Arua, Uganda to Yei, Southern Sudan

After a fairly decent night’s sleep, we left bright and early, only to catch the rain as we pulled out of Arua. Thankfully, we got past it as we approached the border, but this is where the fun began. Although it was 8:15am, the border post on the Ugandan side was not manned by an immigration official (but lots of soldiers, so no scurrying past, although the thought did cross our minds), so we had to hang around until someone showed up. Half an hour later, just as I was getting comfortable and watching a police officer arrest someone for brushing his teeth too close to the radio tower (which, by the way, was hilarious), the immigration officer reported for duty. Thankfully, the process was as painless as it was on the way in – an exit stamp, a “Thank you for coming to Uganda,” and we were on our way.

Things on the other side were definitely easier than when we crossed to Uganda, but still not efficient. Once again, and not too our surprise, there were no immigration officials present, so we were asked to wait. I decided to take a nap, and about 15 minutes in, I was told that we had been waved through – no need for anyone to see our papers or anything. I was truly impressed, and quite pleased... until I noticed that in order to get this done, our handler had decided to take on one of the guards uncle’s (and his luggage!) as a passenger – all the way to Yei! Well, this made my journey much less pleasant, as he ended up on our bench in the back of the car, and I developed an annoying-rather-than-painful cramp in my leg. Thankfully, we stopped plenty of times – once to buy charcoal for a friend of the driver’s, once to buy bananas for our handler’s sister (I did manage to get my hands on one though), and once for everyone to take a walk. Despite all these stops, we made it back in four and a half hours, which was thirty minutes better than our outbound.

After settling into our accommodation (they had no tukuls left, so I got a regular cottage), John and Rita spent the rest of the afternoon teahcing our local colleagues Mail Merge, and I just read and enjoyed my last day in Yei, which I have actually become quite fond of. I went to find Salama and Suarwws after they got back from school so that I could take their picture, and offer them my Grandmother’s biscuits. I was pleased to find them both doing their homework, and they were happy to have their pictures taken. After this, I went for my jog, started packing, and went to dinner – although three small fried potatoes and half a bun of bread isn’t really dinner.

I was actually quite beat after what felt like a long journey, so called it an early night. After exterminating seven (yes, I counted) cockroaches in my room, I was longing for my tukul. As this wasn’t an option, I turned the fan on (a nice luxury my tukul did not have) and went off to bed, only to be woken early in the morning by a torrential downpour, which easily lasted over an hour. Oh, and the ground had that smell that only Africa has after it rains...