The Honeymoon Story - Part 1 - Meru

So I tried to write a nice entry updating life since Darfur. But so much has happened and major life changes have occurred (such as getting married and moving to Kenya) that I got a little overwhelmed by the update blog. So I am bypassing the update blog entry and getting to what I really wanted to write about - the honeymoon.

Bryan did a fabulous job at planning our honeymoon. It was all supposed to be a surprise but after wedding #1 I needed some encouragement to get through wedding #2 - so he told me the details before we left. The first stop on the honeymoon safari of our dreams was in Meru National Park. It's this fabulous park north east of Mt. Kenya. The park has 8 permanent rivers through it and there are only a few lodges that access it. That means that the game is fabulous and there are very few people around. We actually didn't see anyone else the whole time we were there. There is a rhino conservation on one end of the park that we didn't make it to but I hear is wonderful. We fit in as many game drives as possible - which means that we were on the road at 6:30 am and did two drives a day. Not much of a sleep in honeymoon but it was fabulous to wake up, bundle up, get into a landcruiser and watch the animals as the sun rises. We also got to do a little fishing. It was great fun! We were catching catfish rather easily. It was so much fun to stand on the banks of a Kenyan river with the snorts coming from the hippos upriver and the crashing elephants on the other side. I highly recommend that you fit fishing in when you come for your visit.

The lodge we were staying at is called Else's Kopje. It's a lodge that's built into a hill in the park. Our room was absolutely amazing! It was two floors plus a sun-deck off the top of the room. The first floor had a couple of day beds on it which you could relax on and with your binoculars watch the game go by at the base of the hill. The second floor was the bedroom and the bathroom. Because of the way the room is built no one can see into the massive open windows at the front of the room. That means that you can have a loo with a view! Yep, no more magazine reading on the toilet - there is lots to look at. And if you decide not to go on the early game drive you can watch the sunrise from the comfort of your bed.

One thing that I love about Kenya is the level of service and hospitality that you receive. It seemed like every time we would leave our room someone would be in there cleaning and making sure that our room was perfect. The food was fabulous and all the staff were so kind. Of course they all loved Bryan - a white guy that speaks Swahili is not all that common. The managers were so kind and we enjoyed our evening drinks with them chatting about life, Kenya and our future. Meru was my favorite park. There was something about it that made you feel like the only one in Kenya enjoying the beauty that surrounded us.

Next stop, Maasai Mara. We hopped back on the plane with a few stops between but we made it for our next location of the dream honeymoon safari ....

Leaving Darfur, Sudan Style

Well it looks like I have seen my last days in Darfur. With only two weeks remaining in my contract when Bryan left I was determined to throw myself into work and make sure all the loose ends were tied up and my handover was done well. In true Sudan style my plans are irrelevant when travel paperwork is involved.

To come to Darfur you must get a travel permit that allows you in the region for a certain period of time. I had one that was valid for one month after I returned to Sudan from my break in February. So once this month was up and with no new travel pass from Khartoum I was able to receive a five day extension with strict instructions that I had to leave at the end of these five days. We were still hoping that my travel permit would come through from Khartoum in time. So after I dropped Bryan off at the airport with our last difficult goodbye before we get married, I got a phone call with our Logistics Manager on the other side saying, ‘Angie, you’re hooped, you have to get out of Nyala tomorrow’. We are used to this feeling of being ready to jump and run at any moment but I was not prepared that this was how I would say my final goodbye to Darfur. Without knowing if I would get a travel pass to come back I had to pack up all I own and somehow get mentally prepared to say goodbye.

I don’t think I have processed it all yet and I think denial is rampant right now but as I sit in Khartoum I am pushed and pulled with various emotions and thoughts. The last month has been a stressful one that has pushed me to my limits on many occasions. Good things have happened in that I was able to get a large amount of funding for the education program for the next year that will make a huge impact on the communities that we work in. Just as successes bring a level of stress it is still Darfur and they are still a long way from peace. A community that we have worked in since we came to Darfur has seen a level of fighting this month that I don’t think it has ever seen before. It has always been rather calm and a consistent location that we have been able to work in even when we had to take a helicopter in because the roads were unsafe. But now due to some rather complicated tribal and political disputes everyone has fled the area and a village nearby has been burnt to the ground. It’s difficult to see this happen in an area that we know so well and have done so much work. As everyone seemed to go on R&R at the same time I had the responsibility to make the final calls on which staff to pull into Nyala and which ones can stay. It’s a responsibility that is not fun and I don’t envy our staff that have to do it on a regular basis.

