Peace?

I don't fully understand the situation here in Darfur and just as I finally do understand something it either changes or I get conflicting information that starts me back at zero. I have never been politically bent. I have no idea what is happening in Canadian politics and I really don't even want to learn. It just doesn't interest me. I do find African politics a bit more interesting because they are a little more dramatic but still on the whole I don't really care about or understand them. There was a group of us that went out for supper the other night and we ended up talking about political leaders like you would normally find people talking about celebrities. Criticizing how they came across in their last speech, who they have been spending time with lately and even what they are wearing. How I got myself thrown into this world constantly affected by the political world that surrounds it I will never know.

So here is the scoop as to what I think is happening here in Darfur right now. You may or may not have heard about a peace agreement that was signed in Nigeria about 4 months ago. One of the rebel groups (SLA) signed the agreement but many others did not. Even the group that did sign, there are rumors that they were forced to do it. Now the leader of that group has been incorporated into the government as part of this peace deal. This has changed the atmosphere here in the little Nyala world that I live in.

Two days ago the house next door to the office became officially a SLA house. I don't really know what that means but from what I can see it means that a rough looking guy with a big gun sits in front of the house and 'SLA' is roughly drawn on the wall behind him. This is a very strange sight here in Nyala. Up until this point Nyala has been a government controlled area. This means that SLA has not been allowed a presence here. Once and a while we will see the janjaweed (the governments milita response to the rebels) in town but I have never seen the SLA. I have also seen trucks full of young men holding up SLA flags parading down the streets. I guess this is supposed to be peace. Allowing the SLA to have a presence in a government area is a show that the government is moving towards forming peace here in Darfur. But remember that this is all a show. These are very surface level declarations of peace. It actually leaves me a little uneasy and makes me watch the situation just a little closer.

But despite all of this our work continues and our vehicles continue to get stuck in the mud. It is rainy season here and a trip to the field has been more digging and wading through water than anything else. Right now we have just sent out a team to pull out a truck that got stuck yesterday in quick sand and is almost up to it's doors in mud. Peace or no peace we still have work to do. But all of these recent changes makes us keep our eyes a little wider and keeps us on our toes to see what will come from all of this.