Lost In Somaliland

about jackperschke

Hargeysa, Somaliland, Aug 16, 2006  – The last week has seen me stuck in the wilds of Somaliland while the heaviest rains in 40 years made all the roads impassable. The only way I could get home was via a 140 Km detour that took me into a town that only 2 days before had been the mustering point for a posse sent out to kill, beat or kidnap me!! It's all been a rather fraught few days. Garbled messages over the radio, torrential downpours, stuck landrovers, mechanical failures, incredible kindness from strangers and then a high speed dash through a town that's home to a man who felt that stopping our work would be better than it happening where he didn't want it. I must confess that for the first time in many years I found where my patience ends. For some hours on Thurs night, while our landrover was waist deep in a seasonal lake, I was being walked off into an unknown village in the dark for yet another unscheduled night in the field, still unsure as to the location of my would-be assailants, I was deeply unpleasant company. However, incredibly I have made it home and you'll be glad to hear am, once again, excellent company!! So anyone who feels like passing this Friday afternoon by writing me an email is encouraged to do so.

There is lots of change in the programme with our Programme Manager heading off to Sudan to form the HALO advance guard there in preparation for a full scale deployment later in the year. We have taken on a new trainee expat who was working out here with Handicap International until last month when Suds and I poached him. So I'll be running his training as well as taking over as programme manager for a couple of months. I'm really looking forward to it as I can't believe that many 26 year olds can claim to employ more people than anyone else in their country. I can already feel the power rushing to my head!!

Source: Travel Pod

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