haveyoursay

Report from Sudan 9

It has been over four weeks since first setting foot in Africa, and some of the difficult, time consuming work is now coming to an end. As always a lot has been learnt during this particular assignment, my first in the Darfur regions of Sudan. All previous visits to this country have been in the south, many hundreds of miles from here. These have been by invitation of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army, an organisation in conflict with the present government for many years.

I even have a document from the SPLA allowing me permission to enter and leave the country! In many ways South Sudan is different, culturally, physically and climatically to this central western region.
I should be staying in El Fasher for about one week prior to retracing my steps back to Nyala, where a couple of outstanding tasks need completing before flying back to Khartoum for a debrief and finally the UK, and home. Hopefully before the month is out. That’s the plan as I see it at present, whether it will be achieved remains to be seen. From past experience nothing ever runs smoothly on this continent. Working in the Humanitarian Aid business one always needs to be prepared for the unexpected, and sometimes for the worst. The move to this location, for instance, was entirely unpredictable, one minute I was washing clothes in El Genenia, the next minute a message came from the office that there was a spare seat available on a WFP flight to El Fasher, and, if I hurried I should just be able to catch it. Wrapping the articles in a towel, everything was then crammed, still wet, into the suitcase followed by a quick journey to the airstrip and I was taking off for El Fasher. Where I now find myself in residence. In case you are wondering about the flights, World Food Program run a Cessna Caravan aircraft around the region mainly for their own staff and, where space is available, they allow other aid agency employees to use the facility for free. It’s on a first come, first served basis. Either booking in advance, or, as in my case, on a try it and see what happens basis. It works well enough, although when the service first started, 72 hours notice was needed for non-WFP people to reserve a seat. This was later amended as some of the flights were being made without passengers, simply to pick up members of their own staff who requested transport to another location.
First impressions of El Fasher are that it is a good step up from the previous location. The airstrip, for instance, has a solid foundation and is covered in tarmac with the airport facilities much improved from El Geneina. It was surprising to discover that there were even a few airport trolleys available for luggage. However, most of them were marked, property of BAA Heathrow! Brought in no doubt by transport planes from time to time over the years.
My second day in El Fasher has been disastrous. Moving out from here early in the morning to the refugee and displaced persons camps we were advised to turn back after about ten miles. It was reported that some Janjaweed activity had taken place in the market area of a village we were just about to pass through. Shots had been fired in anger and there were reports of some deaths occurring. Our radio base station was immediately informed of the problem, which triggered the UN and NGO security networks, thus advising other agencies of the present situation. After discussions all aid agency personnel were withdrawn from the area, a difficult logistic operation as some members of staff were in areas the other side of the incident and were completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation. Revenge attacks now being a distinct possibility as they had occurred when similar incidents had taken place before. Later on during the day, towards the evening, one of the Land Rovers, hired locally by Oxfam, returning from work in the local Abu Shouk camp and carrying 7 people (1 Driver and 6 Oxfam employees) overturned, resulting in some casualties, one passenger later dying from his injuries with some of the others confined to hospital. A tragic day for the families, and the team, here in El Fasher. For the next few days most of our relief activities will be restricted and at a minimum level as all the passengers were local staff recruited within the last few months and the person who died was an experienced team leader. It will be difficult to find a replacement for him let alone the others. In all discussions regarding security risk management and implementation undertaken by humanitarian aid organisations worldwide, it is the number of fatalities, due to accidents caused by excessive speed that tops the list of incidents. Far and above kidnappings or deaths by shooting.
Travelling through the Abu Shouk refugee camp, located about 2 miles from El Fasher, one comes face to face with the enormity of the disaster and the many problems being dealt with by aid agencies trying to provide help for such a large number of people. This one camp alone provides temporary shelters and basic amenities for over 55 thousand people of all ages. The camp covers, as you can imagine, a fairly large area. This has been laid out in the familiar grid pattern and provides water, sanitation and food to people who are used to living and working in small village communities. Who now find themselves in unfamiliar surrounding, many having lost touch with the rest of their families. In some cases the men have started producing sun-dried bricks to make the temporary homes more permanent and to offer better protection from bandits who regularly raid when it is dark. A couple of nights ago shots were fired in the camp resulting in a few more people being injured. For once there were no casualties and no fatalities. One of our guards however was shot at. He was quite fortunate as the bullet caused a flesh wound only, completely missing the bones in his foot. Just one of the typical events happening throughout the many camps dotted all over Darfur. Almost daily we hear of further instances of fighting and slaughter taking place in the region. It’s no wonder that new refugees keep arriving every day to swell the numbers in the camps, so increasing the problems for everyone involved.
We have now come to the end of Ramadan, with the festival of Eid following directly afterwards. In some ways, this is equivalent to the Christian tradition of Christmas. A holiday at the end of a month long fasting and prayer period. The festivities slow work in the camps, as much essential activity is temporarily closed, as it is with our holiday periods in the UK, until the celebrations are over and the local staff return to work. For myself, I hope to complete the work here by the end of this week, and move on. My latest attempt to move back to Nyala being thwarted. Arrived at the airport in plenty of time with bags packed only to discover that the flight had been cancelled at the very last minute. Just another of the best laid plans coming to nought, once again. Nothing is ever for certain here in Darfur. Plenty of patience is an essential requirement of the job; otherwise you will be lucky to survive for long.

