Update from Danan?

Not been emailing too much, since as yet I don’t have the computer we use for connecting to the Thuraya - and also been rather busy. 12-hour days everyday including Saturdays, and the heat and humidity is not conducive to much activity in the evenings. I have not managed to get out on a run so far, the most exercise being a 10-minute walk to work. I did a longer walk around the town with a couple of colleagues on Sunday evening, stopping for ten minutes to watch a football game between the Force Nouvelle (the ‘rebels’) and Licorne (the French force). All is pretty relaxed here at the moment, although whether the president meets the FN’s demands and whether that is enough to allow the next stage of the peace process to begin, is anyone’s guess. Certainly if the size and activity of the market is anything to go by, the population is feeling safe enough to get on with life. I was out shopping today with my right hand man for building supplies and the choice of items is pretty extensive. Tomorrow I’m going to pop over to Man (just over an hour away) to buy more supplies and if possible chat with my opposite number at the region hospital run by MSF Belgium.

While we still don’t have mains water (the pumps are broken again) and the phone connection with the outside world is still completely burnt out, we do have 24 hr electric power that is pretty steady with very few cuts and fluctuations. Even the streetlights work. Both filling stations have been looted, so we get our diesel trucked in (the next load is coming in on Thursday - I’ve got to work out where I’m going to put all 8000l)

Keeping up with world events thanks to the Economist (the one magazine we have sent each week) and BBC World Service. The iPod’s pretty vital too - getting through those 240 episodes of Just a Minute.

Loads of stuff to type, but feeling lethargic and it has been a very busy day, so I think I’ll leave it for now.