Another day at work in South Sudan!

Hope all is going well with you guys. I’m enjoying it so far. Will be coordinating and redeploying by helicopter with another platoon of government soldiers again today. Lots of rebel militia group activity in my area so very busy supporting the government forces trying to bring stability to the area.  

All the best,

 Dave

Hi Susan,

I hope all is well with you and DGMPRA. I am now in Juba, South Sudan (the new capital) and the mission UN HQ.  We have completed the admin and training and on Monday I will be flying by helicopter, a one hour ride North, to my team site in ‘Bor’, a village on the White Nile River (Bor means ‘wetlands’).  I am the only Cdn assigned to the sector/state of Jonglei, which is thousands of square kms. The main concern in the area is the instability resulting from inter-tribal conflicts as opposed to the threat of invasion from the north (Sudan), which is still happening along the border in some areas. Accordingly, our main goal is to stabilize the area so that the nation building can progress (food aid, medical facilities, police etc). As expected, very hot, dirty and poor. Generally the local population is friendly but for safety reasons we restrict our movement at night to vehicles only. In Juba there is rarely any power so hard to see anything at night anyways. In Bor, there is limited internet access and food so next week will bring new challenges. So far, and despite the frustrations with working in the UN,  all is going well.

Please pass on a Merry Christmas to all!

Dave