Have a nice day.
And drive carefully around Martley!
J.

Report from Sudan 8

As mentioned previously we have no means of boiling sufficient water for our needs in El Geneina. There are however a couple of charcoal stoves for cooking, which could, if one had the time, be used for boiling water. They take ages to get going, although they do the job well enough once the cooking temperatures have been reached. Before anyone thinks our stoves are similar to the barbeques one sees in DIY and Garden Centres, let me assure you that everything here is fabricated locally. The stoves are simple welded metal containers with short legs, about one and half feet tall, to contain the charcoal and nothing more.

There are no trade names to be seen on everyday items. Everything from furniture, such as chairs and tables, beds and coffins to pots and pans are usually provided by small one-man businesses plying their trade along the roadside. Chairs are constructed with welded tubular frames, the seat and back area strung with coloured twine. In a similar manner to a basket weave chair seat although the weave is much coarser to allow air to circulate as much as possible. The chairs are surprisingly restful to sit on, and a jolly sight better than a solid seat or cushion which tends to become very sticky after just a few minutes use. Beds are also constructed in a similar fashion here although as one moves further south in Africa, say to Northern Uganda, beds are constructed using entirely different materials and with wooden stretcher boards rather than twine to fill the base area. The ambient temperature being some degrees cooler, although still regarded as uncomfortable by European standards. The earthenware storage pots in particular, are, I think, another peculiarity of this region. They are built in many sizes and look similar to two normal round pots sitting one on top of the other with the bottom of the top pot removed to allow access to the bottom. Similar to a double bulb in shape, I suppose. although the larger variety is over four feet tall. It is possible that they are constructed in this way because of the need to work fast before the clay becomes unusable, such is the normal daytime temperature here. The pots are filled with water and used to keep things cool. They not particularly water tight, as shown by the clay colour that becomes much darker wherever moisture seeps through. Stood on a simple strong platform with a bucket placed underneath to catch the drips, they make jolly good water filters. Removing most of the sand from the Donkey water before it is chlorinated and filtered by the Berkefield. The latter, a standard piece of equipment used by most aid agencies, uses ceramic filters to remove all (you hope!) of the remaining ‘nasties’ from the drinking water.
Donkey water is water from the wells, delivered by boys using donkeys either pulling small carts, as in Nyala, or here in El Geneina where the donkeys are used to transport the water in large leather bags slung form each side of the animal. The different methods used due entirely to the roads, which here consist of nothing but fine dry sandy, rubbish strewn wide tracks between dwellings, where pulling a heavy cart would prove almost impossible for the donkey to accomplish. Walking anywhere here is similar to travelling upon a large, dry, loose, sandy seaside beach, for that is what it is. In fact the whole country seems to be built upon nothing but fine sand. And this one country alone is bigger in size than the whole of the countries of Europe put together!
Unless you are prepared to fly food in, a costly affair, nearly all our meals are taken using local produce bought in the local outdoor markets. Supermarkets are an unknown quantity around here and there are very few corner shops, as we know them. The butcher, for instance, just kills a beast which is then displayed by hanging it from wooden poles stuck firmly into the ground or hung from the remains of a tree before being cut up for sale. This is often situated at the corner of a couple of streets for all to see and to gauge the quality of the carcase. The meat is usually very tough and continually being covered with flies and fine particles of sand thrown up by passing traffic. People do not have the luxury of refrigerators to store consumables, there being very little electricity available. So here, fresh meat definitely means live meat! And lean. There are no fat cattle in Darfur.
The climate is suitable for growing all types of tropical fruits including oranges, water melons, bananas, mangos etc. The limiting factor here being a shortage of water, again. Tomatoes in particular grow well outdoors and we have some plants in our compound with ripe fruit on them. They, like the meat, are tough and only really suitable for cooking but flourish and survive by having all surplus water, be it hand or dish-washing, thrown at them when we have finished with it.
Lifestyle here is primitive with many of the older residents unable to read or write and most of the children never getting the chance to attend school for long, if at all. There is very little gas and then it is only to be found in bottles. Obtainable by persuading a local merchant to bring some in by road from Khartoum, for a price! Where electricity is available it is limited and unreliable for providing anything but lighting let alone luxuries such as kettles, irons or washing machines and refrigerators. Most of the aid agencies having generators in the offices, normally running on diesel, the fuel being transported in forty gallon steel drums overland. Petrol tankers being as rare as cockerels eggs and a definite security risk in this part of the world. Here, unless you are one of the fortunate few, life can be very hard and cruel at the best of times. Incidentally, our sleeping quarters have no electricity and it gets dark by 8pm with dawn breaking quickly at 7am. The coolest part of the day is around 5am when your skin starts to feels quite normal. It doesn’t last long though!
Have just been informed that everyone has now withdrawn from the Garsila area due to the military and rebel activity and movement restrictions for staff have also been placed on Nyala. With the overall political situation deteriorating all the time, things do not look particularly promising for when I return.
Wished I’d learnt four words in Arabic before I came here. Stop. Go. Up and Down. Would have saved me hours of gesticulation and frustration. Maybe two more words as well, but I’m not going to tell you what those are, because they are very, very, rude!
Have a nice day.
J.

