Here's the thing...

Have you ever had one of those days where you look up from your desk and think… ‘what am I doing here? Seriously. How did I get here?’ I’ve got three Word documents open at the moment. One is titled: Gunshot trauma kit instructions. One is titled: Humanitarian crisis looms in Sudan . And, one is titled: UNICEF Guidelines on soap requests. I have no desire to work on any of them. I was walking back today from a meeting, uphill, through sand. Geneina is covered with this incredibly fine sand – the kind they fill hourglasses with. The kind that, if it’s piled up, you can’t ever get to the top of because it keeps giving way under your feet. To say it was a walk is an understatement. It was a slog and all I could think of was that this is how Darfur is. No one can get their footing and just when you start to think you’ve got somewhere – there’s a peace agreement, or a ceasefire, or just several days in a row without a crisis or evacuation – things give way and you slide back down to th...

Greetings from the back of beyond. I thought I'd seen all the places that comprise the 'middle of nowhere' but apparently not. It’s about 10pm at night and it’s been a bad day. Day 2 in Geneina and we have a hostage situation in one of our field locations in which 2 staff were taken by some Janjaweed and held in ransom for compensation of some other killing. Mind you, they were taken accidentally - happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - but that’s of little comfort when you realize that the people who took you couldn't care less and have every intention of killing you when they don't get their money and are being controlled by a very dangerous (read: evil) leader. I know there is much discussion about whether we can identify men/nations as evil but this man is unequivocably evil. I digress. They ended up being released and are now waiting for a helicopter to free up on the UN rota so that we can evacuate them. Anyway, I’ve not had the best day a...

Self-Cleaning Underwear Goes Weeks Without Washing My day has just been made. Seriously! Having lived for most of the past year in a country where we don't have washing machines and it is culturally inappropriate to have our cleaners wash our underwear you have no idea how happy this has made me. I have spent far too many a Friday afternoon soaking and washing underwear. In fact, have gone so far as to buy more underwear so that I can get away with washing them as infrequently as possible. God bless the U.S. military. I knew we kept them around for a reason!

Well, after a rosy and lovely period of complete relaxation in the States I arrived back in Khartoum where all the talk is 'plan B'...meaning, are we going to get bombed? Probably not, but the one thing that I've learned about Darfur is that just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. Over the past three weeks this place has slid into (nearly) Somalia-like chaos. No, I take that back, there are pockets of Somalia-like chaos all over the place and then pockets of relative normalcy. Unfortunately, the pockets of relative normalcy are down to exactly: two. Added to this I am being transferred for four weeks to Geneina. How do I explain Geneina? Geneina is a good time. It's close to being the most insecure place I can think of. It's on the border with Chad - where the rumour is that 2000 Chadian soldiers are lining up to take the town. NGOs lose about a car a day there and so we have a complete ban on our vehicles leaving the compound. Bullets came through ...

I find it hard to write about what is going on while I am in the States - mostly because everything seems so darned normal. Despite this, I'll put up some pictures of what I've been up to over the past several weeks. Left Darfur: Arrived Jordan: Left Jordan, arrive JFK. Tempted to kiss the flag. Five hours in JFK before leaving for DC. Three days in DC then to Cape Cod: Leave Cape Cod for Christmas in Vermont: Leave Vermont, return to Cape Cod, return to DC, fly to Chicago: See Friends: Eat: Return to DC for New Year: Pack up all the fun goodies that can be acquired in the Western World and fly back to Darfur! Hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a very blessed New Year! P.S. Oh yeah! I bought an adorable 1973 British mini cooper with a little flag on top. Pictures will be forthcoming.