http://mattsiller.com/blog Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:59:55 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As most are already aware, I have departed Darfur and left Sudan permanently. I left on December 5th, 2007, 735 days after I first arrived. My feelings about leaving were mixed for a number of reasons. Two years of my life were spent supporting the peacekeeping efforts ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2008/03/15/a-farewell-to-sudan/ On vacation in South East Asia.  Will write with some travel stories shortly.  My work in Darfur is still going strong, to conclude in November.  Have a few thoughts on that as well.  Stay tuned.  http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/09/28/still-alive/ Our place of residence, impregnable in its distinctly castle-like walls, lies a few hundred meters from the main road (which is the only paved road in the town), beginning at the airport and leading through the town before heading south. In between the road and our compound is an ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/07/26/the-old-man-and-the-stadium/ Ahh…the perils of keeping up with a responsibility. The problem with staying focused about writing on a blog is that in order for the site to remain active and healthy, your commitment to it needs to be near the top of your priorities and thought, all the time. ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/07/23/regrouping/ The longer I work out here, the shorter my patience gets.The more relaxed and laissez faire the society seems to be, the tighter the restrictions that are placed on our lifestyle. While we are expanding the project exponentially, our living and working quarters have been constricted with impregnable fences erected ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/06/23/i-just-make-lemonade/ So for the infrequent visitors it has been some time since my last post.  Thanks to the patient folk.  I promise over the next few months to work at least one post a week toward entertaining you with the nuisances of our Darfur livelihood. For those who I didn’t get an ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/06/11/the-dreamy-return/ Sorry about the extremely long and overdue postings.  Quick reason is that I took a brief break from Sudan and am back in the states until mid June.  I will return and plan to stay in Darfur through the fall.  There are more postings to come.  Thanks for being patient.  http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/05/31/break-from-reality/ I submitted one of my posts from this blog to a website called Truckin' that posts "Short Stories, Sagas, and Tales from the Road". Some of the stories are off the wall. Some interesting. The author posted my tale in this months issue and claims it to ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/04/09/posted-the-modern-day-version-of-published/ http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/04/01/an-arab-voice-of-reason/ I have a friend living in Darfur who’s had one of those eye widening, wait, say again, damn, girl experiences over the course of her stay. During her time in the desert, she’s developed a resume for the record books. I’ve written in previous posts about the types ... http://mattsiller.com/blog/2007/03/31/murphy%e2%80%99s-law-%e2%80%93-no-%e2%80%93-this-far-exceeds-it/