Last post

Well since I haven't posted here in a while most of you must have thought that I either dropped off the face of the earth or arrived back home safely. Luckily the latter is tha case. I've been back for about 5 months now and have picked up my "normal" life again. I can look back at an interesting experience in the Horn of Africa. The only real drawback was that I (and my family) found half a year away from home a bit too long.

I would like to thank everyone who read my Blog and supported me during my stay in Sudan. It meant a lot to me. Until next time......

The time has finally come...

...to say good bye to my friends and colleagues here in Juba. My tour of duty is almost at an end. Last night a few of us threw a little farewell party at " the Swamp" .

This is now the very appropriate and official name of the BBQ area at the air crew accomodation. Apart from me Richard (one of the pilots) is also leaving the mission. Einar - who is just going on leave- also chipped in because he can never pass up an opportunity to drink a few beers. Also then no one can deny him the right to pluck on his guitar and utter some gutteral noises which he claims is singing.

(Einar and his trademark....a funny hat)

I won't really miss Sudan but I will definately miss some of the characters who have made this mission an unforgettable experience.

So, tomorrow I'm off to Khartoum for my final week in the mission...

Short break

Last weekend I had the opportunity to fly down to Entebbe, Uganda. I joined up with Jelle to spend a weekend in Kampala, the nations capital. It's just amazing how different Uganda is compared to Sudan. It's like venturing into a whole new world and its only a 45 minutes' flight away from Juba.

(Fruit in abundance. Something you won't see in South Sudan)

Paved streets, shops, hotels you name it they've got it and the people are very friendly. The environment is completely different as well. Very green and a lot of water. Uganda borders on Lake Victoria - the worlds' second largest sweetwater lake- which is the source of the White Nile. What better way to experience the Nile than to go white water rafting. So we did...

I must say it is a highly recommended and exhilarating adventure if you're not afraid to get wet. The Nile is extremely beautiful in these parts and you even catch a glimpse of the local wildlife like monkeys and fish eagles. We didn't encounter any carnivorous treetrunks but they seem to reside more Northward where there are fewer rapids. I was impressed by the professional way the tour was set up. You get picked up and dropped off in Kampala. They serve breafast, lunch and a BBQ dinner (with plenty of beer:-)). But most important is that they have a very experienced crew and several safety boats to accompany the rubber rafts.

(I'm the one in the orange T-shirt)

Juba, it's not the end of the world....

... but you can see it from here. This has been a favorite saying in these parts for the last few months. But it seems the distance to the edge is slowly increasing. There is a tremendous increase in construction activity. Recently they have started renovating the roads in Juba town. The road from HQ to the airfield that used to be a lunar landscape is now as smooth as a football pitch. The problem is that it's a sloped gravel road. New gulleys will appear after a few heavy rain showers and we'll be back to step 1 in a few weeks. Improving the infrastructure also brings about other issues. Studies have shown there is a direct link between potholes and schizophrenia.With the most effective method of speed control gone there is an increase of Michael Schumacher wannabees. There has been a dramatic rise in the number of serious road accidents. Last night one of the military observers got run over by a car while exiting a local restaurant. Hit and run. The man suffered serious injuries but is in a stable condition. Local police are investigating the incident.

This weekend the Puma crew organised a BBQ at the aircrew accomodations. Because they hadn't been been flying for a while they killed the time by making their accomodations more hospitable. An old wheel, some stones, a bag of cement, a piece of canvas, some tin cans, light fittings... et voila, "party" time. For those who don't know, we consider a social gathering of more than 4 persons a party. The event was intended to be a small birthday and going away party for about 16 people but before the BBQ was good and hot there were about 40 present. Party crashing is a favorite pastime here. AMZAR Camp was kind enough to provide us with the necessary ingredients. The rest was left up to the French flight engineers whose culinary skills exceed their mechanical skills. Fabulous pizza, tappenade and homemade paté. The kitchen manager of AMZAR was also invited and he was undoubtebly impressed because AMZAR now decided to have a BBQ every other week
.

A quiz...

What is it ?



a) African art
b) A termite mound
c) A landmine or improvised explosive device

Yesterday we discovered an object on the edge of our apron (aircraft parking space) that clearly looked out of place. We noticed it because it hadn't been there before. And we didn't trust it. I warned security and asked them to send an EOD (explosive ordinance) adviser to have a look at it. At first glance it just looks like a block of wood but on closer inspection (not too close) you see part of a metal or plastic disc underneath. When the demining expert came his first reaction was; " did you bring me here for a just block of wood?" I told him it wasn't the wood that was the problem but the object underneath. We've had some trouble with locals siphoning fuel out of helicopters the past week. That night was the first night they couldn't access the helicopters and we were thinking they might have left us a small present. The adviser told us to get well back and take cover behind our vehicles while he performed a closer inspection. When he was done he called us in and showed us what the oject was...



A termite mound that some locals (probably kids) had covered up the previous day. Well it's always better to be safe than sorry. Especially with the knowledge that there are plenty of mines in the facinity of the airfield.

