Just another Saturday in Yei

A reasonable slow day, yet busy. Funny how things work that way...

In the morning we had a short training session on how to deal with helicopters arriving after dark, complete with setting out the landing lights and radio procedures. In the afternoon I did some housework and shopping, and in the evening we kept The Blue open again. Had about a dozen guests all told - both UN staff and NGOs. If we can keep The Blue open every weekend, the word will spread quickly and the next party (which I think will be the weekend I get back to Yei after my upcoming leave) will be a smash hit.

AC managed to sneak her way to a bowl of milk both for lunch and for an evening snack, and paid me back by kneading my leg and arm as she was a lapcat for all of five minutes. Kittens are fun, but have the attention span of a goldfish - any odd noise must be investigated!

Tomorrow I'll start packing my bags; I'll be heading up to Juba on Monday for a meeting of all the Norwegian UNMOs, and onward to Khartoum on Tuesday so I can catch the very, very early flight on Wednesday to head home for my leave. And by very early I mean 0120... the bars in Yei haven't even closed for the night at that time.

Cats and bars

Or rather; one cat and one bar - Miss AC and The Blue.

Miss AC was most assuredly soaking up attention today - managed to talk me into giving her a bit of milk for both breakfast and lunch, the clever little lady.

 ..part of a delicious breakfast.

"Sure, you just go to the office - I'll keep this tasty milk safe in my tummy." 

Keeping me company for lunch

 "What you doing down here?"

 Tasty, tasty milk.. make sure to get every last drop

 And after lunch, lets explore... here AC is sniffing my radio, after having already examined my laptop and lunch.

 "I'm sure there is a lap here somewhere..."

 Furiously kneading.

Later in the afternoon we opened The Blue, just so people could swing by if they wanted a drink or a chat. And while they didn't make a run on the bar, like last weekend, it wasn't really bad either. We sold for about 90 pounds, meaning a profit around 25 pounds. Not shabby at all, seeing as how Friday really isn't that much of a party night in Yei anyway - the big day is Saturday and we'll be open.

 More decorations have made their way to our staff club.

The bar is looking more and more impressive. I especially like the wide range of non-alcoholic drinks to be had - water, two kinds of juice and six kinds of soda.

Cat at the door and SDP

As I opened my door to head to the office this morning, someone was waiting for me... luckily for her, I bought milk yesterday:

Tasty, tasty milk.

Please Sir, could I have another? Why, yes off course!

Later in the day I was Patrol Leader on a Short Duration Patrol down to Kaya, on the border to Uganda - partly to pick up two of our guys returning back from leave. It was very interesting to see the difference in vegetation since I was down there last in January.

 Not all cars make it all the way... and the ones which breaks down are broken down for parts.

 Little mountains dot the landscape... magma pipes? I don't know...

 Five minutes of "technical break".

 View towards the Kaya area and the Ugandan border.

 The suburbs of Kaya... living in the 'burbs is less desirable in South Sudan than it is in most of the western world.

The same little mountain as two pics ago, seen from the other side - the climb up is pretty steep, and a 4X4 is very handy to have.

A bad few days for UN Peace Keepers

It's been a pretty rough few days for peace keepers across the globe...

On March 30th, a UNPOL was killed while patrolling in Haiti.

On the same day a MOVCON assistant was killed in a car accident in Uganda.

The day after we lost one in Cote d'Ivorie to a stray bullet.

Last Friday seven was killed in Mazar-e-sharif, as I'm sure everyone have heard about.

This Monday 33 passengers and crew lost their lives when a UN plane crashed during landing in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Yesterday a Police Advisor in Dafur was killed by carjackers.

Sometimes good things happen

Our Team Site is scheduled to loose half of the UNMOs over the next two months, which would severely impact our ability to operate. Not only will we loose many man-years of experience, but we would also be stretched very thin trying to cope with all the patrols and other tasks we've to do.

Realizing this, and also realizing that in the UN nothing changes for the better unless you point and yell, I sat down this morning and wrote a mail to Sector; pointing out the issue at hand (the severe reduction in the number of UNMOs), the anticipated fall-out (more work per UNMO, less leave, less time to prepare for patrols and report afterwards) and also two suggestions for solution (send us UNMOs who are finishing training in Khartoum, or move UNMOs from another Team Site to Yei). No complaining, no whining, no finger pointing... just the facts.

Mail goes to Juba, who forwards it to Khartoum.

Just before the afternoon brief we get a phone call; a New UNMO from Nepal who found himself ordered to Yei! With a bit of luck he'll arrive next week... if I can get two more, most of the troubles with the Leave Plan will be gone, and I know our Operations Officer will be overjoyed too.