“On the Road Again…”

September 24th 2005, 1550B

This is probably going to be the last update for awhile as I’m off to the bushes again on Monday. I’m going back to Mwaro for another two weeks, & I’m quite looking forward to it even if I’d have preferred to go to one of the other bases this time around. There’s still plenty of time left to visit all of them before I come home, so I’m not going to complain. It’s out of Bujumbura, & that’s what matters :P There’s talk that the battalion is going to establish another base in the forests in the north of Burundi, which sounds like it could be fun. Apparently it’s a beautiful area, with lots of wildlife & birdlife, so I’m holding thumbs that the rumours have a little substance to them.

Speaking of rumours, the other day I heard another version of the story about the extension to the deployment. This time it was said that we’re not going to be staying longer after all, & that we’ll be back in February as originally planned. The mission is still due to end in May or so, but evidently the idea is that the next contingent that comes up here will be a small one tasked with packing up all the equipment for shipment home. The usual qualifier still applies, that this is subject to confirmation, but I’ll keep my ears open & pass along anything I hear.
It’ll be nice to come home in Feb, but I have to confess that I’m thinking that maybe I should ask to stay here till the mission ends in May. Before you wonder, I’ve not suddenly taken leave of my senses and I’m going to think about it a LOT more before I put anything in writing though. A lot is going to depend on just when exactly the mission is going to end, and also whether or not I’ll get chance to come home for a break at some point - if there’s not going to be opportunity to come home for a break, then I really doubt that I’ll ask to stay longer.
That the extra money will come in very handy goes without saying, but the main reason I’m thinking of applying to stay longer are the arrangements to get the vehicles & equipment home at the end of the mission. The chances are that the vehicles will driven as far as Dar es Salaam & then transported by ship either to Durban or Cape Town, & the idea of a road trip through Tanzania at state expense has a certain appeal to me. How many opportunities like that arise in a lifetime? I mean, people pay BIG money to do this kind of thing, so the chance to do it for free – actually, to be paid to do it :P – is not something I’m inclined to dismiss out of hand. This is just a pipedream for now though, but I’m certainly giving it some serious thought. And again, the extra money won’t hurt lol

Otherwise, for a change I’ve been fairly busy the last few days. Mostly it’s just been escorts for the municipal elections that happened this last week, but it got me out of the base & kept me amused. Sitting in an armoured vehicle in the heat was rather uncomfortable at times, but it was much better than sitting around the camp with my thumb up my ass. I also got to take a few photos during the escort missions, if not too many. All the same, it was good to get behind the lens again as I’ve not had chance to use the camera much lately. I’m not too happy the photos I took though, but there are a couple that aren’t too bad which I’ll upload when I get chance.
Speaking of uploading photos, I’ve added another gallery to the collection at TravelGallery. The new gallery is all photos of the refugees from the camp at Mwaro, kind of a photo study project. I’m a little disappointed with the quality of some of them – I had to crop a few quite drastically unfortunately – but overall I’m really happy with the way they came out. With a little luck I’m not the only one who thinks so & you’ll like them too :P

One thing that happened this week that I’m quite unhappy about is that my friend Tiaan will be going back to Durban on the next available flight. He’s even unhappier about it though, as it’s because of trouble at home. Hopefully he’ll be able to sort things out quickly, but it’s very unlikely that he’ll be coming back however things turn out, so I’m going to be a little short of friendly company from now on. That’s a very minor consideration compared to the shit he has waiting for him at home though & he’s really not doing well right now, so I hope things work out for him.
The next flight is only on Thursday or so, which isn’t helping his sense of humour any, but we’re doing what we can to keep him busy & distracted. A few of us are going to drag him off to the “beach” at the lake tomorrow to oggle the girls in bikinis, which should hopefully be fun for all and cheer him up a little.

That’s about it for now though, so I’m going to finish this off for now & spend the rest of the afternoon editing a few photos. I might type up another post tomorrow depending on how the day goes, but failing that I’ll catch up again when I get back from Mwaro in a fortnight.

Cheers till then ;)