So, what is that I do in my JMT, my Joint Monitoring Team? Well, I am really not allowed to say that much about the project, whenever contacted by journalists or others we're supposed to refer to PIO, Public Information. Anyway, I am not known for obeying rules or respecting hierarchies ;) And maybe this is why I keep walking in to walls here in Monuc! Well, there is a plan to reinstate State authority here in DRC. That includes the PNC, Police Nationale Congolaise, and that involves the UN Police. And in the UN Police, there is as I have written before, I cell called JMT in which I work. Our work is to monitor this process of reinstating State authority, of stabilising Easter DRC. Thus, we organise training for police officers (which was actually finalised already before I came), we visit the sites chosen for deployment to monitor the construction of police stations and housing, we meet with the trained officers to keep their spirits up while awaiting deployment, and we visit police stations and administration offices to monitor the work of the PNC and state agents.
To do this, we have been issued with UN 1212, a 4Runner that just barely passes the identification as a vehicle. But tired as she might be, she does get us to work in the mornings, and beck home for lunch and in the evenings. Until we have a flat tire that is, becuase as of a month ago, she does not have a spare tire... And those jumping cable that I've used so many times to jump start Mauritz' car in the morning are not UN assets. They were bought and payed for by my predecessor!
My predecessor, Kristina, is, by the way, just about to end her mission and go back to her life, work and horses in Sweden! Hopefully, by the time I get back from my first CTO, I will have a new colleague. S/he has already arrived and is for the time being in Kinshasa. And as soon as the deployment order is signed saying whether it will be Olivia or Fredrick coming to Bunia, s/he will come here. Until then, I will be traveling around tasting good wine in the Cape, South Africa :)
