Confident Children out of Conflict (CCC) - A visit to an orphanage.

Today, five of us from Canada House went to CCC to drop off donations from various sources. One of the donors was the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Control Operations (CFSACO), which is where I work when I am back in Canada.

There are 29 girls ranging in age from 2 to 18 who eat at CCC. Many of them still live on the streets and come to CCC for meals. There is also one 14 month old boy living there.

For more information about CCC you can visit: http://www.confidentchildren.org/ 

Breakfast at CCC

When I tried to take a picture of this little girl outside she grabbed
my hand and pulled me inside then asked me to pick her up.

A group of girls learning a dance from one of the youth volunteers  from Oregon

Benny Pong, one of our Canadian civil/military cooperation (CIMIC) officers.

Jeff Leaman, one of our Canadian Staff Officers, showing the girls how the toys work

David Clark, a member of our National Support Element (NSE) Staff.

Carry ?, an American Staff Officer who wanted to visit CCC with us.

Two of the youth volunteers from Oregon.

Cruise on the Nile

On 18 February 2012, myself and some Canadian colleagues decided to take a boat trip on the river Nile from Juba. The day was hot and the river was warm.  Most of the animals and the people were sleeping but we still managed to see a few things.

Chris Hannah

Johanne Blais, David Clark, Chris Hannah, Jeff Leaman

One of the many tugboats that work the Nile. One of these can push four  barges.

An abandoned barge

Jeff Leaman, Pino Talarico

Yes, folks, it's a TseTse fly.

Johanne Blais, Jeff Leaman, Chris Hannah

A barge full of UN equipment waiting to be unloaded.

Feed me. I'm hungry

Come, give me a kiss. I won't bite.

Dave Clark, Johanne Blais, Pino Talarico, Jeff Leaman, Chris Hannah

Our boat unloading a previous tour.

Trip to Uganda:

Having spent 82 days on mission working almost 7 days a week I decided to take a trip to Uganda for the weekend of 11 Feb. This included visiting the cities of Kampala and Entebbe.  In addition to lounging around the pool and watching satellite TV I visited a museum in Kampala.  I have a DVD of the displays in the museum which I am bringing home with me. Here are some pictures of other things I did there:

Walking up the hill towards the Baha'i Temple in Kampala

Kampala from the top of the hill on which the Baha'i Temple is situated

Still walking up the hill

Pictures from the Animal Sanctuary in Entebbe

Lion sleeping in the afternoon

Seen in animal sanctuary. Not sure if these were inhabitants or visitors

Did you know that you can hire a car and driver for less than USD $50 per day in Kampala? I found out later that I could probably have hired him for USD$25 but I still think I got a bargain.  Don't bother with taxis if you decide to go for a visit. 

Who to Believe?

Just For Your Information: If I were to be given two news articles on South Sudan where one quoted a United Nations source as saying that there were "X" number of people affected/killed/etc by an event and where the other article did not quote a United Nations source, I would be inclined to give more credibility to the one with the United Nations source.

Homesick in Juba

Wow, massive feelings of homesickness this morning.  Never had it this bad before.  Can't wait to get home to see my family. Only 3 months til vacation.  Miss you all.  Love, Kelly

Putting Out Fires

I'm not talking about administrative fires. I'm talking about real fires.  Chris Hannah came to pick me up at work and as we are driving out of the camp we notice a fire next to one of the buildings and nobody seems to be paying it any attention.  There is no one around tending it and we have no idea if it was deliberately set or not.  So, we immediately leapt into action.

While Chris parked the car I checked to see if anyone in the building knew about the fire.  No one did but only one person, Amit, cared enough to come and look.  Amit, Chris, and I ended up fighting the fire.  Some of the things I learned in my fire extinguisher course came back to me like (a.) do not use CO2 on a paper/cardboard fire (it just blows the burning paper all over the place); and (b.) when using a dry chemical extinguisher make sure that you have your back to the wind and nobody is standing downwind when you let loose (sorry, Amit!).

To be fair, the fire never got much bigger than a 25 foot diameter and the flames never got much higher than 3 - 4 feet.  However, I was dismayed by the lack of concern shown by others (maybe they thought the three of us had it all under control). Even the firehall didn't get too excited once we told them the fire was out.  Oh, well. Another hot and windless day in Southern Sudan ends well.

See below for the incident location
View Larger Map(http://maps.google.com/) 

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from Amit, Chris, and Kelly!!!

Wild, Wild, West

If you ever hear me compare Juba to Dodge City, it's not just because we average 3 murders per day...

In the center-left of this photo you will see a tukel (grass-hut).
These are quickly being replaced with brick buildings.