Juba

From Entebbe we go to Juba the capital of South Sudan and where the main UN base is. The UN is busy here and our first job was to find accommodations. You are basically left to your own means to find a place except that you can only stay somewhere the UN approves of. If you are lucky and get accommodations on the base, that’s no problem, if you have to find something in Juba that’s a problem. Well there are about 240 people waiting for accommodations on the base. Our contingent split up the lucky ones got some beds in Canada House, the others got a tent in the UN compound by a latrine pit.

Arrival at Juba

Canada House

Me and Kevin two lucky guys who got to stay in Canada House.

I would like to thank the Canadian Military for their hospitality in putting most of the contingent up for short term at Canada House. Canada House is a support base for our military in South Sudan. The guys and girls there were awesome and looked after us.

Thank You.

We did 5 days of more induction training in Juba covering some topics such as land mines, law, and of course we had to get our drivers licenses.

The UN requires everyone to be tested.

Here every vehicle is a standard drive but unlike in Entebbe we drive on the right side, so it was an easy thing to do.

After induction training we were assigned I fully expected to be sent to some far away site location (and was hoping to go), but instead I got assigned a position in Juba.

I was told I was the new Co-location manager?????????

Basically co-location is what we UN police officers are expected to do with the South Sudanese Police Service SSPS. We co-locate with them while they work and offer advice and mentorship. My job would be to facilitate that and bring in new ideas and projects. Sounds boring but after a few days I realized that it would be traveling around the country and putting a lot of work into fixing police issues.

Driving around Juba, the streets are almost all dirt with large ruts and holes. There are no signs or traffic lights. It is chaos but somehow people avoid hitting each other for the most part. Here a UN vehicle got hit by a guy who backed up to avoid a crane backing up on him.

Some kids in Juba, they made pinwheels out of pop cans.

I call this a squat box. I have yet to use one.

My temporary accommodations at the UN base, I was sharing a transient room with some other Canadian police, British military, Swedish military and Australian Military. Good bunch of guys. The tents are to protect against mosquitoes.