My job sent me into the wilds of South Sudan to do research on education - I can honestly say this was the most wild and fun African bush trip I've ever taken. We hired a Jonglei expert who turned out to be also just a great person to travel with. Who would have guessed that a simple 5-day jaunt to ask questions about education needs in remote communities would have turned into such a trip? Welcome to South Sudan.
Andy (our consultant) helped figure out the travel route - we were headed to Waat, then to Duk Padiet, and onward to Bor - with a few stops along the way. It's funny to see how people pack differently for this kind of trip - Andy brought coffee and peanut butter, Pete brought whiskey and books, and Mike brought dried mangos and an iPod. I was probably the least prepared, meaning I had granola bars, toilet paper, a headlamp, and a pocket knife. At least we all had books to read by the dim headlamp lights. It's funny the things that field people are impressed with - Andy was eager to compare all of our field pants - whose breathed the best, repelled water, and kept out the sun. Mike was very concerned with the hat situation - he had an Indian Jones hat, while the rest of us went a more traditional route. (I like the scarf & sunglasses, Pete went with a baseball cap, Andy had a light hiker hat from Patagonia)
It was the very beginning of the dry season when we were there (February), so the roads which are normally rivers in the rainy season were just drying out. The first hurdle was our car not arriving to pick us from the airport, but thankfully our host organization loaned us a vehicle. Our car showed up 2 days late, covered in mud from tire to roof, with the back windows busted out, mud tires bald, and extra fuel stolen out of the boot. Oh, and the exhaust pipe was barely hanging on. I would show you a picture, but I couldn't capture from one angle the sad story that was our car.
I love being in the field for the raw, simple life that you live there. Every meal is rice & beans, maybe add some chicken or goat, bucket showers to wash off all the dust and sweat of the day, sleep under the beautiful, beautiful stars, in bed by 10 every night, and awake with the roosters. Of course it's easy to idealize it after you have left, but there is something beautiful about the simple life. It's the reason when I come home from a long trip, I try to toss out the excess of my life.
Well, after a couple days in Waat, we were driving onward to Yuai - but we had to drive through a swamp to get to Padjiet and pick up the fuel that had been stolen and then recovered. A bunch of kawajas can't just roll up to a town, though - first we got stopped by the SPLA, who wanted us to take them to town along with their giant kaleshakov, which is very much against the rules of basically everything. We negotiated down to one commander riding with us, with his handgun. Then we crossed through the swamp (which is where the driver had gotten stuck for 2 days earlier), and we had to go pay homage to the town commissioner. We explained the needs, he allowed us to talk to the police and recover the fuel. You wonder why things take longer, and you have to be more patient in Africa - these are the kinds of reasons. Instead of a quick pickup, we strolled through town, had a couple meetings, and got on the road 2 hours later.
The next 6 hours we spent in the car headed to Yuai, even though we weren't entirely sure of the direction - the driver had never taken that route before, nor did he speak English. Did I mention that he was about 16 years old? yep. Driving to Yuai was like being on a really mean roller coaster - there isn't really a road per se, more like a cow path, that sometimes is blocked - you guessed it - by cows or tiny villages. After those six hours were finished - we had gotten so close we could see Yuai, but there was a swampy river in our path. We decided to get out and wade through, so the vehicle would be lighter. No sooner had we exited the car, then the driver drove it straight into a deep well, and it was stuck. For the next 36 hours, our muddy, mud-tire-less, beat-up old SUV was stuck in that river. For the next 36 hours, we sent more and more guys from Yuai town to try to dig it out, but nothing worked. Finally, Andy and I were starting to wave down tiny bush planes - when we discovered the lovely organization of Tearfund (run by my friend James in Yuai), who loaned us mud plates and towed us out of the river.
That night, we continued our focus groups on education needs and had a goat roast.... fun tip: travel with someone who is a local celebrity, and you won't have to dig into your canned corn and beans. Finally, we got back on the road to Duk Padiet, which turned out to not have ANY space at the inn or any place whatsoever, so while the driver changed the flat tire, we decided to head onward to the next town, where Norwegian People's Aid housed us for the evening. Pete scared up some beer, and that was our dinner. The 'showers' were missing a roof, so it was like a luxury open air shower under the stars and full moon, haha.
The next day, we drove all the way back down to Bor - where we all got lukewarm showers and spent some quality time in the air conditioning. It was great - we passed a few huge cattle camps, and saw the house where John Garang was born. The next day we flew out, and of course I was amazed to consider Juba a luxurious capital city.