Wartime picture

thought to be the 1940's (wartime) outside St Peter's (not
very well optimized and scanned by me I think, can get the original back)
From Alan Boon

Update to security Warning

Sure enough my instincts were right yesterday, My saddles were stolen along with a Stihl hedge trimmer, which were all located in my stableyard in Pudford Lane.
Apparently these guys are still around, in Gt Witley today , along with a yellow pickup and a white van. Still on the pretence they are after Scrap metal.
My show saddle is made by "CirleY" of Yoakham Texas, it is a Western Reining saddle, & the serial number is:- 137590100497, it has two silver Conchos on the back skirt of the saddle & two on either side of the front. It has a breast collar attached with the same design as the saddle. A similar photo of my saddle can be seen here:- http://www.circley.com/catalog8.shtml
Please if anyone is offered an unusual western saddle on the cheap, or a Stihl hedge trimmer with a blade of approx 2 feet. please let me know. 01886 812682. Thanks
Lynne

Security warning

At 12.30 today, I was approached by a young man, in his 20's who asked me if I had some scrap metal. He said "Percy" had told him there was some at our place,Southwood, Pudford Lane. I asked him who Percy was as I don't know anyone of that name, he said the one with the blue Pickup, indicating Percy had already agreed with me that we had some scrap he could have!!!
I asked him if he was in the right place He said Pudford Lane & the place with the stables on the left. Well that is our place!! He asked me if my name was "Amy" I told him it wasn't, & did I know of anyone else in the lane that had Stables, & scrap!!!
He is a short 5 feet tall, good looking, short dark hair & smart in dress, he was driving a maroon Vauxhall/Peugeot L570 GV?.
He may well be genuine, but a lot of facts didn't add up to me, so please be aware!!!

lynne Stanley
10/11/04

Report From Sudan 7

Well, it has happened. Now nothing is for certain any more. I am not even sure whether I will be back in 2004 let alone for Christmas, such are the difficulties to overcome moving and working in this area. Plans have had to be changed at the very last moment with the proposed journey to Garsila postponed until my return to Nyala.

