as the bird flies… (in a straight line:)), Nairobi is 8,628.93 miles or so from East Texas, the area which i come from. at least that is what Google Earth indicates.

today i have been looking at Google Earth and found that they have updated some of the images and information that they had on places around east africa. They have some great shots of Nairobi. You can see enough detail to make out little white specs that are vehicles driving on the road. They even have more detailed images of Lokichokio, Kenya (the town in which I was based while working for Medair). If it were not for some clouds in the photo, I would have been able to locate the house I stayed in while living there.

They also have detailed images of a couple of the major towns in Southern Sudan: Juba, Malakal, Wau (there are more, but I don’t know em). if any of you folks are interested in getting a geographical reference, check out google earth or even http://maps.google.com and do some searches.

in the meantime here are a couple of images I saved off of google earth:

this is the part of the world that I live in at the moment. Most of my time has been spent in Lokichokio, Nairobi, parts of Sudan and Maridi.

Image of lokichokio. You can even see an aircraft on the runway.

This is a picture of the area of Nairobi that I spend the majority of my time in. Actually, somewhere on the line between Apex Court and the CARE office is where I am found most of the time, or at either of those two points. This is mostly because I don’t have transportation and walk back and forth between my house and the office. Kibera, the largest slum in Africa is just below (the big grey area labeled “Kibera”). Just above Kibera on the right, you see a large area of green rows. This is the Nairobi Golf course which comes right up to the edge of Kibera. I am not sure which one was there first.

tags: NairobisudanmaridiLokichokioKiberaJubaKenyaMedairCARE

i saw this at a hotel i visited last weekend. there were two of them in this large meeting hall and they both were the size of actual horses. I am slightly confused as to the purpose of the big blue horse. .

from the sudan radio service

” 20 April 2006 – (Juba) – The President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Lieutenant General Salva Kiir Mayardit, revealed on Tuesday that the Lord’s Resistance Army has accepted his government’s initiative to mediate between their force and the Government of Uganda to end the 19-year conflict in Uganda.

He made the remark in a news conference after arriving in Juba from Yei where he spent his Easter holiday.

President Kiir said that the Government of Southern Sudan’s mediation team is already formed and is now prepared to start negotiations between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and LRA leader Joseph Kony early next month. He dismissed allegations that five LRA soldiers were arrested by the SPLA in Yei recently as “false and unfounded” rumours.”

can’t find much else about it at the moment.

this is completely off the subject of LRA, but still concerns Sudan. This is an article about a guy naimed Turabi. I may be mistaken but i think this is the guy that gave Bin Laden shelter in sudan a and I once read somewhere that he has been extremely instrumental in the development of “radical islam” as it is known today. Apparantly he is changing the way he thinks and is becoming less conservative than he was before. maybe.. This is the wikipedia entry on turabi.

tags: Lord’s Resistance ArmysudanmaridiibbakonySPLAturabi

I just found out that the lord’s resistance army that was causing so much trouble in the place I was working last year has recently met with representatives of the Government of Southern sudan and that they have come to some sort of agreement to cease hostilities and work towards a peaceful solution. The details are a bit sketchy at the moment.

i am a little jealous. apparantly the peace talks took place very close to maridi and the officials that came, stayed in the compound that I was living in while i was there. Would have been interesting to get a chance to sit and talk with a few of those guys that came through.

so hopefully the official news will come out very soon and we will get to find out what the agreements were.

tags: Lord’s Resistance ArmysudanmaridiibbakonySPLA

things creep up on me. think that means I am not terribly observant, or holed up in my own little bubble.

didn’t realize it was easter till they told me we had a long weekend today. and i forgot once again that my folks were celebrating their 31st anniversary this week. and that im supposed to file my taxes in two days and am going to have some major issues with that when/if it happens.

news from my end:

I have to find a new job by the end of next month. that kinda sucks.

Nairobi has been very wet lately. Tis the season for rain. I guess it is the closest thing to winter that they have round these parts. it does get a bit chilly at night.

im not sure what is going on in parts of sudan. havn’t been that direction for some time and havn’t come across much information at the moment. mainly because most of my time has been spent trying to finish up some materials I have been working on and because I havn’t had a nice internet connection.

anyhow… not a whole lot going on.

happy easter:)