Thread: Employment Opportunities

600 posts! congrats

These two young'uns were brought to the front gate by someone seeking $$$ for their release....a fairly normal way of doing things in Somalia.

A kind hearted soul brought them, and they are currently secure in our camp while the arrangements have started to get them out to a place that will be able to raise and release them. Probably somewhere involving their first ride in an airplane.

Hopefully, a good news story to come out of Somalia. We shall wait and see if it makes the world media or, if it is kept below the radar.





We can only wonder what their life story was before this. Only God knows where they come from and what has happened to their mother and pride.

Originally Posted by BBC

These two young'uns were brought to the front gate by someone seeking $$$ for their release....a fairly normal way of doing things in Somalia.

A kind hearted soul brought them, and they are currently secure in our camp while the arrangements have started to get them out to a place that will be able to raise and release them. Probably somewhere involving their first ride in an airplane.

Hopefully, a good news story to come out of Somalia. We shall wait and see if it makes the world media or, if it is kept below the radar.





We can only wonder what their life story was before this. Only God knows where they come from and what has happened to their mother and pride.

so... have names for the little 'uns been allocated?

pity they arent white...I can think of a name...and a theme song ....

Thanks mate, keep up the great work (its gotta be a book I tells ya!!)

digger

Out and about again today from the Airport Base, up to the Parliament House, down to the Sea Port, and then all the way out to the Academy.
Parliament House is under Ugandan Command, as is the Sea Port. The Academy is under command of the Burundians. In between, it is Somalia at it’s best; chaotic.

Km 4, a joining of roads from the Airport, Sea Port, and out toward Km 50, a real juncture in the city. Not so busy today. The seas have become rough because of the winds coming from the continental middle east, which is reducing the commerce coming through the port:



The donkey carts are full of ‘prickly pear’. How many people in Australia can remember the environmental threat that prickly pear once presented on the eastern seaboard, especially in QLD?

In Somalia, prickly pear is used as a food source and is used by the people as a ‘gelling’ agent for the mud used as a sealant over their blockwork in their housing:


A tattered and torn place. On the road toward Parliament House:





Looking up into Parliament House:



You know you are in a troubled state if your public institutions need this much defence:




Looking over toward the port:



Mmm…seems to be a busy place:



Still a hint of Italy:




Remnants of monuments outside Parliament:



On the road to the Sea Port, the Aruba Hotel. Maybe once a 3 star palace; now a -3:



Now a Ugandan Fwd Operating Base




How the locals are living. You can see how beautiful this place must once have been:





The market outside the Port:



One view of Mogadishu:



We were out and back again, all too quickly. Still, to this day there were parts of Italy, it’s colonial history, that Somalia would want…. to claw back.

Originally Posted by digger

so... have names for the little 'uns been allocated?

pity they arent white...I can think of a name...and a theme song ....

Thanks mate, keep up the great work (its gotta be a book I tells ya!!)

digger

They are currently being called Fatty, and Fatty's Sister. I don't think those names will leave with them.

The politics and paperwork is under way and they are heading for a wildlife reserve in Kenya...hopefully. If not, maybe a little further south to South Africa....they have more options than most Somalis.

Some more photos taken today; cute as:















Advice has been sought and implemented on their diets. They are well fed daily on milk, eggs, and a small amount of mince. Even bought a milking goat in to ensure a fresh supply of milk.

Fatty is more outgoing than his sis, he is the one out the front. Would like to see him in a couple of years time.

you need to write a book... seriously! Just this thread alone would be the bones....

"An Aussie in Africa,- life, death and love in both the most beautiful & most shattered places"
or something!

if you did only 1 chapter on each role or "phase" of your career & family life it would be a thick book!! and thats without really expanding on stuff!


I'm pretty sure myself and my wife would love to help proof read for you!!! (along with 5,000 AULRO members !!)


cheers- keep up the good work!
digger

How small is this world we live in?

Been busy all AM and came back into the camp that I am accommodated in to the mess hall for lunch. There were few new faces in the assembled. Nothing unusual, as we are getting increasing numbers of the media coming in.

I was eating and this one chap came over, and in a flat Aussie accent, asked if I'd ever been in the Australian Army....Mmmmm....yes? We related some with each other and found out that, we'd both been serving in 6 BDE, Enoggera, between 1983-5. He in 8/9 RAR and me in 2/3 FER and, we'd both played together in the QLD Army Rugby side...imagine...meeting up in Mogadishu!!!

There are two of them, both from the Aust High Commission in Nairobi, out doing a recce to look at possibilities of supporting the Transitional Federal Govt. Very interesting and I've now been invited to meet up with them next week in Nairobi. Never know...it could turn out to be the 'next best thing'.

If I can give some advice, don’t visit Mogadishu in Feb/Mar… it ain’t the best weather.

Flew into Nairobi yesterday and the weather here is a lovely change to the constant windblown dust we are experiencing in Mogadishu.

Went for a long walk today. After a month in Mog the value of just being able to take a walk, see new things, see people and relate with them is immeasurable. It is mango season here, with stalls on many road corners. At 20c a mango, I can’t carry enough!

Went into the UN Compound to clear my mail box and these photos are of the Flag Promenade leading from the front gate. The Australian Flag was right up at the HQ Circle:





Then, I saw this fella in the car park. UNEP is the UN Evironmental Program. This beautifully maintained ‘Shorty’ is a UNEP plated vehicle. Makes me wonder if they are using it as an environmental message…

’Don’t build throw-away cars; make them to last’: