I'm sorry that I have been a little quiet. It's not been for a lack of things to write about it has been just plain laziness. New Years was pretty good. We went to one of the other NGO's for their big party. The government has a set curfew for us of 11:00 pm so we had to do the official countdown at 10 so everyone could get home in time. Then myself and one of the other guys out here rang in the new year with a little Grey's Anatomy. Sounds a little lame I know. Grey's Anatomy has been my latest TV show addiction. It has enough drama in it to keep me interested and it seems to be set in an environment so far from what is happening here in Darfur that it allows me escape from my reality for a while.
The other expats are almost all back from holidays so work is slowly starting to return to normal. It's nice to have everyone back. We are currently moving our office because our neighbors are a little unstable. When the peace agreement was signed back in May it brought one part of the rebel group in agreement with the government. So this allows them to have a presence in the government areas. So they moved in next door to our office. It's a bit of a conflict of interest to see the SLA trucks and flags flying next to SP's. It's also an odd feeling to step out of the office and see a bunch of guys in their garb and AK47's. So all this to say we realized it's time to move. So we found an office right next door to our guesthouses. So now we can only blame ourselves if we have bad neighbors.
The security situation has changed again. One area that we have been working in south of Nyala has now become unsafe to work in. So we have stopped all operations there. That used to be considered the safe and stable area to be in. However, the more insecure area north of Nyala has now completely opened up to us. For many reasons that are more complicated than I can actually explain it is now probably the safest place for us to work in. So our areas have completely switched and once more we have to re look at our strategy and adjust ... again. But because of recent fighting in the north there are a lot of IDP's that have fled to the areas that we are working in. So this means a lot of emergency food and non food items will have to be distributed. So there is a lot of work to do.
I am planning an R&R in the middle of February for Egypt. It looks like I will be going with me, myself and I so I have decided to find an all inclusive on the beach and just relax. I'm looking forward to it. I really need the break. I am starting to turn into this grumpy finance lady and not liking myself too much. So it's time to step back and get some perspective so I can come back with some fresh cheerfulness. It's coming to that time again of reconsidering what my plans are. This one is a hard one. I really like it out here and living in the field like this is what I want to be doing but I am having a hard time getting excited about doing finances for another year. So I go back and forth on what I want to do. It's hard to reconsider your life plans every year. I guess that's what everyone should do and it's a good exercise but tiring none the less.
So that's a quick update on me. More later when I'm not so lazy :)