I'm sorry for the lack of pictures - imagine dry, arid land with lots of small brush and random rivers :) I will try to dig some snaps up from my email archives and post.
Andy (our consultant) helped figure out the travel route - we were headed to Waat, then to Duk Padiet, and onward to Bor - with a few stops along the way. It's funny to see how people pack differently for this kind of trip - Andy brought coffee and peanut butter, Pete brought whiskey and books, and Mike brought dried mangos and an iPod. I was probably the least prepared, meaning I had granola bars, toilet paper, a headlamp, and a pocket knife. At least we all had books to read by the dim headlamp lights. It's funny the things that field people are impressed with - Andy was eager to compare all of our field pants - whose breathed the best, repelled water, and kept out the sun. Mike was very concerned with the hat situation - he had an Indian Jones hat, while the rest of us went a more traditional route. (I like the scarf & sunglasses, Pete went with a baseball cap, Andy had a light hiker hat from Patagonia)
It was the very beginning of the dry season when we were there (February), so the roads which are normally rivers in the rainy season were just drying out. The first hurdle was our car not arriving to pick us from the airport, but thankfully our host organization loaned us a vehicle. Our car showed up 2 days late, covered in mud from tire to roof, with the back windows busted out, mud tires bald, and extra fuel stolen out of the boot. Oh, and the exhaust pipe was barely hanging on. I would show you a picture, but I couldn't capture from one angle the sad story that was our car.
I love being in the field for the raw, simple life that you live there. Every meal is rice & beans, maybe add some chicken or goat, bucket showers to wash off all the dust and sweat of the day, sleep under the beautiful, beautiful stars, in bed by 10 every night, and awake with the roosters. Of course it's easy to idealize it after you have left, but there is something beautiful about the simple life. It's the reason when I come home from a long trip, I try to toss out the excess of my life.
Well, after a couple days in Waat, we were driving onward to Yuai - but we had to drive through a swamp to get to Padjiet and pick up the fuel that had been stolen and then recovered. A bunch of kawajas can't just roll up to a town, though - first we got stopped by the SPLA, who wanted us to take them to town along with their giant kaleshakov, which is very much against the rules of basically everything. We negotiated down to one commander riding with us, with his handgun. Then we crossed through the swamp (which is where the driver had gotten stuck for 2 days earlier), and we had to go pay homage to the town commissioner. We explained the needs, he allowed us to talk to the police and recover the fuel. You wonder why things take longer, and you have to be more patient in Africa - these are the kinds of reasons. Instead of a quick pickup, we strolled through town, had a couple meetings, and got on the road 2 hours later.
The next 6 hours we spent in the car headed to Yuai, even though we weren't entirely sure of the direction - the driver had never taken that route before, nor did he speak English. Did I mention that he was about 16 years old? yep. Driving to Yuai was like being on a really mean roller coaster - there isn't really a road per se, more like a cow path, that sometimes is blocked - you guessed it - by cows or tiny villages. After those six hours were finished - we had gotten so close we could see Yuai, but there was a swampy river in our path. We decided to get out and wade through, so the vehicle would be lighter. No sooner had we exited the car, then the driver drove it straight into a deep well, and it was stuck. For the next 36 hours, our muddy, mud-tire-less, beat-up old SUV was stuck in that river. For the next 36 hours, we sent more and more guys from Yuai town to try to dig it out, but nothing worked. Finally, Andy and I were starting to wave down tiny bush planes - when we discovered the lovely organization of Tearfund (run by my friend James in Yuai), who loaned us mud plates and towed us out of the river.
That night, we continued our focus groups on education needs and had a goat roast.... fun tip: travel with someone who is a local celebrity, and you won't have to dig into your canned corn and beans. Finally, we got back on the road to Duk Padiet, which turned out to not have ANY space at the inn or any place whatsoever, so while the driver changed the flat tire, we decided to head onward to the next town, where Norwegian People's Aid housed us for the evening. Pete scared up some beer, and that was our dinner. The 'showers' were missing a roof, so it was like a luxury open air shower under the stars and full moon, haha.
The next day, we drove all the way back down to Bor - where we all got lukewarm showers and spent some quality time in the air conditioning. It was great - we passed a few huge cattle camps, and saw the house where John Garang was born. The next day we flew out, and of course I was amazed to consider Juba a luxurious capital city.
I'm sorry for the lack of pictures - imagine dry, arid land with lots of small brush and random rivers :) I will try to dig some snaps up from my email archives and post.
No comments:
Post a Comment