In case you don't succeed try, try again..

Ok, so its hard from this end to know what to write you - normally I would go on about movies, books, music .. however given the enormity of your work and the experiences you and your crew are experiencing - it seems weird to be writing about that kind of stuff .. BUT, I must say, however trivial, that you look very handsome in the beret!

I can't imagine the heat you describe and how difficult it must be too sleep - I hope you can find some distractions that help you sleep .. hmmm .. can't think of any off the top .. but maybe you can!!

So, I have some questions for you, when do you get time off and where can you go? What can you do? Were you able to bring books with you? Are we allowed to send you things (i.e. book)?

I imagine, give the hour you must rise, that you are sleeping peacefully as I write this note so, good night my dear friend and lets talk tomorrow .. love , Mare p.s. Glas Vagas is my new favourite Band, My One Freebie John Cusack has been replaced by Robert Pattinson and I read 4 books, about 500 pages each, in about 2 weeks .. more on that later.. xxxooo

Out and About

Last week I flew into Abyei then out to Agok on a patrol to a Temporary Operating Base (TOB) with one of the two Canadians posted to the area. Kirk and I spent three days in the community working along side the local police assisting them with any questions they had in relation to investigations or processes. The work was great. Not to mention the learning we did thanks to the local police. Below you can see the white UN tent at the TOB which was our home. The first day was dry and it was just plain hot dusty and busy. The next day it rained.


The TOB and the countryside went from a dust bowl to a swamp in a blink! The Security Platoon of Zambians was great with us and had a good laugh at our expense watching us try and move about in the mud as it stuck to your boots and made them weigh about 10 lbs a piece. I had never met any people from Zambia until now. Their police and military people are a good crew. They are cheerful, resourceful and pleasant to work alongside.


I wonder if Sheryl would go for a transfer there...? Kirk and I 'co-located' with the local police in their area as they did their daily business on the second day of our patrol. I have a lot of respect for these officers as although they are Sudanese Nationals they are not from that particular community. Just like the OPP they are recruited and then sent to a specific that requires members. These men live at the police station separated by many miles from their families.

Did I mention it is hot here?

The next day we reported to the United Nations compound for our induction training. I am pleased to say we were very well briefed and prepared prior to our departure Canada so our days in the classrooms and the information we received did not come as shock to us. The problem was not the subject matter but rather the heat and the time change. The heat because during that first week it went up to 51C and the time change because many were waking up through the night with all of us wide awake 0530 hrs no matter we did. It took about a week to get our systems anywhere near normal.

Between the heat and the erratic sleep patterns and the various drugs were are on for malaria, yellow fever, this flu that flu a couple of our folks ended up in the hospital. One from bites from a mysterious bug which left huge welts that took almost two weeks to go down. So nightly that member literally covered themselves in cream with a nightcap of anti-inflammatories..not fun. The second member gave us a real scare with an increase in blood pressure followed by a bout of dysentery. The poor guy spent four days and three nights in the hospital. The UN doctors and nurses were great and when he was transferred to the local hospital he received the best of what they could offer. even had a VIP room. The hospitals are not what we would have in Canada but he was treated very well none the less. The members all volunteered to stand a post with their comrade to make sure that he was safe and able to relax. I think in fact there were even a couple of arguments as to who was going to go and sit with him all night. I am very proud of that officer and of our people for looking after their own in a very foreign environment. For example when he was checked in the nurse wanted the name of the other patient. we explained that no he was not another patient he was just going to stay to make sure our friend was ok. Now remember there is a fairly serious gap in mutual language...Eventually we realized the nurse wanted to know who the co-patient was going to be...Here it is expected that a friend or family member stays with you in hospital to ensure the patient can get assistance for whatever they need like a drink of water or a steady hand to help them to the facilities. The hospital even serves two meals for the patient and the co-patient. It was noticed that our guy was feeling better when the requests being put to the co-patient were becoming more lets say...exotic.. Unfortunately the day he was to be released turned out to be a Friday. Friday is a Holy day like our Sunday and not a doctor could be found to sign his release papers so our man got tucked in for another night. At one point during his stay I was visiting when an orderly came and haltingly told the patient the co-patient and myself that the patient was required for some tests. So the co-patient and I said good bye to the patient expecting he would be going down the hall and be back as the orderly had indicated in five to ten minutes. An hour late we were starting to get a little concerned when in wheels our guy and the orderly. Once the door closed the patient told us of his adventures.. Once leaving his hospital room he was taken down stairs for a couple of tests. They were done quickly and efficiently from their he was wheeled out of the examination room and directly out the door into the street and before he knew what was going on he was snugly packed in the front seat of an ambulance between the orderly and the driver with neither of them able to speak English. The hospital is smack right in the middle of Khartoum with the streets teaming with vehicles and people. Before our man can ask the ambulance squeals off lights and sirens wailing into the packed streets. Telling us his tale he did say at that point he was a little concerned...but up a street across four lanes of traffic and down another to an abrupt stop in front of another building and he is whisked in to the front of the line for another test. Once the tests were completed they retraced their tracks lights and sirens back on. We had a good laugh on that one. Throughout the whole time that member never bitched, never complained or felt sorry for himself. I am very proud to serve alongside a fellow like that.

