Return To Darfur: Day 3

Frustrated, but a sugar-free Red Bull would sure help me feel better. I did not get around to writing a journal for Day 2, so I’ll include some thoughts from yesterday as well. I think the word that came up the most yesterday was “frustration” in all its different forms. I feel a lot better today.

There were multiple reasons for the frustration, and for me there was an intense headache that added to the theme of the day. The time difference and unavailability of sugar free Red Bull really does a job on me. The headache gets really bad in the afternoon, which is the morning back home, and it gets worse as the night falls. Here, I “force” myself to drink regular cola drinks, since there are no diets, but I drink a lot less than usual. I cannot take a caffeine pill at night because then I would not sleep even the few hours that I do. So, this very trivial caffeine issue is one that I’m dealing with out here.

The bigger frustration was not being able to get out of the capital. It is the one obstacle that I dread the most, since our mission is to be with the refugees, so we can help get their voices out. We are only here for a very limited time period, so any days that we cannot be in the camps feels a little like those dreams where you can only move in slow motion when you want to run.

In general, I am a very patient person, and I try to make the most of bad situations. My personal disposition makes Chad not as bad of an experience as it could be.