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September 15th, 2008
Last Spring our school, with the assistance
of many from the community of Summerside, was able to send
120 shoeboxes to our Canadian Soldiers serving around the
world. The reason why we do these types of things can be
found in the responses below.
The first is is a message from a group of
soldiers in Afghanistan. Make to read the messages at
the bottom of the page.
Thank-you
message.
The second is an e-mail received by our
principal.
Greetings Principal Doyle:
My name is Captain Terry Hunter and I am a native of
Charlottetown now living in Ottawa. I am currently on tour
as an unarmed Canadian Peacekeeping Military Observer with
the United Nations Mission in Sudan or UNMIS for short. I
am stationed in a remote teamsite near the village of Torit
in the south of Sudan close to the Ugandan border. There
are two other Canadian United Nations Military Observers (UNMOs)
stationed with me along with 18 UNMOs from various UN
countries around the world.
It is our job to monitor the implementation of the
comprehensive peace agreement signed in by the North and
South Sudan to end the civil war which started in 1956 (in
our location of Torit) and has been ongoing until the
signing of the peace agreement in 2005. It has been a long
terrible war for the people of Sudan with over 2 million
civilians killed over the years. We are busy patrolling to
villages in the area which take about 3- 4 hours to get
there because of the state of the roads in the rainy season.
We do what is called "Village Profiles" to
determine what assistance the villagers require including
schools and wells. Everyday, we see Sudanese soldiers
walking around carrying their AK-47 Assault Rifles. It's
definitely not main street, Canada.
While undergoing two weeks of introductory training in
Khartoum at the beginning of my tour this previous August, I
received several packages directed through the Military
Family Resource Centre in Charlottetown addressed to me.
The packages were dated June 30 by the Belleville, Ontario
post office and were sent from Summerside Intermediate
School. The packages contained several items such as gum,
Crystal Light drink mix, soap, deodorant, reading materials,
trail mix, Kraft Dinner, tooth brushes and toothpaste and
other great items. These items, easily obtained at home,
are unavailable to us over here or difficult or expensive to
purchase in the main city of Khartoum of which we are a two
hour jet flight away. I passed out packages to other
Canadian UNMOs at our residence called Canada House in
Khartoum and also to the other Canadian UNMOs in my teamsite.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to your
students for sending these packages as they are well
appreciated by us. Unlike the Canadian troops in
Afghanistan, Canadian Peacekeepers in the the Sudan are
responsible for providing their own food. We do not have a
mess hall or canteen. Many of us shipped food packages over
in late
June or early July which we started consuming upon our
arrival in Khartoum around August 2nd. Most of my food
consists of canned meat products such as Spam or Corned Beef
commonly called "Bully Beef" by the Canadians during the
First and Second World Wars. Other products that we
previously shipped over (and are having shipped over) are
rice, cereal, canned tuna and ham, condiments, spices,
powdered milk and toiletries.
We are stationed in a UN camp located in the middle of the
Jungle and there are no modern supermarkets to purchase food
in the village. The villagers live in mud huts called Tukul
huts which are what you would see in a National Geographic
magazine. There is a small outdoor market where we can
purchase flat pita style bread and some vegetables
but that is about it. There are some venders that sell goat
meat and beef but it is sitting out in the hot sun all day
and is usually covered with flies. Because of sanitary
conditons, we don't purchase the meat - hence the
reliability of canned meat from home.
Our food packages sent by our families from Canada must go
to Belleville, Ontario to Canada House in Khartoum to Juba
in the south and then by UN helicopter to our teamsite in
Torit. It takes about three to four weeks for this. Our
food packages, unfortunately, do
not have priority on the UN aircraft so they may be delayed
by a week or so.
So the packages sent by your school were much appreciated by
us Canadian Peacekeepers overseas. I've included a few pics
of the myself with some of the children I met in the
villages we have visited and even some of a typical meal we
may eat over here (Bully beef and beans for example).
A couple of articles I submitted have been published online
in The Guardian if you are interested:
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=162844&sc=110
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=165043&sc=110
Please say hello to your staff member Debbie Caissy for me
whom I know.
Best regards
Terry Hunter
Captain
Canadian Forces United Nations Military Observer
Teamsite Torit
United Nations Mission in Sudan
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