Lessons learned - last post for now

It's been a while since I returned home, and I have had some time to think about a few of the things I learned while in southern Sudan and South Sudan, in no particular order:

• First off, those of us living in modern nations with a working infrastructure simply don't get how well off we actually are. This applies for such things as roads, sanitation, healthcare, schools, security (police and military) and so on and so forth.
• Speaking of roads; I will never say that Norwegians roads are bad ever again - there is something about getting stuck in bottomless mud on the "highway" in the middle of the biggest town in the area that drives home that fact. I will point out that Norwegians roads could certainly be better - we could afford that with all the money we are pumping out of the sea.
• The Norwegian Military takes - overall - very good care of us while we're abroad, and the gear we have with us will cover pretty much any eventuality. Much of the gear I brought with me came home unused, some never made it down to Sudan. Compared to my friends from other nations, we're EXTREMELY well equipped - everything from socks and underwear to Class IV vests* and satellite phones.
• Being away from home for so long is harder on the ones left at home - if you're out on duty you're busy, while they have plenty of time to think (and twice the workload to deal with at home too).
• Arabic is very difficult to pick up if all your previous experiences are various Germanic languages.At the same time, stating that you're fluent in two (Norwegian and English), can understand and read two more (Danish and Swedish) as well as making heads and tails of one more if it's written down and I have time (German) looks pretty impressive on the UN CV...
• Getting used to being home again takes longer than it took getting used to being away. Strange, but true.
• Some people are on UN missions because of the pay check, some are not. Properly motivated and guided both can do excellent work.
• The major challenge is the cultural difference - not between yourself and the locals, but between yourself and other UN personnel. In all fairness they told us this before we deployed, but it has to be experienced to drive the lesson home.

In retrospect, was it worth it? Yes... and how. It's been a long year, but a good one. Difficult at times, but rewarding. Lonely, but with many new friends. Slow at times, but passed quickly.

The Norwegian Defence Medal for International Operations

The UNMIS medal

And with that I'll close this blog for now - if I do go on a new mission I will revive it. If anyone have any questions, comments or remarks, leave a comment and I'll do my best to reply.

Thank you for reading!

*) To put our vests into perspective; the other officers opted to use the UN provided vests, which in theory is Class III. However, materials degrade over time, and personally I would not trust my life to the UN vests if there is a Norwegian vest areound. If the option is to do with no vest, then I would use the UN vest.

Home at last

It was a very long trip home...

We travelled as a group of six Norwegians, which was nice since I had someone to talk to along the way. Getting to Juba Airport around 1400 local time (1300 Norwegian time), we got through the check-in and security check with no hassle - travelling in uniform does have it's benefits. Then we had to hang around in the departure hall until well past five in the afternoon, being warm and sweaty. For some reason that was beyond the grasp of any of us, our little group was split up on two different flights leaving with fifteen minutes between us. We found it strange, and even more so when we realised that both flights had enough free seats to fit the whole group twice over.

Our first jump brought us to Addis Ababa, where we had some food before going through yet another security check. Our next flight was to take off at 2300 local time (2200 Norwegian time), and once aboard we realised just how little the UN must have paid for our tickets - if we had been further back in the cabin we would been riding in the galley... and as I'm sure most know; being in the back means more noise, more traffic in the aisle and less rest. Between take off and landing I got less than half an hour of napping, but I did get to watch a couple of movies and read a fair bit.

Landing in Frankfurt, we had time for a cup of coffee and a bite before boarding the last flight - again I was in the back, with my back against the galley wall. The nice thing was that I got a row all to myself, so I could relax and read some more while listening to music. It ended up being the most relaxing part of the jorney home to be honest...

We touched down at Oslo Airport about a quarter to ten in the morning, but our epic travels were far from done... we were picked up at the airport and taken to a nearby military base for our medical debrief and the handing out of medals. Since I've been extremely lucky (and also quite careful while in Sudan) I got a clean bill of health - at least until the results of the blood work comes in. They fed us too; slices of wholegrain bread with stuff on them, just the thing I've been missing the last year (the only bread I could find in Sudan was white bread).

After pinning a medal on us they drove us back to the airport; some of us had a flight to catch to get all the way home, some of us had made other arrangements. I finally walked through my door around 1800 on Thursday, home at last...

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!

Farewell dinner

Over the months I've been here I've taken part in my fair share of farewell dinners - and today I was the guest of honor at the one held for my Norwegian colleague and myself. Lots of people showing up, from all the pillars in the Team Site (MLO, UNPOL, BanBat, Civil Affairs, CITS and so on) as well as a few guys from various NGOs I've been rubbing shoulders with the last year.

We held the dinner in the Blue, and he food - prepared by the cleaning staff, hijacked for the day - was plenty and tasty. After the food it was time for the speeches... and if half of what was said should be believed my Norwegian friend and myself have singlehandedly made the Team Site a better place.

I got mixed feelings about going home. On hand it's like "home, hell yeah!"... on the other hand I'm leaving behind people I've worked closely with for the last year. And while it has been times I've been wondering how people can be so incredible dense and/or stupid, for the most part we been able to put our cultural differences aside and work as a well functioning team. As people are fond to say when we have been welcoming new coworkers to Yei; we're more than a team, we're a family in Yei. And this have been made even clearer with the people who gotten redeployed to Yei from other Team Sites after July 9th - the stories they tell shows us just how lucky we been down here. Apart from an incident which took place two months before I arrived, there has been no fighting and very little argument between UNMOs - but if the stories are to be believed that is not too uncommon in other Team Sites (after all, it only takes two to fight and ruin the mood of the entire team).

