Shooting the shit

Yet one of those slow, yet busy days.

Todays big issue was sending two of my MLOs to Bor for a two week temporary assignment - luckily for me the two fellows I wanted to send (because they are trustworthy and reliable) were more than happy to go; the lure of seeing a different part of South Sudan was too strong to resist.

The downside off course is that this leaves us with just enough people in the Team Site to conduct Town Patrols... even if I think we will manage to slip in a Welfare Patrol to Juba a few days before my Norwegian friend and I are to leave Yei to go to Check Out.

Later in the evening my Norwegian friend and I was hanging out down at the Blue with the resident Canadian, shooting the shit and in general having a good time. It's really nice to have some "neutral territory" like the Blue to hang out at; while we can (and do) visit each other for coffee and a chat it is subtly different to have a place which is no-ones home turf.

Farewell party for UNPOL

Four of our UNPOL friends are leaving us - read: are being repatriated - on Friday. Sadly, among them is one of my good Canadian friends. So yesterday evening the UNPOLs threw a farewell party for them, and even if most people left as soon as the free food and drinks were gone, the two Canadians and I ended up hanging out in the Blue until almost midnight... basically just shooting the shit, having a few beers and complaining about the way we are moving from one mission (UNMIS) to the next (UNMISS).

Also yesterday, five of my UNMOs got their marching orders for Friday as well. One of them - the other Norwegian - got the message that he should stay in the Team Site anyway less than five minutes later, and the rest we will probably be able to put off until Monday. That would be good; not only will people have more time to pack and transfer responsibilities, but if four UNMOs and four UNPOLs with all their belongings were to cram themselves into one helicopter... overload for sure.

National Staff Separation Celebration Party

A good thing cannot be celebrated enough - so while the Welfare Committee arranged a party on Saturday, the National Staff Association arranged for a second party on Sunday... with food, music, speeches and the works. And off course they hadn't bought enough drinks, so we had to open the bar halfway through the party... by the time we closed the bar again (at one in the morning) we were sold out of everything except the hard liquor.

 The MC for the evening was one of our language assistants.

 Many people wanted to tell us how happy they are to live in their own country.

Our BanBat doctor, relating how he vividly remembers when his country achieved independence.

Dancing with joy.

 More dancing.

 Still dancing.

Yes, still at it - their drum was an upside down garbage bin.

Another video of the dancing.

 And so on.

 They kept going - even if dancers came and went, the dance kept going.

 Apparently the broken off branches symbolise something or other... but no one could tall me what.

 Last of the dancers.

 Parties is for everyone, even if we're fast asleep on Mummys back.

 Lots of people.

 We had to move the foosball table outdoors, but people played at it anyhow.

 Just some shots of the crowds

 It was a nice evening with no rain for once.

 Lots of people indoors too.

 The DJ - African music all night, turned up so high that the speaker sounded like crap.

Didn't stop people from dancing though.

Celebration in the Blue

Saturday we had a Independence Party in the Blue, with lots of food, music and happy people. Started out with a nice bonfire too... Quite successful, and just the first of two we had this weekend. Pictures of Sundays party tomorrow.

Birthday party!

It has been a very different birthday... not a bad one, since I've been with people I like, but different since I haven't been with people I love (in other words, my better half and the rest of my family).

I simply invited everyone I could reach down to the Blue, but it turned out most of the NGOs are pulling their people back to Juba for the separation weekend so the only one who came were the UNMOs, the Major from BanBat*, the two Canadian UNPOLs and two good friends working with ZOA**. Hopefully more people will show up on Saturday when we have a Separation Party. We did have a good evening though; talking, drinking, eating snacks and playing foosball while listing to music. And even if I told people ahead of time that I wanted no presents (bring a friend instead), I did end up getting a few... and was most touched by the care and thoughts expressed with them.

 Most of my team - and I really do think of them as "my" team; when I took over as TSL I also accepted the responsibility for more than just the running of the Team Site. From bottom right and clockwise: Peru, Nepal, Norway, Benin, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Norway and Peru again.

 Spot the photographer; in the upper right, Russia. The last guy from Sierra Leone and the other Russian was a little late in arriving.

 The Commander of the Bangladesh Force Protection brought a card and flowers. More on those later...

 Just hanging out, venting some frustrations over a few drinks.

 You tell people "no presents", and this is what you end up with... a bottle of vodka from the Peruvians (who wished they could have found me something more unique), a bottle of high end Indian Whisky^ and a tourist pamphlet from Benin, as well as the flowers and card from BanBat. In addition I got one more thing - more about that later.

 The card from BanBat - very touching, even more so since I didn't expect it.

 BanBat definitely have someone with an artistic touch working for them.

 Such sweet guys... I would never received something like this from a Norwegian Force Protection Unit. Don't get me wrong, I would have gotten a card - but not like this one.

 And yes, it's all hand made. Cut, paste and draw by hand - the entire thing. Coloured in by magic markers and ballpoints.

 The flowers looks lovely, and are picked fresh today. They look great next to my laptop, and I do hope putting them in water like this will make them stay fresh until tomorrow so I can take them down to the office and have on my desk there.

The last gift was given by one of my Nepalese friends; the Lord Buddha was born in Nepal, as I'm sure everyone knows, and this small replica of a famous Buddha statue was procured from the small gift shop at his birthplace. It's supposed to also be a good luck talisman as well as a very nice present.

Overall a very different, but pleasant way to spend my birthday. And as an added bonus my guys got to vent a bit of frustration in a setting that was calm, relaxed and not work-related. It's win-win, really.

*) I really like this guy; while on LDP we spend an entire evening discussing philosophy.
**) for more about ZOA, see here.
^) A bit of googling seems to indicate that this is a real whisky made from malt - unlike a number of Indians "whiskys" that are made from fermented molasses...

Some things are certain...

...like the fact that the Blue - our bar / staff club - is fast becoming a very popular place for both people inside and outside the UN to hang out. Yesterday we suddenly found ourselves with not just the normal crew (all four), but also with a number of the UNMOs and about fifteen or so NGOs who had decided that having a drink with us was preferable to the other options.

Two of my friends down here - a guy from Michigan (of all places) and his wife (Madagaskar) are getting ready to leave Yei after two years and move to the US; she'll be taking additional education and he've gotten a job relating to Afganistan. They are both quite excited to leave South Sudan and live somewhere a bit more civilized - even if it means short summers and two meters of snow in winter.

We also had a group from Norwegian Peoples Aid - NPA - over, and I got to talk a lot of Norwegian in the course of the evening. He wasn't too thrilled when he heard that the UN still don't know what will happen after the 9th July, but we quickly got talking about what other capabilities we would like to see Norway deploy to South Sudan... personally I favour an engineering company with well boring equipment.

Speaking of the time after the 9th; still no news but plenty of rumours. And it is only thirteen days left...

Party in the Blue, again

Our staff club is quickly turning into THE place to host your party here in Yei - last night we had two at the same time; one birthday party for one of our Russian UNMOs and one going-away party for three of the Indian Signalers who are going home after the end of their tour of duty.

Naturally the two parties merged into one super-party, with lots of tasty food, lots of nice people, lots of good music and - considering that the Indians were involved - lots of dancing...

Party in the Blue

How do you know your staff club is making an impact? When the local NGOs starts borrowing it for their going away parties!

One of the girls who's been in Yei for more than twice as long as I have so far is going to Europe to study, so a party was thrown together with a potluck table, music and forty odd people. Quite the success too; the bar didn't close until about one in the morning...

 We're starting to get quite a selection on the shelves.

...and a good time was had by all!