Fraser's blog

Well, new blog software anyway Thanks Marcus!

I'm going to leave the style as is for the time being and play around with all the features when I'm on Broadband... which will be in just over a week. Yes, I'll be in France from next Friday evening until the 2nd of October. No doubt after I've slept for a few days I'll be more social,

Anyway, tonnes to do, so back to work....

I just thought I'd mention it, since it is the dry season and so far we have only had three showers in 3 months! The smell of the dust falling is wonderful, and there are rivers of red dust running off the roof. I don't think it is going to last more that 5 minutes, which is a pity, and of course it won't do anything for the water levels in the reservoirs, so won't effect the power shortages and therefore we'll still have to put up with the noisy generator which is running today.

Back from another sail - out at least once each of the last 3 weekends now. Trapeze working better now the length of the wires have been adjusted, but still hard to keep a grip on the boat with bare feet. Waves not so big today, but still enough to make it hard to keep a steady course. Was hoping to get more than one boat out, but again not a lot of interest from the other owners. I guess it is the middle of winter....! (Water temp is probably only 25 deg C)

From http://www.sundayobserver.lk - Sri lanka:

Known as the Switzerland of Africa, Burundi is the highest geographical location in the continent. The land locked former Belgian colony has ended a 10-year civil war with several rebel groups following a peace agreement.

The tribal war took more than 300 000 lives and made over a million people, internally displaced or living abroad as refugees, according to the UN. In a recent election, a new government has been formed in alliance with the rebels who are the majority in parliament.

Reports reveal that the war has reduced the country into becoming the world's third-poorest country. Even more startling, the government depends on the taxes it gets from beer consumption for more than half of its annual revenue. The peace agreement termed the "Arusha Accord" signed in August 2000 transferred the Presidency from the Tutsi minority to the Hutu majority.

In a country that has about 7-million people baHutu makes up 85 percent of the population and the baTutsi the balance 15 percent.

Burundi produces the best coffee in the world. Its major natural resources are nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper, platinum, vanadium and hydropower. It produces cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, cassava, beef, milk, hides light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap and light industrial products.

Hiding blankets and shoes is an economic activity? Well I never!

I’m back from my second break - two thirds of the way though this mission.... less than three months to go. In fact, due to the LogCo days in Holland at the beginning of October, I might even be back in the UK sooner than my normal end of mission date (18th October). I meant to update people and the blog last weekend, but due to a huge influx of expats and a very busy week (meetings, colleagues going off on holiday, and the usual need to catch up with the week I was away) I’m only getting round to it today.

This time I flew to Mombassa and headed straight down to Diani beach. Unfortunately the combination of being low season, the weather being poor and the beach resorts being really geared for all-inclusive European package holidays meant that it was less successful than my previous break in Zanzibar. I did get one day of diving in, but the visibility was not great and the next two days of diving were canceled due to the weather. In the end I headed up to Mombassa itself and spent the remaining 3 days walking aound the streets of Mombassa, shopping, and watching the Tour de France on satellite TV.

I noticed that the not-quite-ginger person has recently posted her first message in ages... which prompts me to do the same. It’s been a very busy few weeks and apologies to all for not being more in touch. Over the last few weeks we have had periods with out HOM in town, an evolving refugee issue to respond to and just yesterday the country’s first elections in about 12 years. I also managed a field trip to our most remote project (no water, mains electricity but beautiful countryside and a very welcoming team).

So today is the day after elections. Yesterday there were some explosions and sustained gunfire in the morning and sporadic shots thoughout the day. Voting in five communes near Buja was disrupted, but overall I think the consensus is that the day went quite well. Quite what happens when the results come out we don’t know, so for the moment we are not moving around much and keeping our ears and eyes open.

As for me, I’m quite tired, despite the relatively relaxing field trip. I’m roughly halfway through my mission and still need to slow down if I am to make it to October. As always, the work is both deeply satisfying and incredibly frustrating. But even on the bad days I can think of much worse places to be. Maybe it is time to start thinking about my next holiday. More diving? Or do I visit Europe so that friends from the UK get to see me and I am reminded of what a real summer feels like?

Just back from seeing this film with an audience of NGO and UN people. The story is well known and this film tells it well - it would be a draining experience at the best of times, but given where I am working, how Burundi and Rwanda’s problems share common roots and how the repercussions of the genocide are still being felt today, its effect is magnified. Even then it can’t convey the enormity of what happened only 11 years ago. One not to miss.

In what appears to be an amazingly short length of time, I reached the one third point of my current mission and so headed off for a much needed break. Unfortunately, due to the way flights work, I elected to have only a short break, flying out on Monday and coming back on Saturday. To avoid having to make decisions I headed directly to a beach recommended by some of my colleagues and was immediately faced with a choice: Do I spend my precious four days sleeping in and lazing on the pure white beach, occasionally dipping into the emerald crystal clear water? Or do I do what I have no got round to doing yet and doing my open water dive qualification? With only four days it was tight, but the nice people at the scuba-do dive centre said it was possible, given that it was low season and things were fairly quiet. So I did it... in three intensive days, and still managed to get a much-needed lie-in on the Friday.

The waters were amazing - although we had to fit in all the exercises into the dives, there was still time to enjoy the abundant underwater life and the near-30m visibility. I can’t imagine there are many better places to learn to dive.

On Friday afternoon I headed to Stone Town - very much worth a visit... very arabic and un-african. In fact I can thoroughly recommend Zanzibar as a holiday destination. Off-season it is quiet, and I believe currently only about 650 euro return from Europe.