Keeping the peace in the Middle East is the focus of a former local this Christmas.
Dunedin-born Major Catherine Dymock attended Dunstan High School in Alexandra in Central Otago.
"My parents still live there and so I still have a strong connection to the South."
Later she attended the University of Otago.
"I was there for three or four years and I studied business."
A career in the military beckoned however.
"I always wanted to join the military when I was a teenager."
Maj Dymock is deployed as a team leader working in the United Nations Treaty Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), based in Lebanon.
"This is the world’s oldest peacekeeping mission and has been going since 1948," she said.
"Our job is to observe the line of withdrawal between Israel and Lebanon."
That was not a border as such, but it was the line to demarcate the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon after several invasions, she said.
Much of the area her team covered was used for agriculture, including growing olives and citrus fruit.
The area could be tense but stable, and there were some areas of the blue line that were contested.
"Essentially there is not a fence that goes all the way along."
Instead much of the line was demarcated by 44-gallon (166-litre) drums painted blue with "UN" written on them.
Each day, eight teams drove out to observe and report on what was going on along the line to ensure the terms of the withdrawal were being met.
"It is a very religiously diverse area so we have Christian villages and we have Shia and Sunni villages and Druze villages, and so it can be very religiously diverse."
The team used armoured Toyota land cruisers for transport, but carried no weapons.
"As we are an observer mission we are completely unarmed, our most important equipment is binoculars and a pen and paper."
Despite the crippling economic crisis, hyperinflation and inability to form a government, the people in Lebanon were very friendly and welcoming, she said.
"They have hope for their own country."
Christmas for her will be very multinational.
People on her team came from 12 different countries so each were contributing some of their local Christmas traditions.
"I’m going to make a pavlova — I’m going to try to make a pavlova but if the power cuts out in the oven it will be bad, but we will see."
She wished to thank the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association who sent Christmas packages to those deployed overseas.
"There is some Kiwi dip in there and some pineapple lumps and some other Christmas things to share."
