Monday, April 25, 2011

UNMIS Dust Storm

4.24.11

I work all of Easter Sunday editing a big report. By 6 pm I am ready to escape the compound and get some air. What to do? Get in the Land Cruiser and drive to someone else's compound, of course. There's supposed to be an expat Ultimate Frisbee game at UNMIS - the United Nations Mission in Sudan. I played an Ultimate game my second night in town and did ok by keeping my throws short and employing an inelegant and loud yet effective two-handed clamper catch. I didn't want to be the new guy who drops the Frisbee, so I made extra sure with the clamper.

We climb down from the big Land Cruiser at the muddy entrance to UNMIS. This place is big and guarded, home to several thousand UN peacekeepers. We hand in our IDs at the front gate and put packs through a metal detector. Then start the long walk on flat dirt roads to the playing fields.

We get there - two Americans and a Brit, but no one else for Frisbee. In the distance we see some Bangladeshi soldiers wearing red and white gym uniforms enthusiastically playing volleyball together - there appear to be 25 to 30 of them on each side of the net, and they are having a good time. I was here last week at sundown when three Bangladeshi soldiers came outside to lower flags while one of them played a mournful military tune that sounded a lot like Taps. All of the Frisbee players stopped and stood at attention facing the flags while the bugler played.

I ask why there are so many Bangladeshis - the UN peackeeping forces are supposed to be from different countries, right? My companions shrug. Apparently it's Bangladesh's turn to pony up a bunch of peacekeepers for Sudan. There are more than 10,000 UN soldiers in Sudan, some posted in the troubled area that will become the new border between Sudan and Southern Sudan in July, when Southern Sudan officially becomes independent. Many are out in Darfur.

No Ultimate game - canceled for Easter but we didn't get the e-mail in time. So we take a walk around a dirt exercise track hugging the perimeter of the embanked, fortified compound. There are tall towers made out of canvass blocks filled with earth every couple hundred yards, manned by helmeted Bangladeshis holding machine guns. Coils of concertina wire spreading out in all directions.

My companions know each other well and I am new, so they do most of the talking between themselves. I have uninteresting questions that  no one wants to answer.

Do you guys know what kind of tree that is?

No.

It looks like a sea grape tree, but I'm sure it's not.

Polite pause before resuming their conversation.

Any idea what's on the other side of the bunkers?

Umm.....Sudanese landscape?

We see rain coming. The wind changes and we are a good ways from the sheltered entrance. A pair of 10-wheeled white-and-black UN tanks beep at us as they roll by. Fat drops fall and dust and small rocks sting our bare legs. Ahead of us the wind begins picking up curtains of dirt and sand from everywhere and blowing it across our path. We cover our faces with our shirts, turn our backs to the blasting dust and start running just before the rain begins dumping in buckets. We make for a thatched-roof bar with cheery Christmas lights ahead a hundred yards or so, and scramble inside. To my delight, Arsenal vs. Bolton is on a big flat-screen TV. We tuck into some Kenyan lagers and wait out the storm.

1 comment:

  1. Catching up on your beer drinking and futbol in a very unlikely place...

    ReplyDelete