Day 1 (1/10/08)

So I made it… woo…

I was so damn tired a pile of thumbtacks would have looked cozy to me. Thankfully, someone was actually waiting for me at KRT – otherwise I would have flipped. Well not really. I was actually pleasantly surprised when Osama timidly walked up to me waving a piece of paper with my name on it. Misspelled of course but easily forgiven when you’ve spent the past 16 hrs traveling. I had essentially planned to go to a hotel and figure things out in the morning.

Kind and jovial (even at 4am on a holiday – 1st of Muharram, Muslim new year), Osama helped pack my things into the UN truck and drove me all of 10 min to the other side of the airport where the UN compound lay waiting, chatting all the while. Passing thru the gate up front felt like I was walking into another airport in the US a day after a terror attack. They didn’t recognize a strange twisting and turning of metal on the X-ray so they called in an MP to check it! It was my clothes hamper. Whatever…

Osama led me to the “transitional residence” where I would be staying for the next month until I got my training and briefing and all that good stuff. After that I can either stay or find my own place. I think I’ll find my own place. The residence is essentially a large box with 2 beds and cupboards. The bathroom is in a separate box nearby. There is a canteen for lunch and such further down the way housed in 3 similar boxes. New buildings are cropping up as workers toil away with heavy machinery about 100ft from my box. In summary, I live on a construction site next to the airport. I’m sooo getting my own place.

My roommate is a very kind Indian fellow… Dr. Sati, I think. He works at the clinic here, and gave me some much needed sustenance – ie water and bread – when I essentially had nothing to go on. Something tells me I could have planned this arrival a bit better. We have to share a key since someone somewhere fucked up and there is only one copy. I woke up this morning to find myself locked in, though mercifully not for long. I may switch out just to have access to my own box. Then again this man is a doctor and has helped keep me alive for the moment so maybe I’ll just try to find another key. I walked around a bit and met Hesham Yousef, compound police from Egypt. Good to see someone from the motherland.

So here I am… on a UN compound, living in a box with no orientation, no Sudanese money, no knowledge of my surroundings or what my next step is. I think I should talk to… whom? Well I have 3 days to explore it seems. I think I may just go back to bed. Will someone please let me know what the hell is going on? I think I may just cab it into town and see what happens.

Oh yea, I just quit smoking (again)… I wonder if it will last.