So in the chaos of pulling staff from the field and saying goodbye to Bryan, I got the news that I have to leave Nyala in less than 24hrs. It’s a strange process to say goodbye to a place that has brought such strong emotions of success, frustration, love and hate for the last two years of my life. I’m not sure what the healthy and best way to do that is, however I can guarantee you that it’s not packing and leaving in 24 hrs. One thing that I can say has been consistent about Darfur is that it has pushed me to my limits and somehow I have been able to get through and learn lessons that would not have been learnt any other way. So I have said goodbye with amazing things ahead of me and am eager to try and walk away from Darfur into the new and wonderful things that are waiting for me.

Oh Sweet Change

It's been great to have Bryan around the last week or so. We have been able to get out to the field a bit so I could show off some of my schools. It's sad to think that this could be my last trip up to the mountains. But it was a great way to say good bye. The schools have done an amazing job constructing their classrooms. Below are a couple of pictures of what the classrooms were like before and what they are like now. I think that the pictures say a lot.


Here's a couple more pictures that I liked from our trip.





I only have a couple weeks left here - at least I think so. I'm still having some travel permit issues which means I may have to leave Darfur early but we'll see. Bryan heads back to Kenya on Sunday and I will join him on the 27th. Then real life begins ... right? It's feels so strange to leave this world of IDP's and classrooms and enter one where I get to think about flowers, food, my favorite people and my soon to be husband. But the change is a welcome one and I am so excited about it.

Bitter Sweet Success

I finally got to visit down to some schools that I have been working with after 6 months of not being able to travel on the road. It was so great to get out on the dusty Darfur roads again. We have had a strict vehicle travel ban for a long time so it was nice to bump along the roads to the Sudanese music that all sounds the same as we wave to everyone as we pass. It was also great to spend more time with some of my new staff and get to know them better.

I was able to see these schools before we brought in supplies and now I am seeing them after 6 months. I have been able to watch student numbers increase from my office in Nyala but it was great to actually see the success of our program with my own eyes. In this area which includes 17 schools, the total student numbers have increased from 6,200 to 6,800 in 6 months.


But as I was being all proud of my team and all the work that they have done our attention was brought to a school on the outskirts of the main town. This area has a group of IDP’s that fled their villages about three years ago and have permanently settled in the town. They are still a very poor population as they have to rent land to farm and find odd jobs in the town to supplement their income. Usually as people first flee an area they live in dome shelters that are covered with anything they can find that will protect them from the elements. Then as they are able to earn some money they build a hut or two for their family. Even after three years many people in this displaced community are still living in their dome shelters. They have a school where grades 1-3 are taught but the classrooms are simple shade shelters that hold up to 100 children in each small shelter. It broke my heart as we saw this community struggle to form some sort of existence and life with the very limited resources that they have. Often IDP’s are marginalized in the communities that host them. This is very evident in this town. All day I was discussing with teachers about their brick classrooms and how they need more permanent classrooms as students 5 minutes away were huddled under a small shelter to keep them out of the sun.

Now comes the best part of my job - I get to see these things and do something about it. We were able to leave some school supplies with one of the teachers and promised them that classrooms were on their way. His smile was the best that I have seen in a long time. It’s that smile of joy and relief that comes from surprises. So as I continue my final tour of my programs I will remember that no matter how far we have come in the last year, little schools like this have to keep pushing us forward.

How to Meet the Man of Your Dreams and Marry Him in Four R&R's

Some of my friends are encouraging me to write a 'How To' book on Bryan and I's whirlwind romance. How it works in Darfur world is that people get breaks which we call R&R's every six to eight weeks. In the last three R&R's since October I have met the man of my dreams and somehow convinced him that he wants to marry me. My fourth R&R will be off to Canada to actually get married. This is a rather uncommon occurrence here amongst this transient community of aid workers. My friends and coworkers are more than excited for me and want to know how they can do the same. I'm not too sure what to tell them but I do highly recommend it.

