Goodbye for Now

Our training has been completed and I am now in the process of making some final personal pre-deployment preparations. This is basically packing and buying anything that I think I might need while in Sudan for nine months as well as taking a breather, enjoying a little down time, and decide on what to eat as my final meals before leaving Canada.

Overall, I have packed pretty light. Hopefully not too light. Along with our barrack boxes which contained mostly issued kit, we were given two large duffel bags for personal clothing and effects. I barely filled one. I am bringing next to nothing for clothes because I don’t think I’m really going to need that much. Some of the guys in my troop went to Costco and bought tons of food. I am not bringing anything. Personal choice, but I also have no idea what I would want to bring. I am also looking forward to not having all the comforts of home and figuring it out when I get there. I hope I do not regret this. This being said , after being told stories of the potential lack of facilities, wiping your ass with your hand or on a communal stick, and traveller’s diarrhoea, I decided it might be important to bring along my own wiping aid. It was actually a toss up between a smooth rock, Wet Wipes and Depends. You will all be happy to know that I went with the Wet Wipes.

On Friday evening, one of the members of our troop, Charles, invited us over to his home for some traditional African cuisine. He and his family are from Ghana in west Africa. He is a hereditary chief of his hometown in Ghana and his wife, Victoria, is the daughter of a King making her a Princess. I will not go into detail here, but listening to some of his stories is pretty interesting to say the least. The food was delicious. I especially enjoyed the goat. Tastes just like at home mom! One of the side dishes was “shito”, a paste made of shrimp and a variety of pepper and spices. It was really good. I made sure I let the cook know this and sure enough, I was able to scam a big jar to take with me for seasoning my own rice and goat. In addition, Charles had us all try on some traditional African clothing known as a “bubu“ in Ghana. Then he had us pick what we wanted to take with us on our mission. It was totally unexpected and after se veral moments of disbelief at his charity, I picked out what I liked as did everyone else. I think the Portuguese and Ghanians would get along really well. We all had a lot of fun and at the end of the evening, thanked Charles and Victoria for their extraordinary hospitality. I didn’t get to kiss the cook, but I gave her a big hug.

Saturday I finished all of my laundry and picked up some minor last second items at the local mall. The packing was pretty easy. Especially given that I am really not bring much with me. Some of the members of my troop and I headed downtown for the afternoon. We had sushi for lunch. It was great sitting in the sun on a patio, drinking a cold beer, and munching on some fresh tuna sashimi. For dinner we went to a local pub for some steak and more beer to be followed by some more beer and some minor celebration for finally going on our mission.

It’s Sunday now and I am ready to fly out. Everyone in my troop remains positive and we are excited to finally be flying out. Not sure when I’ll be able to fill you in on more, but I’m sure it will be a lot more interesting than the last few weeks have been. I will be sure to post as many entries and photos as I can when I can. Goodbye for now.

Cheers,

Gonzo








This one is for the boys...Future UN Peacekeeper?