Day 4 - 1/13/08

Today was busy for the first time – tho still relaxing compared to what’s coming. I woke up a little late (~9am) but all I had to do was check in. Of course that also meant taking a 2 hr security course on the pc. And no one told me I had to do it until later in the afternoon. Ugh. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get my ID in time as it started to get close to closing (4pm). Aziza and Mona were the HR people dealing with my papers. Aziza skipped through the rest of the training, at the end of which is an exam you have to pass to get the ID. As I watched her click past everything I had to know, I laughed to myself. Still scored a 97% on the test. Good thing it’s mostly common sense.

The main interesting point was the way security is organized in the UN system. You have UNSECOORD out of NY directing security policy. This goes to the mission heads and reps. They coordinate with the mission in country who chooses a DO (Designated Official) who chose FSOs (Field Security Officers). All theses guys make up the SMT (security management team) who then coordinate with field and SOs (sub-offices) and their wardens (last in line if it’s a big mission). Insanity. They weren’t kidding when they said the UN was bureaucratic. Still, it makes a weird kind of sense.

Ran into Daniela again today and chilled with her in the morning along with this nice guy Alex who is a UNV in the gender section here in Ktm. Another American named Matt who works in the Civil Affairs unit apparently just got back from Syria and (or?) Amman while he and a friend were working on an Iraqi refugees documentary that they’re probably going to try to pitch/sell to Al-Jazeera. Didn’t really talk with him much but will make sure to do so at some point soon.

Also met some cool cats in the Indian military. This guy named Sameer who’s a public affairs/media guy (can’t remember his rank). Between him and Col. Ashraf who is Egyptian and turns out to be the CMPO (Chief Military Personnel Officer) to whom all of these military guys, Egyptian or not, report – and the few other Egyptian fellas I hung out with the other day (Talaat, Ayman, and a few others – forgot the names) I’m getting to know quite a few.

I gave Yoshi a call. She said she’d call back cuz she was taking care of something. She didn’t. Whatever. Still need to find Natasha’s number, dammit!

Anyway, it’s chow time. I’m pretty hungry since all I had was a tuna sandwich today. This food is starting to get to me tho. On top of that I’m sick now. Ugh. All in all though, still having a good time and pretty excited about going to the field. We’ll see what happens. I wanna hear about these adventures that Matt had alluded to.

More security briefings tomorrow at 8am… the ball is starting to roll.