One thing is for sure...

...if I get the job in Juba I'll have to mount my internet dongle on a pole, above my container.

The meta boxes are packed much tighter in Juba than they are in Yei, so the tricks that work in Yei wont work here (like sitting next to a window. So there was no blogpost yesterday, and my email keeps timing out on me - and no office computer to use either.

Other than that gripe, yesterday was okayish. Boring, yes, but otherwise nothing special to report.

Just hanging out in Juba

Juba, largest city in South Sudan! Fastest growing city in Africa!  And nothing to do but wait!

Lets be frank - it don't matter where you are, without a car you go nowhere. And today at least I have no car and no one who has the time to take me anywhere. I have gotten accommodations, which by itself is pretty good going in Juba (but then again, I'm here on official business), and even if it's a shared room it looks like it'll be shared by me alone. Getting my Eee connected to the internet was a test of patience, but not due to any trouble with my Eee - the machine in the other end wasn't responding. The funny thing is that now I'm up and running it isn't any faster than then the 'net in Yei, despite this being a 3.5G network and Yei struggles to give me an EDGE connection. Off course, it could be due to me being inside a Faraday cage here, while I'm having my internet-dongle on the outside in Yei. I must speak to the local denizens to find out what speeds they are getting on average.

Other than getting my little 'puter online, the afternoon have been spent reading ("The Grand Design", by Stephen Hawkings) and trying to prepare for tomorrows interview with the Sector Commander. The later would off course be much easier if I knew what he would ask about.. or if he just want to have a chat to see if we're compatible. The UNMO-Coordinator works very closely with the Sector Commander and as such they must be able to work together. Luckily I seem able to work well with anyone who isn't an idiot, and you wouldn't be picked to be the SecCom if you ain't smart. Should work out just fine I think... I have come to the realization that even if I would like to stay in Yei, an opportunity like this don't come by too often and I really should try to grab it with both hands. Would look good in my CV later too...

It is about time for me to start thinking about getting ready for dinner. Apparently most of the Norwegians / Scandinavians meet for dinner in the big tukul most evenings. Convenient for me, since I have brought no food with me here. Breakfast and lunch can also be bought, and tomorrow afternoon I'll see about getting a ride to pick up some odds and ends in Juba town.

The wonders of the internet

I'm in South Sudan and I'm in the process of ordering something to be delivered to my better half in Norway from a craftsman in Florida.

Internet, how did we manage without it? Just asking...

Back in Khartoum

The UN handles passengers on their flight much like any other cargo: in an ad-hoc fashion. Forget stuff like public announcements in the lounge, any facilities in said lounge and assigning seats in advance... then it wouldn't be chaotic enough. But, just like the other cargo, you will arrive at our designation, on time and with your luggage. Perhaps other airlines could learn a thing or two from the UN in that regard?

I got back to the Norwegian House, and walked straight into a welcome dinner. Apparently the AdmOff and the two others who live in the house permanently though it so nice to have visitors again that they pulled out all the stops - fresh salad, rice, chicken and beef on the barbie, the works. Makes me happy to be back here, just for a few days.

Training starts tomorrow at 0900, meaning I get to sleep in. And that means I can take advantage of the good internet at the Norwegian House to finally get the videos from the Hindu festival last Sunday uploaded - stay tuned!

Other things also happen

It occurred to me that the last few posts have been about big things... but many other things happens too:

• On Monday another Norwegian arrived, doubling the number of 'weges down here and increasing the number of Scandinavians by 50%.
• Monday was also the day I functioned as a Air Liaison Officer - which is good since I'm going to Khartoum next week to get the three day course I need to function as one...
• Tuesday quite a few of the 'white' people in Yei meet to celebrate one of our numbers birthday at an Ethiopian restaurant - and ended up hanging around, drinking beer and shooting the shit for about two hours because it rained too much to even think about navigating the roads in town.
• Today - Wednesday - some of us went out the gate and down the road to the left, because we realized none of us had ever gone on town patrol in that direction. We stopped at a place called IRIS Ministries Orphanage, and meet a handful of people trying to do the right thing on a limited budget without much in the way of evangelizing. If / when I see them again I'll look into what I can do to help them out.
• After we had left the orphanage, we hit a patch of not good road - and had to enlist the locals to help dig us out, while most of the kids in the area was staring slack-jawed at the white man.
• I have learned - first hand - that white UN vehicles turn a nice tan colour after hitting a patch of not good road.
• Despite being sent to Khartoum on official training, I still don't know if there is room for me to stay in Juba on my way there - and I leave on Friday and have to be in Juba until Sunday.
• And I found out that while my Eee is almost too underpowered to use the new internet donge under WinXP, PuppEee Linux not only detected me plugging it in but got me online in less time than it takes to boot into WinXP.

So yes, other stuff also happens in Yei.

Arrived Yei safe and sound

Remember that wireless Internet? The one that the ISP swore up and down would work 100% in South Sudan?

Turns out it dont work quite that well... or at all. I'm peeved, but there isn't much to do about it for now other than borrowing a UN computer when I need to go online.

However, to learn this factoid, I had to travel to South Sudan - which is where I am now; safe, sound and with a full tummy. Team Site Yei is a small teamsite - a mere sozen UNMOs now that I'm here, a company of Dorce Protection, some UNPOL (UN Police) and some other odds and ends. The Team Site Leader is a dane, and quite happy to see another scandinavian face - he's been on his own for a couple of months and was longing for someone from his own cultural background to talk to.

Yei town itself is smallish, but large - pretend that it makes sence. Mostly brick buildings, with a handfull of mud huts thrown in for colouration. The roads are... well, the roads aren't. Mostly they are potholes, bumps, mudholes, small creeks from the last rain or parked cars. Off course, with roads like that even getting to the market means navigating an off road course - complete with other cars, bikes, donkeys and pedestrians. I think I'll be extremly hard pressed to break the speedlimit for UN vehicles...

For now, I've been assigned a temporary container to sleep in. A more permanent residence will become avilable soon - by the weekend at least. But even the temporary container is decent, it's mostly lacking the frigde, a second chair and a little garden in front of it to be up to the standard of the permant accomendations. Once I've been assigned a new place, I'll start working on sproucing it up.

The TSL - Team Site Leader - showed me one of the local eateries for dinner today; one of about four or five he would consider decent enought for a scandinavian to eat at. No menues, since what they have avilable changes depending on what was at the marked earlier in the day. Today they had a lot: beef, chicken orgoat, served with your choice of french fries or rice.

And yes, goat with fries was pretty tasty. Cheap too, a full plate with drinks (coke in glass bottles!) was a little less than half what we paid in Khartoum.

It's been a long time. I'll try to get some pictures of the Team Site uploaded tomorrow.

Once again, Yay internets!

It was a couple of days tracking down information, but we found a ISP that supplies mobile internetwebs in the part of Sudan I'm heading too in the morning.

Reasonable cheap too - 90 Sudanese pound a month, and since I prepaid three months in advance, I got the dongle for free. The installation was simple enough, and the surfing speed is quite good (I'm posting this using my shiny new dongle). The downside so far is that I have to use it under WinXP, which runs slowly on my Eee - mostly because I am running it off a USB stick. I guess finding our how to run it either under PuppEee OS or the Xandros my Eee shipped with is my long term mission - if I choose to accept it.

More later - it's time to do the last of the packing.