I think one of the reasons why Yei have worked so well is that it's always been a small Team Site - the smallest in South Sudan - and that the officers stationed here have realized that they cannot afford to act like idiots if the team is to function. With the new, leaner mission all the Team Sites will be homes of small Teams. Hopefully the experience we have had in Yei will become common on all the sites in the future.

Welcome to the UN

Before my eminent G1 was redeployed to UNAMID (aka Dafur), he had put the finishing touches on the leave plan for September and October. That's why I liked him as my G1 - very efficient and able to plan ahead.

Today? Well, someone at FHQ decided to change the percentage of MLOs permitted to be on leave at any given time... so I have to redo everything. Oh what great fun we have in the UN, doing everything at least twice.

To top it up we discovered that our large diesel storage tank have been contaminated with large amounts of water (probably because someone in Juba left the inspection manhole on the fuel bowser open during rain), so right now we're restricted to the fuel we have in our vehicles. Good thing we carry jerrycans around with us all the time.

So yes, I am a little frustrated with the UN right now. Still loving Yei though!

Group photo

Due to the cancellation of leave until further notice, we have the entire team in the Team Site these days. What better time for a group photo?

 The entire team of UNMOs in Yei Team Site

The TSL was also a popular subject to photograph....

Stuff is finally happening

For the last few days we've been ordered to stand down - no LDP, no SDP and not even any TP... that is Long Duration Patrols, Short Duration Patrols and Town Patrols respectively.

However, we gotten two bits of news today that shows that things are slowly starting to move again. Firstly, the redeployment / repatriation from the sectors up north (ie: the ones that are not in South Sudan) is starting. Secondly, we're starting doing TPs again - even if it's clearly patrols for the sake of patrolling, it'll get us out of the Team Site again and that's good for the morale of my guys.

At this rate we might even know what we're supposed to do in the new mission by next week!

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.

Separation celebration

As the Team Site Leader and local VIP from UNMIS, I had to go down to Freedom Square and take part in the official program to celebrate the creation of the 54th independent country in Africa. They managed to only run 30 minutes late on their four hour program - partly by cutting out every single break... so it was four and a half hour of standing / sitting and watching. Very interesting though, and I wouldn't missed it for the world.

A movie will be uploaded later; after I made it.

Tonight we will have a party on the team site for the UN and invited NGOs.

We have a resolution!

The United Nations Security Council passed the resolution for creating the United Nations Mission in South Sudan today... effective from tomorrow.

So yes, we have a new mission! I'll post a link to the UNSC Resolution once I manage to load the UN website, in the meantime y'all can look here:

http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions11.htm

Last Short Duration Patrol before separation

With the separation coming up on us, and as such today was the very last Short Duration Patrol conducted by Yei Team Site as part of the CPA monitoring. A pretty routine patrol, with a less than routine detour to do a tiny bit of mountaineering on an hill I've been eyeballing since I passed it the first time in November last year.

Wonderful view from the top, and good exercise as well. We got some good pictures from the summit and from down on the slope. The hills and mountains in the area is made up of course grained intrusive, felsic, ingeous rock.... also known as granite. This fits my previous theory that the hills around in Eastern Equatoria are old magma pipes, with the rest of the volcano worn away by weathering over the aeons.

We also made a little detour for the language assistant to buy goats; they were half the prize of the going rate in Yei.

Lots of photos today - I was dual-wielding cameras today, so they are both from the regular compact camera and the video camera.

 The JMT and various local authorities.

 One of my Nepalese friends eyeballing the hill we're about to climb.

 Nice looking hill from this angle.

 Near the summit.

 King of the world!

 I headed down before the two others, to get some decent shots.

 Erratic blocks, fractured of the main body of the hill due to weathering.

 More hills in the distance.

 And even more hills - clearly this area had a lot of volcanic activities back in the day.

 One Nepalese and one Russian on the summit.

 Strangest passenger I've ever driven around down here in South Sudan.

 Definitely a billy goat... but then most goats for sale is, since a nanny goat will make more goats.

The next batch of photos is from the video camera:

 Driving through downtown Yei.

 The bridge over Yei River.

 For being the rainy season, roads were pretty dusty.

 The sides of the road is much greener than they were at the height of the dry season. That said, here isn't really that much difference between the two seasons around Yei.

 My Russian friend engaged the kids playing football while the Language Assistant was haggling over the goat.

 Speaking of goats...

 As mentioned, nanny goats makes more goats.

 Everything has to be documented... even the act of documenting.

 Just a bit of mountaineering.

 View from near the top.

 Another view from near the top

 Yet another view from same spot.

 Again...

 Last one, I promise.

 A huge pile of huge boulders.

 A Russian on the summit.

The next batch is from the regular camera again - it should be possible to stitch these together into a panorama view of the area around the little hilltop.

The actual making of said panorama is left as an exercise for the reader - I'll make one once I'm home and have access to proper photo editing software.