Whenever that will be! Even then it is not certain, as the offices may have to be evacuated if security deteriorates any further. The problem being that the land journey to deliver the equipment we had originally arranged to install could not proceed as the situation has now taken a turn for the worse. Unfortunately the goods have to be transported by road as battery acid and gas bottles are involved and there are strict rules and restrictions regarding transportation of dangerous items by air. So, here I am in Western Darfur, the smallest of the three Darfur states in terms of landmass, and this reflects in its primitive character bordering, as it does, upon the country of Chad. El Geneina, the principle town of the region is quite new to its role as the administrative centre, and I believe, unable to cope with the army of extra people descending upon the area. It is a small town, and there is a distinct lack of goods or amenities compared even to Nyala. In other words, there aren’t any! In travelling here we flew via El Fasher, a much larger town situated in Northern Darfur, although we only stopped briefly to pick up two more passengers. I am planning to return to El Fasher when the tasks here have been completed.
The aircraft we flew on was a single engine high wing Caravan, a plane with non-retractable undercarriage belonging to the UN. This does a daily journey around the region in whichever direction is seen as most practical. It is capable of carrying 12 passengers in relative comfort, or with the seats removed, can be used as a small cargo plane on short hops. The flight itself lasted just over 2 hours with a touchdown one third of the way along. We were flying around 6 to 8 thousand feet so our view of the ground was really clear. From the moment we left Nyala until we arrived in El Geneina the countryside varied little. Only the occasional outcrop of prehistoric volcanic rock, worn down by the centuries, rising above the ground, to relieve the flat, almost barren, sand coloured contours. The dried up water channels marking a pattern on the parched earth similar to the veins on a leaf but covering a vast area hundreds of miles wide and with no moisture of any kind to be seen. The few bushes that have managed to survive looking a little like small blemishes or spots on the surface. The occasional winding dirt scar of a solitary track could be seen stretching away over the horizon like a long thin snake. Every vehicle travelling along these sandy tracks having to cross riverbeds in the dry season without the luxury of a bridge. Many vehicles getting stuck in the soft sand and have to winch themselves out. At the height of the rainy season the many streams turn to rivers and it becomes virtually impossible to cross many of them, such is the strength of the water as it rushes down the channels cut by many thousands of years of seasonal rainfall. Travelling by road in this area of the world is fraught with danger at any time. For anyone undertaking the journey on their own, they need to be well prepared and experienced in off road travel, or willing to take foolhardy risks. Goods transported by road in Western Darfur are always undertaken in convoy, or at the least by two vehicles travelling together, and never alone. Even in the best of times there are robbers on the lookout for easy pickings along the road. When there are security problems to contend with as well, great care has to be taken in travelling and never without a good supply of fresh water, spare wheels, spare fuel, road springs, etc. From here conditions gradually improve and vegetation starts to become much greener and more plentiful. The Sahara desert imparting less of an impact on the climate as you move towards the west. Even so, it cannot compare with what we have in the English countryside by any stretch of the imagination.
Planes arriving in Geneina are restricted as to their size. The airstrip is of packed sand, from where it becomes almost impossible to use during the rainy season. Even in the dry season the ground cannot support the extra weight of a large transport plane either landing or trying to take off. As witnessed by the abandoned, broken and rotting aircraft littered around the airfield! With the continuing humanitarian work flowing into the area from all branches of the UN and the numerous different NGO’s all competing to provide aid, the number and type of vehicles to be seen in Geneina has increased enormously. The many and varied Land Rovers, Land Cruisers, Shoguns and various other makes of four-wheel drive vehicles are virtually destroying the road structure for the indigenous population. The normal method of travel, before the influx of these monsters, being by donkey, horse, camel or just walking, along previously hard sand packed roads. Two or four wheeled horse drawn carts being the normal method of transporting produce and goods to market. Now these very same carts can be seen struggling along the roads turned into soft dry sandy thoroughfares by the thoughtless, speeding drivers in their air-conditioned four-wheel drive vehicles. Apart form the odd transport lorry trundling along at a slow steady pace, mechanical transport before the crisis occurred was pretty well non-existent. Now, with the civil authority unable or unwilling to control these four wheels drive monsters, the roads are turning into long loose sand pits with many large potholes appearing randomly along the streets. A few big enough to swallow a Discovery or similar vehicle completely!
Here in El Geneina life is hard for everyone, including visitors. Donkey water, as it is known, is water from the wells distributed around the houses on carts driven by young boys, pulled by those ever long suffering animals. It is certainly not clean and the colour can vary considerably. I expect that this depends upon the well from which the water was drawn. There always seems to be a certain amount of sand included in its makeup. Sold by the container, the boys having no idea of Gallons or Litres, it provides our only source of water. Unfortunately we have no means of boiling sufficient drinking water before use, so all that water is chlorinated before being put through ceramic filters. It tastes pretty awful but at least it is drinkable. And with temperatures remaining very high we consume vast quantities of water all the time. My daily intake being in the region of 6 litres! And nearly all is lost through the skin, not by other means!
Have a nice day.
J.

Report from Sudan 6

It is one o'clock in the afternoon and if I am to survive here for any length of time, my best course of action is to do nothing. Having considered carefully all the options available I have come to the conclusion that today I do NOTHING more. No ifs or buts, no excuses, it's an unconditional nothing, absolutely nothing, in fact, definitely nothing today for sure.

