A new town & difficult choices….

<>October 24^th 2005, 1925B <>

So this is Muramvya….. It’s a little hard to give a first impression as it was quite late when we arrived, & also the weather had closed in so there wasn’t too much to see. I’ve heard nice things about the place though, so I’m hoping the weather clears up a little by morning so that I can see something of the place where I’ll be spending the next two weeks. One thing I can say is that it’s fairly chilly here, because in addition to the weather here today, Muramvya is also a respectable height above sea level here. Hopefully, like Mwaro, that’ll also mean there’ll be no mosquitoes, & that the weather will be nicer than in the capital.

One thing is for sure, & that’s that I’ll be getting a lot more exercise than is my norm while I’m here. Hell, any exercise is more than what I’m used to :P The reason for this is that the company HQ where I’m staying is in a house at the top of a hill, but the platoons are staying in tents at what looks to be a college further down the valley. It’s not such a great distance between the two places, only a few hundred meters, but it’s a fairly steep gradient in places & I’ll likely be making the trip a few times a day. It also looks as though we’ll be doing PT in the mornings a few days a week, so there’s a chance that I’ll be somewhat fitter & also thinner by the time I get back to Bujumbura on the 7^th. The “thinner” will be especially welcome, as I overdid it just a little on the Chinese & beer while I was in town, & my ass is just a touch wider than it was two weeks ago :P

I have to confess that the lazy bastard in me is really not looking forward to the jogging in particular, but it’ll be good for me so I shouldn’t complain. I know I’m going to struggle though, because I’m really going to battle with the altitude here – between the smoking & the embolism I had a few years ago my lungs are not in the best of shape. But if I have any sense whatsoever I’ll make use of this opportunity to get into the habit of doing at least some regular exercise. I don’t know as I’ll get that right, but it’s worth a try.

Otherwise about all else that happened today is that I handed in the statement to extend my deployment to August next year. Both my boss & Lt Col Munday decided to endorse it, & now it’ll go to the Contingent Commander for his input. I really can’t see him having any reason not to support it, so I expect it’ll arrive at Joint Ops in Pretoria for final approval before too much longer. The only people I expect to have any issue with my wanting to extend my stay here are my OC & RSM at the unit in Durban, because it’ll mean I’ll have been away from the unit for over a year all told. But me staying here means they won’t have to struggle to find someone to replace me in February, so I don’t really expect any trouble there either. As soon as I hear anything back, I’ll let everyone know what’s going on.

This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in a very long time, & I’m not happy at all that I’ve been placed in a position where I felt that it was necessary to stay on longer. The cost of staying is not going to be cheap, & it’s going to be a long ten months between now & August next year, but the prospect of not having any sort of safety net in the all too likely event that I’ll be dismissed next year leaves me feeling that I have very little choice but to ask to stay. At least I’ll be getting those two weeks off I mentioned in the last post, so I should get to spend at least some time with the people I care about in around another 3 months.

That’s it for now though, as it’s been a long day & I’m pretty tired. I’m going to make myself some coffee & then climb into bed where it’s warm. Hopefully I’ll get to upload this to the blog fairly soon, as there are apparently a number of net cafés’ here in Muramvya. That’ll also mean that comms with home shouldn’t be too bad while I’m here, as I should have access to email.

Till next time though.