Sudan, so far.

Sudan is the largest country in Africa at 2,500,000 km2, about the size of Ontario and Quebec together. It

seems to have large problems as well. There are

two UN missions here: UNMIS (UN Mission in

Sudan) in south Sudan, and UNAMID (UN-African Union

Mission in Darfur).

The White and Blue Niles join at Khartoum to form the

Nile River.

South Sudan

Khartoum

Juba

Darfur

Everyone deploying to the south with UNMIS, my mission, spends two

weeks training in Khartoum before deploying.

You have to be careful to avoid arrest while taking pictures in Khartoum

The Commonwealth War Cemetery

Tuk-tuks, the best way to get around

These ones are Ben-Hur style tuk-tuks

Khartoum It’s a very nice, modernizing,

hot city

Afra Mall Expensive for most things

A very good-looking house

Ex-pat living

A nice Lebanese restaurant

Australia House partyCanada House

The Canadian Embassy pool, in season you can use the pool skimmer to get mangoes out of the trees

Canada House front yardAustralia House living room

Australia House bedroom, Tom looks shocked, like me,“Pablo Escobar would find this place too gaudy.”

Canada House main foyer and gym

Left. This Dutch lady, Elsie, (in fuschia) takes in the Canadians every Friday at her home. She runs the leprosy mission in Khartoum. It works well: she likes Canadians, and I like free brunch.

Below right. This dollar store hat was brought as a gift by my friend Tom. If you can believe it, the lepers pushed it away, rejecting it. I took it though: it’s a free hat. Thanks Tom!

Below left. A local child catches run-off water in the alley in front of our house. There’s a nice house on the right and shacks on the left. Almost everyone sleeps outside at night, rich and poor alike.

Juba, south Sudan

A neighbour

Rush hour, downtown

That’s a lot of bananas.

The south is quite different from the north, scrubby land, pastures, forest, dirt roads and streets.

Juba port

The White Nile A baptism, I think

Local rural countryside with houses

A White Nile River resort

One of our tasks: DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization,

and Reintegration) of former combatants

DDRAs a soldier it’s always sad to see people take off the uniform and hang it up. Soldiers around the world grumble about their armies, but love soldiering. It was a real bittersweet event to witness the local Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) guys retire. One was 86, two were 21. They had been in different units and different trades: transport driver to commando. They seemed to be wearing the only civilian clothes they owned. They were all very thin.

One poor barefoot guy, who walked with a cane, set off the security scanner. The guards insisted he had something in his pocket until they figured out it was shrapnel embedded in him. That guy really stuck in my head. He couldn’t bend his leg, so I don’t imagine he’d even be able to put on shoes. Some of these people are incredibly, crushingly poor. After such a long war everyone has even forgotten how to farm. They’re really starting at zero. A few of them had to sign their names with a thumbprint: they were illiterate.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for peace. I had a similar feeling in Bosnia, I interviewed a guy for a job. I asked what he did during the war, and he said, “I ran, to Austria, as a refugee.” It was the sanest thing one could do, really. Why kill your friends, classmates and neighbours? I wasn’t pleased with my own reaction though, I was really unhappy he had run. I felt that he should have fought, but for what, and against whom?

Sometimes you can’t take photos here, just because it feels exploitive. Maybe there’s a less invasive way. I’ll try to find it.

After we clear the ex-combatants, they attend lectures on HIV and other topics, are checked over medically, and are given food for three months and about 300 USD, they go home and attend training for a new trade: barber, tradesman, farmer... The able-bodied ones should do ok, I worry about that other guy though. Africans don’t place a stigma on the disabled, they treat them like anyone else. You see blind and polio-inflicted people outside going about their business.

The End, for now, more to follow.