Random photos of Iraq

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the last couple of weeks out of Erbil due to the implementation of winter activities in the camps across Northern Iraq.  It has been great to escape and see some of the countryside.  So below I have posted some of my favourite shots - enjoy!

Kids make their own fun in the camps - here is two examples.  The first is the lid of a rubbish bin being used as a sled.  The photo below is pipes being re-made into a slippery dip!

The sunsets are just amazing here - really vivid colours.  The other thing that I like - the power poles!  Each city has it's own design - it really makes the ones at home seem quite boring....

And now for some scenery shots.  I really didn't do enough research before I came to Iraq - I knew that that it wasn't all desert but I wasn't expecting the amazing mountain ranges and lakes.  Sadly due to security restrictions I haven't had a chance to go hiking - but would definitely like to come back one day as a tourist and get out there.

And another sunset shot - sorry but they are just lovely :-)

One odd thing about living in the Kurdish region of Iraq is the amount of ferris wheels - it seems even the smallest town has one!  This is the shot of one in Dohuk, however about 50 metres away there is another one as well - must be that demand is high!  Somehow these ones all seem to be working - unlike the Southern Star in Melbourne :-)  We all went for a ride and it was quite entertaining - something to tick off the bucket list!

Off to Iraq....

Well it is that time again, off on deployment!  This time I am in Erbil in Iraq.  I am deployed via Red R Australia to UNHCR (the Refugee Agency) to work on the response to refugees from Syria crossing into Iraq.

So where the hell am I?  Well it is a city called Erbil which is in Northern Iraq (aka Kurdistan).  

I didn't really know what to expect, of course there was some initial worry about going to Iraq given the violence that sadly seems to be increasing.  However, from my first days here I have been really impressed with how nice the people are, how safe the city is that I am living in and how much the Iraqi's remember the Australian football team from 2007!!!!  We also have a reasonable amount of freedom of movement - which is nice for a deployment. 

I have been deployed initially for 6 months, which means that I have arrived in the peak of Summer (it has been averaging 47/48 degrees) and will likely leave in the middle of winter.

I arrived here really not knowing what to expect.  I had of course heard about the Syrian civil war but had not really taken the time to actually understand what it was all about - and after a month here I am not sure if any of it is actually any clearer!

But it has been an interesting time, on my first day in the office this happened....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23745201


So things got busy pretty quickly.....It was pretty chaotic in the first couple of days to get the camps set up, so from my side that meant dispatching as many tents as possible till all hours of the night.  But the result was pretty impressive - behind me in the photo below was just all empty land and within 5 days it had become a mini city with 10,000 residents!

But it hasn't been all work.  This week some friends and I went and played bingo.  Interesting challenge as the numbers were in Arabic yet our bingo card was in English....I got sooooo close to winning :-)

Here is a couple of photos of the countryside around the city where I live - I really wasn't expecting mountains and lots of trees....  I really should do more research into where I am going on deployments!

So that is it for the moment.  Due to some rather pointed requests this time I am hoping to blog more often and with a bit more detail in regards to what I actually do (this is for you Amy!).  Just like last time there will continue to be a Q and A section so feel free to send questions in.....

See you all soon!

The mission continues....

So it has been a very long time between posts....apologies for that but I do have a good reason - I have been very very very busy!!!!

In late May, just as I got back from my last holiday there was an incursion into Abyei from the Northern troops of Sudan.  I say an incursion as it isn't an invasion as the countries have not yet technically split.  And by incursion I mean mortars and shooting... As a result 100,000 people fled from their homes (which have mostly now been burned to the ground) and have moved south.  We are the closest unicef office to all of this so it has been 34 days straight now of dispatching blankets, tarps, medicine and food.  As well some of these IDPs have made their way to Wau so we have been involved in setting up the camp and distribution of supplies.  So all in all a pretty crazy and amazing experience at the same time.  In one day we recieved so many trucks into the warehouse that there was more supplies on those trucks than all our total warehouse space put together - crazy ;-)  

This also means that we have been on a pretty high security alert.  We have had a couple of trucks commandered by various forces which wasn't fun.  The city electricity ran out a couple of weeks ago as the fuel ran out to power it.  Fuel was pretty much non-existant as it came from the North and the borders were closed the day the troubles started.  At its peak if you could find it you were paying $7 USD for a litre of fuel if you could find it.  Food has also run short as most of it came from the North.  However the bigger problem is that Coke is now not available - I can handle many things but not having my daily Coke has almost pushed me to breaking point!  So needless to say life in logistics has been a challenge...thank goodness for generators so that the occasional cold beer can be found ;-)

What this also means is that I haven't had time to do anything but work and sleep - so apologies for being off the grid - I am trying to return emails but there isn't really much to say unless you find logistics stuff fascinating (see previous posting!). This also means that my return home has now been delayed.  All going well I will be back in Melbourne in mid September.  But this does mean that I get to stay for the independance celebrations which are due to occur on the 9th July - it should be one hell of a party!