Over the next week the Canadians deployed out to the Team Sites. We are all far flung across the country in some very interesting and challenging posts. The good thing is that I managed to get them all posted with the blessing of the Commissioner two to a Team Site. They can then support each other during the good and the tough times.

Easter was kind of quiet here as all our guys had flown out and we were here just the three of us. Easter is not a holiday as we work everyday here until you get time off every month or two. The day before Easter I got a frozen turkey at the PX and got it home. Sitting in 110 degree heat on the way home being cuddled up with a large frozen bird wasn’t the worst thing which could have happened. The next day after many international emails and calls, Mombo our resident expert Chief was able to find out how to cook the bird. The emails actually went to my other roommate’s folks who in turn emailed his Aunt in Florida who in turn emailed his folks back who in turn called him… It worked out great! We also invited some camp mates of ours a group of officers from Russia. We tried to be good hosts with what we had and they were great guests. We compared cop stories (go figure) talked about home (and cooler climates) and toasted our families with Barbican. Barbican is a non alcoholic malt beverage….sort of like near beer except it comes in various flavours…..yaaaa you can imagine….But hey it was good fun! They are a good bunch. We are now pestering them for a real Russian meal….caviar perhaps (not likely!)


At this point our contingent has worked everyday since reporting for induction training in Ottawa light years ago. We are all tired as we are on everyday but as we are all away from home it is good that we are focused on the job and not sitting around thinking of home. I am getting reports of some solid work by our people ranging from looking into the case of a mentally challenged youth who is living on the streets of a village many miles from his home community and organizing efforts to get him re-united with his family to our people responding (remember they are advisors) to a fatal car crash. They responded and did their best for the injured and then attended the village with the deceased to help the relatives. When they arrived with the body 200 relatives where waiting for the sad reunion with their family member. Our people are also co-locating and heavily involved with training our Sudanese colleagues. Sometimes the police stations they are attending are 30 minutes down the road and other times they are and overnight long range patrol away. Bottom line is we are supplying a much needed product to these officers and are being well received.

First off hello to everyone and thank you for the emails!

The internet here is sporadic and very slow, but hey at least it’s a gateway to the world and more importantly home. I will try and update you from our arrival in Khartoum on the 16th of May. We arrived in the late afternoon and man was it hot. The thing that struck me getting off the aircraft was the heat which was like a wall as you stepped out into the air. We were processed by Customs and Immigration without major incident aside from quite a few forms and the like. Next was arranging and collecting all of our kit. Out of 20 members all but one got their two big blue bags and two barracks boxes. Fortunately his kit arrived the next day so all was good.

By the time we walked out of the terminal it was dusk with the sun just starting to go down. The Amman's in the mosques were calling the people to their evening prayers and their chants/prayers could be heard as we exited. Immediately in front of us were an absolute a wall of people and behind them taxis, tuk tuks, and vans. The UN contact spotted us and we began to load our kit into the buses. Trust me no easy feat given the heat and the shear weight of the kit itself.