In February I met up with Bryan in Kenya where he proposed to me overlooking the Rift Valley. It was truly romantic. Then we prepared to head off to very cold Canada to meet the family. We had a great time over eating, spending time with family and friends and trying to plan the wedding during the two weeks that we were there. Bryan's parents were able to come down for a few days which was really great to get to know them and show them the Rocky Mountains for the first time. Our time in Canada couldn't have gone better, we had a great time.

Our time in Kenya before I had to go back to Sudan was extended a little. This we were both very thankful for. We have spent so much time apart that when I had delays in getting a visa to enter Sudan plus a deportation once I got there, we were very thankful for the difficult Sudanese government. However after some apologies for my wrongful deportation and their promises that I could re-enter the country we had the painful task of saying goodbye once again.

So now I sit in very hot Darfur (43 degrees today) and wait for the man of my dreams to come for a visit. Here's a hint for my single friends - when you meet a man that will travel to Darfur to visit you, marry him. In a week Bryan will be coming out here to see the strange place that I have called home for the last two years. It's great timing in that I have to take a grand tour of all my locations over the next month to write final reports and wrap up my time here.

As I prepare all my information to complete my programs for the year I have to say that I'm pretty proud of my team and everything that we have been able to accomplish. Last year when I came in we had one program for about $175,000 and this year I am hoping to pull in $1,200,000 for the education program. So even though I won't be seeing all of this through I'm pretty pleased to leave it on a high note. I will write more about things as I get some more photos and info over the next few weeks.

It's strange to think of leaving Darfur but I'm really excited for the adventures that I'm going to have as a married woman. Who knows, we could be back here together.

Catch Up

Sorry for the silence. I would like to say that it's because I have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to sit down and write. But actually it's a bit of the opposite. Things have been very quiet over the holidays. Not only did we have days off for Christmas and New Years but we also had four days off for the Muslim holiday Eid. I am currently on another four day weekend to celebrate Peace Day (ya a little ironic) and Muslim New Year's. That means that not only is the office slow but helicopter flights are cancelled which limits field trips and most of my friends have taken advantage of all the holidays and went home to see their families. So my lack of writing has not been for a shortage of time but rather a shortage of exciting things to write about.

Christmas was a nice day. We invited a couple of friends over and made a nice meal. I brought in some ham from Kenya so that was a real treat. It was fun to be creative and try and make things look as festive as possible. A frend brought over a
small Christmas tree we played Christmas music and we dressed up my colegue to look like Santa. But a Christmas in Darfur is not complete until you have an electrical fire and some runaway hot coals. So we inlcuded those as well to make the day the best it could be. Even though we enjoyed each other's company our hearts and minds were elsewhere. Once and a while one or two of us would disappear to make phone calls home. For me Christmas is one time of the year that really reminds me how far away I am from my loved ones. It doesn't get easier the longer I am away. But I guess that's a good thing.

I think I offically received the strangest gift ever. All of us have recieved gifts that you kind of wonder what the giver was thinking while trying to be thankful anyway. Maybe it was a useless gadget or a tacky ornament that ends up sitting in a box
somewhere. My strange gift unfortunatly can't be put in a box somewhere until it gan be given away again. A teacher in one of my communities decided that my life would not be complete without my own personal gazelle. I guess this gazelle has brought him so much joy that he wanted to pass it on to me. So he put it on a truck for a three hour ride to Nyala and dropped it off at the office. I'm not really too sure what to do with my new pet. Can I take a gazelle for a walk? Does it play fetch? Is it a lap gazelle and wants to curl up on my lap? I'm not really too sure what to do with it. So right now it's tied up
outside of my room. I go and talk to my new pet and ask it what I'm supposed to do with it but it is rather silent other than little nose snorts. It seems to like me though. It will eat out of my hand and will come up and nudge me when I am giving it water or food. So I think we are friends. But usually I don't tie my friends to a pole so I feel a little bad. Some people have told me that it should be the special guest at a BBQ but that seems a little wrong somehow. I also haven't given it a name yet. So please if anyone has any good ideas for a name for my gazelle please pass them along.