So moving onto to our regular segment...Question Time!!!

Ben from Footscray in Melbourne asks - What sort of toys do the children in South Sudan play with?

Mostly footballs or bike tyres.  Volleyball is also really popular here - everyone seems to be over 6 foot so it is a natural fit.

Randa from Hawthorn asks - Where do you get your hair cut?
Sadly International Cutz for Boyz does not take female clients so no haircuts as yet Randa.  But I have really long hair now, an easy way to skip the ackward going from short to long hair - move to Sudan ;-)

So no more questions now just some photos...till next time!

Those of you who have been subjected to my yearly Meredith tarp construction project please note - I have been learning from the IDPs and I am ready for this year, rain or shine :-)

Me at my first distribution for NFIs (Non Food Items).  Each family recieves a kit of sleeping mat, cooking set, two mosquito nets, a tarp, blankets, gerry cans and soap.

The problem is...

For all the logistics nerds out there....

The problem we had was removing a container from a truck where we do not have a crane.  The container weighed 3 tonnes (we emptied it first!).

Here is how we did it.

Life continues on...oh and did I mention the Anthrax?!!!!

Well it has been a long six weeks since I last posted – sorry about that!  Life and procrastination got in the way off my attempts at recording life here in South Sudan (to be known officially as the Republic of South Sudan from 9^th July – hurray!).

So the last time I wrote I was in Diani Beach in Kenya – this time I am coming to you live from Jinja in Uganda.  Every 6 weeks we get a week off to relax- for me this means trying to see as much of East Africa as I can.  So I find myself in the adventure capital of Uganda – white water rafting yesterday and hopefully some kayaking tomorrow ;-)  Probably the most exciting part of being away is the food – for the first time in 3 months I had mashed potato – oh the happiness!

Life in Wau has been flowing along….supplies moving into the warehouse and unfortunately not moving out as quickly as I would like.  This is also a good sign as it means that on the whole South Sudan has been pretty calm since the referendum vote for independence.  The whole country just seems to now be waiting and planning for the party on the 9^th July.  Otherwise life has got into a nice routine – work 6 days a week and spend Sundays relaxing  ;-)

The other exciting thing that has been going on in Wau is that they have detected Anthrax in our beef – yes Anthrax!  Until recently I thought it was a white powder that came in envelopes but sadly it can also come in meat.  So I am now a forced vegetarian – it feels very un-Australian.

Instead of some long essay this time I am thinking of a photo montage showing life here in South Sudan – please cue some sort of funky music in order to set the mood for the photos….

The beach in Diani - which is just outside of Mombassa in Kenya.  It was great to get back into the Indian Ocean after a couple of Months of being landlocked!

One of the main streets in Wau.  Pictured above is the rickshaws which are the main form of transport for a lot of people, food and chickens!!!  They cost about 5 pounds (2 USD) to catch anywhere around Wau.  The dirt roads are definitely getting dustier as the weather gets hotter - only a couple of weeks now till the rain starts and they become mud pools.

This is the main supermarket here in Wau - it really is the "Fresh food people", food is often farmed or picked in the morning and sold later that day.  The main veges available are tomatoes, onions and if we are lucky - carrots!

The view as you are landing at Wau airport of some flights that weren't so lucky - always reassuring to see this as you are coming into land on a dirt tarmac!

The view from my safari tent in Jinja (Uganda).  This is the source of the Nile River and much time was spent either in the river dodging the river lizards - aka Nessie or sitting in the hamock contemplating life ;-)

Only a small Q&A this week - luckily my Mum has had most of her questions answered!

Ms V Dreaver-Lacey asks - "What is the fastest land mammal?"
Well Vicki, this is the Cheetah (thanks Wikipedia!).  Can I consider this answer to be your wedding gift ;- )

Mrs K Barns asks - "What are you doing in your spare time?"
Lately it is been playing alot of Texas Hold Em poker - still not sure why!!!  But there isn't really anything else to do here on a Saturday night.  Still not sure if I am any good or not but breaking even which is a good start - I really just have to work on my bluffing!

