Day 2 - 1/11/08

1/11/08

Quite a day…

Woke up at the crack of noon and got me some lunch. A “chicken” sandwich drenched in mayo and covered in veggies was all I really needed to “satisfy” my appetite. Lunch on the compound sucks ass but that’s ok. Dinner makes up for it.

I took my juggling balls and a few of the UNDP reports I brought with me to this outdoor lounge area they have going on. I figured I might meet some people. And meet I did. I ran into my Romanian UNV coordinator Daniela who was nice enough to let me use her office for a little internet action and sent off a few emails. Amazing how the internet is such a lifeline in a place like this. While I was there I finally got Geetha on the phone too. I’ve been in touch with her since the beginning and she was essentially my first point of contact. At the office I also met Selam, a nice Sudanese lady (who I thought was a man until I actually met her), and Thomasso, this Italian dude who’s also a UNV in the Supply section (whatever that means) and is a replica of my cousin Adil only lighter skinned.

While talking with Geetha, she pretty much smashed my expectation of what I thought I’d be doing. Looks like I’m going to Darfur after all. Apparently I’ll still be under UNMIS officially speaking but working with/for UNAMID in reality. Even UNMIS isn’t really sure what the hell is going on. That’s the impression Daniela gave me anyway. Anyhoo, I am Nyala bound a week from now unless something else pops up. It’s ok – I’m game for whatever.

I hung out in the “park” (lounge… whatever) for another hour afterwards and met a group of Egyptian security personnel. Very cool bunch of ppl actually. I met this Brig. Gen. something al-Bahai who used to be chief of mission for AMIS. Another low level type person named Ayman was there. I could tell from all the “sa3adt el basha” and “7adritak”s coming from him. Seems like he’s an IT type. Nice guy. A few of the others I never got a name for but whatever. I’m sure I’ll run into them again. And if not, no biggie.

So the schedule as it stands – and I’m sure this will be modified later – is this:
Sunday (1/13) – Check-in with the (wild guess?) Check-In Office (what time??)
Monday (1/14) – Induction class at 8am
Next week (~1/21) – Off to El Fasher for 1-2 days
After (~1/23) – Off to Nyala

Good times…