dump their loads.

 A bit further along the road back to Yei; grass so tall you can't tell what's behind it.

 Making a quick pit-stop on the road - the lady in the photo is a new UNPOL who asked to hitch a ride with us as opposed to waiting in Juba until the flight on Friday.

My haul from the PX - not a lot for such a long trip, but then we didn't travel to Juba just to go shopping.

Helicopter flight from Juba to Yei - the movie.

It's getting close to a month since I came down here from my last leave, and I haven't gotten around to creating and uploading this before now; it's a video of the flight between Juba and Yei. A bit shaky in parts, but that's due to being filmed with a small hand held video camera held through the open window of a Russian helicopter - built like a tank but with no though for comfort. Video is a mix of stills and moving images, and is 22 minutes long; bring coffee.

Very busy day

Lets face it - I'm pretty beat right now.

This morning I had to make sure all the various papers and plans were ready for the G1 before I went on leave, and we had a meeting in the Welfare Committee to make sure everything would run smoothly with the Chairman (one of the Canadian UNPOLs) and the Treasurer (me) both away from the Team Site...

...that meeting was cut short by the helicopter arriving an hour or so before it's usual time, meaning we had to bolt. Once in Juba, the rest of the day was even busier - while mostly sitting still. While the Contingent Meeting was very interesting, with the Norwegian Senior informing us of what the current plan for the mission after 9th July is, the main reason we were gathered has been a little more hush-hush.... I'll talk about it when the news hits the media, but let it be sufficient to say right now that it involved a lot of sitting still in a variety of not to comfortable chairs. Still, even if I'm stiff and sore and not done - have another half day of it tomorrow - it have been interesting, informative and hopefully will be for the best.