Words from our dear District Administrator (DA), Mr Domingues, when talking about the safety of using UNVs for nightly activities...
!!!!!
Today we had a visit from our bosses, who came all the way from Dili with the chopper to check up on our preparations for the elections. We had a town hall meeting with our bosses from UNEST, from STAE, and with UNPOL and the DA. In this meeting we went over our concerns and what has been done so far for the elections. Everyone got a chance to speak and our dear STAE boss (read as you wish), for the first time and in front of our UN bosses, decided to tell us that the UNVs needed to be more flexible with their time and expect to work at night...now, I'm used to working late, in the EP we worked sometimes until midnight if need be, but here, working at night means travelling in very dangerous and dilapidated roads to get from one suco to another, which goes entirely against UN security rules, so on the one hand we have our UNPOL telling us not to travel past a certain hour and to not go where they advise us not to go and on the other hand we have our national counterparts getting mad at us because we won't risk our necks (literally) to support them in their activities! Luckily, our UN bosses have been UNVs themselves and know the limitations of this country...where people might be worried about violence we're out here worried about the damn roads! Our big UN boss, in answer to the STAE's request for us to work at night and very long hours said, "First, comes their security and then their mission, we need to maintain good working conditions for our UNVs" and to this the DA says "You should support us no matter what, besides, if you die, we die, so we don't want you to die"!!! Not very reassuring words if you ask me!!
Well, camp manager, please issue me a tent because it looks as if I might just need it!
Meanwhile, trying to get an MOP to get to Dili for my birthday is proving to be very difficult indeed but Dili, you will be seeing me again very soon, logistics training on Monday, here I come!
!!!!!
Today we had a visit from our bosses, who came all the way from Dili with the chopper to check up on our preparations for the elections. We had a town hall meeting with our bosses from UNEST, from STAE, and with UNPOL and the DA. In this meeting we went over our concerns and what has been done so far for the elections. Everyone got a chance to speak and our dear STAE boss (read as you wish), for the first time and in front of our UN bosses, decided to tell us that the UNVs needed to be more flexible with their time and expect to work at night...now, I'm used to working late, in the EP we worked sometimes until midnight if need be, but here, working at night means travelling in very dangerous and dilapidated roads to get from one suco to another, which goes entirely against UN security rules, so on the one hand we have our UNPOL telling us not to travel past a certain hour and to not go where they advise us not to go and on the other hand we have our national counterparts getting mad at us because we won't risk our necks (literally) to support them in their activities! Luckily, our UN bosses have been UNVs themselves and know the limitations of this country...where people might be worried about violence we're out here worried about the damn roads! Our big UN boss, in answer to the STAE's request for us to work at night and very long hours said, "First, comes their security and then their mission, we need to maintain good working conditions for our UNVs" and to this the DA says "You should support us no matter what, besides, if you die, we die, so we don't want you to die"!!! Not very reassuring words if you ask me!!
Well, camp manager, please issue me a tent because it looks as if I might just need it!
Meanwhile, trying to get an MOP to get to Dili for my birthday is proving to be very difficult indeed but Dili, you will be seeing me again very soon, logistics training on Monday, here I come!
olha que não tarda nada a Elia vai ai falar com os senhores ;0)
ReplyDeleteoh my!! stay safe and don't travel on the "roads" too late! xo, steph
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