The past two days one of our choppers has been performing a search and rescue mission for a Kenian road engineer after the first major incident in weeks. A small convoy of civilian vehicles from an aide organisation had been attacked by bandits just 16 Km North of Juba. 5 people were killed on the spot and 11 wounded. The Kenian was seen to have escaped. Unfortunately neither ground nor air search party found the 60 year old engineer yet.

Oh, and during my leave another aircraft decided that 2500 meters of runway was too short. An MD-80 passenger plane from a new Soedanese charter landed too far on the wet runway to stop in time. It skidded off the other end of the runway than last months' B-707. Miraculously nobody was seriously injured and the plane didn't set off any landmines that are known to be present on that side of the airfield. It even left some of the mine warning flags standing. It will take some time before they remove the aircraft. This one didn't remain on all threes - the left main gear collapsed - so they can't drag it out with a few tanks. It will probably suffer the same fate as the B-707 on the "old runway"... lodging for local SPLA troops.

Back on station

Well, I arrived back in Juba safe and sound after my few weeks of leave. Coming back the second time is a lot easier. At least you know what to expect. And I have the prospect of having only about 5 weeks left in Sudan. I even got a nice surprise. My other Dutch colleagues stationed here (Co, Johan and Jolanda) managed to arrange one of the new air conditioned containers for me. They were on a first come first serve basis so I consider myself lucky to have one. So from now on there's no need to feel sorry for me:). Not that there ever was. It's not all that bad here but half a year is enough in my opinion. The new accomodations still need some work to make it more "comfortable". For instance there are no walkways yet so when it rains the ground turns swampy and it's all still a bit sterile. But that will change with time...


(new accomodations)
Slowly but steadily the UN infrastructure is improving. Something you unfortunately can't really say for the South Sudanese. The remote teamsites should also improve in the coming months. As of today the 4 Russian Mi-8 helicopters recieved approval from the sudanese government to start operations. That will almost double our much needed airlift capacity in Sector one. And the crew are ready. They hjave been waiting for this moment for over a month now.

On a break...

Like it says. Enjoying some time off with the family. I will be on the plane back to Sudan on June 24. By the looks of it my tour of duty will end somewhere in the first week of August. That doesn't give me much time to sort things out in Juba and get all my stuff back to Khartoum in time. Hopefully I'll have some time to go to Uganda for a few days before I leave Juba.

Seemingly just another day at the airport..

It’s been a while since the last update. Well, no news is good news. Pretty much the same things go on here at the airfield. Yesterday the SPLA celebrated the anniversary of their “revolution”. This was accompanied by a parade. Especially for the occasion they rolled out some of their tanks. At first I thought they were laying a smoke screen but it turned out it was just the smoke coming from their exhaust. At the John Garang memorial the usual speeches were held which continued for 4 hours. In the evening we expected the local armed parties to fire celebrating rounds, hopefully into the air. But the festivities proceeded without any incidents.

(Dr. John Garangs' Memorial in Juba. Garang was founder and leader of the SPLA and killed in a helicopter crash July 2005)

At the airport it’s reasonably quiet. Mainly because most of our air assets are grounded due to technical problems. If all goes well the Russians will fly in their Mi-8s this weekend. That should give us some slack.

Tomorrow 5 Dutch colleagues will finally be arriving in Juba. Three of them are staying here and two of them will move on to Maridi next week. Maridi is a Team Site about 250 Km West of Juba. They should be able to reach it by road. This will take about a day.

Well this ends the part I wrote in the morning. What seemed to be just another day at the airport took a ghastly twist at the end of the day.

At about 15:45 I was standing on the apron talking to our Learjet crew who had just come in to drop off the Force Commander. We heard a bang in the distance. That’s not so unusual as the de-mining guys blow up what they find every once in a while. But somehow this time it sounded different. Not long there after there was a second explosion and rumbling. In the distance we could see a smoke plume rise to the sky. More explosions followed by the characteristic whistle of artillery shells or projectiles whizzing overhead. Our suspicions were dead on…..the SAF ammunition dump at the edge of town had blown up. Instantly killing 2 soldiers and spraying ordnance over a wide area. Even as far as the airfield 5 km away where it claimed another victim. A 105mm artillery shell landed in the middle of the Russian Aviation Unit compound. Luckily it didn’t explode but the energy of the impact was enough to rip the left foot off of one of the Russian troops that was standing nearby. He was rushed off to hospital and seems to be doing OK. Tomorrow they will remove the projectile - which is lodged 2 meters deep in the ground - from the compound.

Both SAF and SPLA had mobilized their troops in no time. AK-47 and RPG armed soldiers popped up from every corner. The situation was rather tense for a while because there have been some minor incidents between SAF and SPLA in Juba recently. Fortunately the situation didn’t escalate further than the expected panic. People - recognizing the sounds of war - instinctively running and ducking for cover.

(Impressive smoke plume even from 3 miles away)

At about 16:45 the explosions died down and the situation slowly turned back to normal.

There are some rumors going around that the "accidental" explosion was staged. SAF wanted to get rid of some munitions that they didn't want to transport back North but didn't want to leave behind either. Blowing it up would solve the problem because nobody would be able to verify the amount and types of munitions that were stored.