From the airport it was a 20 minute through the street of Khartoum including a lap around what we now call the "Traffic Circle of Death". Driving in Khartoum if not the whole of Sudan is something to be experienced! To us as North Americans our brains have been schooled to think along linear lines. Not so here. Lane markings, intersections and 'orderly' traffic flow do not exist to our unaccustomed eyes. People navigate through the flow of traffic like dancers in a ballroom of old. There is order and there is reason however when you first are in the middle of this maelstrom of metal and engines the impression you have is of absolute pandemonium... Now is all fairness and as a testament to the human ability to encounter, adapt and accept radical changes in an unfamiliar environment I am pleased to say that after near a month, all of this seems rather common place!

We were dropped off at the unofficial Canada House where we quickly split up the twenty members to two apartments, VERY tight quarters to say the least. But no one squawked and everyone did their best to give the other guy or gal their space. Brenda our unofficial Canadian contact at the UN was fabulous helping us get set up, not to mention the Canadian Military who could not do enough for us! While Brenda took a couple of us to a store for water the military guys supplied cots and got us squared away. By the second night we all had a cot to sleep and cold water to drink. Oh and drink you did!! I think the first week each of us on average drank between 8 and ten liters a day. The thing was you weren't passing it in the usual manner no not at all in fact we noticed how we should have been running to the toilet but weren't. Instead we were sweating it out!

Canadian Police off to Sudan - TorStar Article

Canadian police off to Sudan

Officers join UN-led mission to train and mentor fledgling force in the south of strife-torn nation

Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–Volunteering to go to Sudan as part of a newly beefed-up Canadian police contingent was how OPP Staff Sgt. Don Eastop quelled his gut reaction when watching or reading news from the region.

"The little voice in my head said, `Why doesn't somebody do something?' Then it sort of hit me – what am I doing?" he said in an interview from Khartoum.

As part of a UN-led mission, 20 Canadians from the OPP, RCMP, Halifax and Ottawa police are now in southern Sudan to train and mentor the fledgling southern Sudan police force.

Southern Sudan is rebuilding after Africa's longest-running civil war between north and south Sudan killed 2 million people and ended with a peace agreement in 2005. Many of the former southern rebel army officers now make up the police force charged with trying to enforce basic laws.

"A lot of them have no policing skills whatsoever. They're former fighters, basically," says Wayne Hanniman, who took a leave from the national security section at RCMP headquarters in Ottawa to complete a nine-month stint based in Juba, the capital of south Sudan.

The job of Canadians and others is to teach basic police techniques: how to interview, investigate, take notes and draw up a report so a prosecutor can lay a charge. It is also to encourage the Sudanese police to discipline their fellow officers who fail to respect human rights. But it's not to lead the investigations or hand out orders.

"We don't arrest anybody. We're guests here," says Eastop, commander of the current Canadian contingent in the region.

The Sudanese police "are absolutely thirsty for any kind of education they can get," says Eastop.

"I'm not a teacher by any stretch, but I'm teaching basic computer skills after my regular work hours to police officers. They want this, they need it."

There are huge challenges: widespread illiteracy among the Sudanese officers, a lack of infrastructure. . There's a dearth of police vehicles and a lack of basic equipment, like notebooks. Public confidence is low, and for the officers, there's often a long lag in getting paid.

"Sometimes their paycheque is two to three months late," says Hanniman. "They've got uniforms and a rank structure. Everything else we're starting from scratch."

The Canadian contingent, including three female officers, is spread along contested areas between north and south Sudan. The Canadians are among 650 officers from 36 countries that make up the UN police mission. The northern region of Darfur is deemed too unstable for an international policing deployment.

There are dangers. A Canadian police officer, in a group other UN-uniformed officers, was forced off the road by a group of armed men in an unidentified uniform, pistol-whipped and roughed up.

"Post-conflict societies are breeding grounds for terrorism and extremists," says Hanniman. "And it's important that Canada be there in those societies, helping to rebuild their cultures, their police services, to prevent the extremists from taking hold."

check out the Toronto Star

Hi Everyone
 
Don was interviewed yesterday (April 6) by the Toronto Star...so in your travels today, if you get a chance pick up the paper and see if it made it to print.
 
Will write more later....
 
Sheryl