So that is it - hopefully it won't be so long till my next post....see you all soon!

Welcome to Wau!

Welcome to my blog! I am hoping to break the curse of keeping a travel diary by writing here on a semi-regular basis.  Hopefully my ramblings won’t be too boring for you all!

So here I am Wau, trying to reflect on the last 5 weeks...which at times has felt like 5 months!

Leaving Melbourne was a mission, I wouldn’t really recommend heading off to a 3 day music festival the day before one heads off overseas – chaos (but completely worth it – thanks to the Meredith crew for putting up with my freaking out!!!!).  But then after a whole lot of flying I was in South Sudan and I had absolutely no idea what to expect...other than a whole lotta dirt.

Southern Sudan by the numbers :

People : around 9 million...give or take.

Kilometres of road that are paved : 40 kms (and I think I have driven on all of it!)

Traffic Lights : 3 – all of them in Wau (usually only one working at a time.)

I am in Wau working for Unicef in Logistics.  The primary work of Unicef in my region is in Child Protection, Nutrition and Water and Sanitation.  This means that I am doing everything and anything, from running a warehouse, loading the trucks, identifying where to drop supplies in our states and organising vaccines for a mass measles campaign in the camps of the returnees from the North.  In a usual week I am either in Wau or out in the field, which usually means a very bumpy drive for a couple of hours on some lovely dirt roads.

Living in Wau is pretty good.  The compound that we live in has a cook and a cleaner so I don’t really have to do anything but work – which we do alot!  I am generally working 6 days a week, so have to cram the weekend into Sundays.  I arrived just before Christmas and spent it here in Wau with a group of people from a number of different UN agencies.  It was all a bit of a culture shock as we had a goat slaughtered and then we had to butcher it – welcome to South Sudan!  But it was a really good night that ended up with me making a friend in Johnny Walker – although I renounced the friendship the next day ;-)

Recently we have also had the voting for the referendum to split Sudan into two.  No-one was really sure what to expect, but the 7 days of voting went off pretty well.  The queues on the first day were immense, some of co-workers waited up to 8 hours to vote – can you imagine having to wait that long in Australia – there would be anarchy!

But it was a nice reminder that voting is a privilege as a number of people were voting freely for the first time in their lives – which is pretty amazing.  No post voting sausage sizzle here though – maybe next time?!

So it has been a really exciting time to be here in Wau and I have been loving pretty much every minute.  There have been a couple of “oh sh!t” moments, but no patented Peta Barns freakouts as yet – I would even go as far to say that I have developed some sort of Zen like calm....which I must have acquired on the plane as I was definitely not like this at home!

So now the Q&A section where questions that I have been asked will hopefully be answered...this blogs questions are strangely from one source...feel free to send through more!

Mrs K Barns of Perth asks – what do you eat?

We eat reasonably well, there is definitely a high proportion of rice and meat dishes, but it is broken up with the occasional goat or pig.  There is even an Egyptian restaurant in Wau now – hurray for Schwarma!

Mrs K Barns of Perth asks – where are you living?

I am living in the Unicef guesthouse which is about a 10 minute drive from the Unicef office.  There are 5 international staff and we are all living together in a big house.  The compound is pretty secure, we have 24 hour security and a generator which kicks in when the town power goes off (which is often!).

Mrs K Barns of Perth asks – when do you get a holiday?

This week! We work six weeks and then have a week holiday – so i am making the most of not having a Christmas break by heading off to the beach in Mombassa, Kenya.  I arrive on Australia Day so will be having a quiet beer or three to celebrate the occasion!

So that is it for the moment, below I have posted some photos of life here....thanks for reading this far – talk to you all soon!!!!

Christmas Eve in Wau!  Check out the Christmas tree in the background, well done to Serge for finding tinsel in Wau!!!

New Years Eve before the J.Walker ;-)

One of the Rubb Hall Warehouses I am managing...before the clean up!

How the Returnees are living when the first arrive back in the South, trees are hot property.

Chris Thomas this is for you - when you are ready to leave South Melbourne the hair salons of South Sudan await you!!!

Caroline this is for you - there are donkeys everywhere!!!

Me and the kids ;-)