Nick Horne, Sudan "There was nothing here when I arrived, just empty land and some mango trees"

My name is Nick Horne, and I am the area coordinator for Northern Bahr El Ghazal State in South Sudan for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. I arrived in Aweil town in mid-November 2005, but I have been in Sudan since October 2004.

There was nothing here when I arrived, just empty land and some mango trees.

We first put up a grass fence and built foundations for prefabricated offices and a generator. We were operational by the end of January and now share our space with UNICEF [UN Children’s Fund] and UNDP [UN Development Programme]. We’re still sleeping in tents, though, and the rainy season has arrived - it certainly has. Before 10 days ago, the rainy season was an abstract concept, but it didn’t start gently. Now the whole compound is flooded and we are living in a swamp. Some tents are better than others - some are not at all waterproof. This morning, the tent covering our living area and kitchen collapsed under the weight of the water.

We have been struggling to find builders in town, but they are in short supply. Also, we didn’t have the cash to pay staff. But I think we can get some tukuls [mud huts with thatched grass roofs] up over the next few weeks. Nothing too fancy, but at least a place to stay dry.

We’re trying not to let it get in the way of our daily work. We are monitoring and reporting the IDP [internally displaced person] return movements from Khartoum, and we recently drew attention to the returns coming from Darfur. We also distributed 49,000 mosquito nets, ahead of the rainy season.

During a typical weekend, we normally work. We spend long days on the road assessing various areas, trying to solve logistical problems and writing reports. Spending two hours reading, I consider a nice leisure time for the weekend.

We work hard, but enjoy what we’re doing. We have a great team, with good camaraderie. We don’t want to whinge too much.