Everyone here becomes lethargic during the middle of the day when the heat outside is at its fiercest. Coupled with the constant cloudless sky when the sun beats relentlessly down from dawn until dusk, most gentlemen, accustomed to a more gentile type of lifestyle, are required to take a certain course of action, or in this case non-action. So today I have decided to stay indoors and do nothing. Totally, utterly and completely nothing. Except maybe to drink coldish water, coke, mango juice, eat succulent oranges and listen to the BBC World service. Which in this part of the planet becomes an interesting occupation as reception varies greatly all the time. At least the wireless keeps me up to date with what’s been going on in Sudan! Oh yes, and the UK, wherever that may be these days!
Anyway it’s Friday and everyone’s got the day off! It’s my first day off (half a day really) in over a fortnight. So much for the thirty-seven and a half hour week I thought was mentioned somewhere along the line when I took this job on!
Being a Friday there are relatively few people or vehicles in the streets. Only a few strategic personnel are at work in the aid agencies offices, such as the managers, the guards and the radio room staff, who are constantly monitoring essential traffic moving around the region servicing the refugee and displaced persons camps. So today everything is quiet and peaceful. Not so the early mornings: It happened two nights after I arrived in Nyala last week and it happened again last night. Someone, or maybe there was more than one person, it was difficult to tell, moves around the streets at 4am in the morning, banging what can only be described as a very large tin drum. The rhythmic marching sound at that time of night carries for a considerable distance and is first detected as just a weak, almost imperceptible sound gradually getting louder and louder before passing directly underneath my bedroom window, at which point the noise becomes very loud, finally fading away as the ‘player’ or players move further away though the streets of the town. Just drums, and marching feet, no other instrument is to be heard. Needless to say, the sound is enough to wake the dead. I have never heard a similar noise before, and am pretty sure it does not occur everywhere, but I believe it is to awake everyone, which it certainly does, so that they have time before dawn to take a meal. The custom being to fast in daylight hours during Ramadan. Not long after the drum beating is over the faithful are called to early morning prayers. I’m sure it would go down well in the village on a Sunday morning before daylight. An early morning call for everyone in Martley to rise and take breakfast before walking to church! Another job for the parish lengthsman warden no doubt. At least St Peters church bells are melodious and always tuneful.
Having practically finished the work here in Nyala, I will be visiting Garsila in Western Darfur tomorrow where facilities, I am told, hover between the basic and non-existent. So whats new? At least here we do have a mobile phone network. For once on an assignment I have managed to make use of the mobile to phone home, normally I work in areas where no such luxuries exist. So it’s been one of the rare occasions when possession of a mobile phone has been really useful. Now I expect to get a message from Orange informing me that I am roaming again. As if I didn’t know that already! You can’t go anywhere these days without ‘big brother’ keeping a watch on your every movement! We do have Internet connections of sorts here as well. An attempt was made to download the October Villager off the Martley website but I eventually gave up after twenty-five minutes when the connection timed out. Even received a message, from Yahoo I think, apologising for the problem! It might have worked had the script been in old-fashioned plain text: but in .pdf, with pictures as well, it was surely asking a bit too much! Sending and receiving e-mails from here, via a web browser, is just as interesting. It’s a bit like watching paint dry to see the indicator at the bottom of the page crawling almost imperceptibly and relentlessly along towards the end stop. And stop it does when the power cuts off, or the server goes down at the crucial moment, and you need to start all over again! Occasionally it never even bothers to reach the end but sticks halfway along when the telephone connections crash, it’s at that point, that one gives up in frustration. So you can see that life here is full of surprises and challenges and not just a bed of roses.
The journey to Garsila can be accomplished by road, it’s a good days journey by truck, normally undertaken in convoy. Or about six hours by Discovery or Land Cruiser in the dry season, but virtually impossible during the wet. It is however considered wiser and more prudent to travel by WFP helicopter under the present circumstances. I expect to stay there, if all goes well, for a couple of days before returning back here to Nyala. Any delay with the equipment or hold-up with the work and it means an extra five days with nothing being done before returning back to base. The helicopter only making a couple of quick passenger trips every week early in the mornings. The rest of the time it is busy delivering food to the camps. After that I almost certainly leave the southern region and head towards El Fasher in Northern Darfur followed a little later by a journey westwards to work in the EL Geneina area, located fairly close to the western borders of Sudan. Look them up; the towns are on any decent map. Travel they say broadens the mind and invigorates the spirit. It certainly broadens the seat. Being teetotal I’m not qualified to give a judgement on the spirit bit.
Suppose it’s not so bad here really. Just that there are pleasanter places to live and work. And cooler!
The electricity went off a few minutes ago so will have to ‘save and close’ before the battery gives out.
Have a nice day
J.