Christmas in the Desert

Not quite what my Xmas looks like this year..
But I can never resist this one :)

Have a wonderful holiday everyone, I miss you xx

Hungry for 20 years...

I was just reading about the Global Hunger Index and was saddened to observe two countries I deeply care about have shown no improvement in 20 years.. Sudan and Nepal, both still falling into the "Alarming" category.  Cambodia on the other hand, again, close to my heart, has improved from 'Extremely Alarming' down to Alarming. Still not exactly in a great place though, especially considering the amount of aid that has poured into Cambodia over the past 2 decades.  It really makes me think. What are we doing wrong with tackling global hunger? How can we make bigger impacts on poverty reduction? What can we do better? I am motivated though, rather than deterred, to continue to work in this field and work on innovative programmes that explore new ways to secure people's food supply. To hypothesize, trial new ideas and to embrace local knowledge. And be part of a community as we attempt this. 


Drag the pointer on the fancy  map below to any country you are interested in and you can see what it was in 1990 and then today in 2010. You can move the map across with the mr.google handy hand....

We are fishing in the desert...

A friend just posted these pictures of the returns I mentioned below.
I did not take my camera this time, as it was a bit sensitive.
But now I can share with you through these...

A day of mixed emotions.. Another day in Darfur..

Today I went and assisted UNHCR with some 'returns'.

In this case, internally displaced persons (IDPs) voluntarily leaving the IDP camps (the infamous Kalma Camp in this case), and returning to their villages, deemed safe by the UN agencies. 

We provide them some food rations, usually enough to last them about 3 months. Just enough time for them to get settled and re-established in some kind of livelihood. 

UNHCR makes sure they get other good things, like blankets, sleeping mats, jerry cans for water and, most importantly, safe transport back home - in this case, 3 days drive on the back of a truck. 

So I went out there to the 'transition site', not quite knowing what to expect. 

There, with the cool winter winds blowing desert sands over us, I found hundreds of women mostly with very young children. They had lived in these camps for some 6-7 years. Most of their children had been born in these camps. Some had been married here. They were now  ready to return to the village they had once called home. 

I helped out here and there, where I could, mostly directing the people to their transport, buses for the vulnerable and trucks for the strong, checking their cards, carrying their items for them, carrying their babies for them - as they already had their hands quite full, before they even got their blankets, mats etc.

I looked into the eyes of the children who stared up and me. Mostly less than five years old. I never know how to feel... sad for them and what their future holds, out here in this desert..or happy that they are the ones we can attempt to help..?

The people started arguing at one point, as the truck-bed was too high up for them to climb up onto.. So I pushed through the crowd, grabbed the side of the truck and jumped up.  Everyone stopped and looked at me, then began to laugh, and one brave woman came forward, handed me her belongings, I took them and took her hand and pulled her up.  Pulled her up to her future life, took her babies from her arms, settled her into the truck for the three day journey into her new life. 

Right there in that moment,  I felt like I had her future in the palm of my hand.. I was playing a part in her life. Her new life. 

And then, one after the other, men and women and children started coming forward, handing me their belongings, looking up at me, holding out their arms for me to take. And then before I knew it, we had put the last woman and her three little babies on the busses  and the army escort were blowing their horns, anxious to get away as quick as possible to make it to the first check-point before curfew. I watched them go, watched them leave for West Darfur, watched those lives I had just played a small part in leave mine. They may return to Nyala one day. But I knew they would never to return to my life.

"Masalama"... 

Hero's and Sharks...

I wanted to tell you about this amazing man I read about on the boat.  His name is Hans Hass.  A Pioneer. Of many things: Diving in the Red Sea, underwater photography, making underwater films, marine biology, conservation and of course -  diving with sharks!  He first came to Sudan in 1949, on his own, all the way from Austria, with self-designed dive equipment and embarked on a journey that many would ultimately follow...

"I am gliding like a bird. The world around me is blue and limitless. Far below me are bizzarre, beautifully decorated towers. Colourful birds - or perhaps fish - circle about these mysterious buildings... i dare to enter a region where no one else has gone before. I am alone... I live not in medieval times, but in the twentieth century - and still there are unformed continents, untrodden and unexplored."  HH. 

And here he is, with his beautiful wife Lotte, who accompanied him on all his adventures. Romantic!

(oh by the way we saw 3 Hammerheads and about 5 White Tip Reef Sharks while diving on our trip. And sharks are now even more one of my favourite creatures on the planet. Please watch Sharkwater if you have time - it will change your life, I promise you, it changed mine).

P.s. you can watch the whole documentary on YouTube in 9 parts. 

Or - come visit me and borrow my copy :)

P.P.S.  Pictures credited from Hans Hass. 

The Red Sea, Sudan

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a new side to this country I currently call home. 
A side I had never imagined living out here in this war-torn desert: 
Immense natural beauty, free and safe for the exploring. 


Below are some images of the beauty that my eyes beheld..

Pictures by CCM... Thank you. 

Way Down South...

kids in Juba, Southern Sudan's future

Sudan is on the brink.. yet again.. Perhaps the biggest of its life.  The ensuing Divorce is less than 40 days away.

I sit here in the official 'North' and look on.

We seem a very long way from this North-South debate though. Darfur obviously has its own, special blend of war to wear on its sleeve.  But more importantly, I see people who do not identify with the North-South, Arab-African, Muslim-Christian divide that plagues the rest of this country. I see people, just trying to get on with living their day to day existence; feeding their kids, praying, making it through another night. People who have little understanding of the politics of Khartoum or any knowledge that there are Oil fields in existence in their own country. 

But of course, this divorce will affect everyone in this country.  In one way or another. Even our southern Sudanese staff have started slowly disappearing of late, heading home for the  vote. Will we ever see them again? Will they need a passport and visa to work here in the future?

Some articles I found interesting....

"After the referendum, everything will change. Everything will be easy," teacher Myau Deng Adur said. "For sure we will have buildings."

Another war in Sudan could cost the country and its neighbours US$100 billion in lost economic output as well as humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance..

“The rhetoric by all parties must also be toned down – I repeat, the rhetoric by all parties must also be toned down - something we warned about during our last visit to Sudan. Only then will the public feel secure enough to turn out to register and to vote, without repercussions, wherever they live,”