Am anxiously awaiting the next installment. You capture Africa beautifully!

Day 10: Monday, July 17th 2006
 

Arua, Uganda

After a fairly sleepless night, the plan today was to go out and begin surveying the traders in Arua, which due to its strategic location has benefited tremendously from the conflicts in The Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As protocol requires, we went to the see the head of the Chamber of Commerce to get his permission to conduct our survey. He was quite happy to see us and happily signed the letter of introduction from our hosts at SSARP and the Yei Chamber of Commerce. However, he said that we would need to get the Mayor to sign it, and he would only be available after lunch, so we made our way back to the hotel to relax and catch-up on the paperwork that had built up the last few days.

During our time off, I found some liquified ice cream for breakfast, which was excellent in the morning heat! After lunch we made our way back to the Mayor’s office, who promptly refused to sign the letter because it was not addressed to him, and asked us to leave. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get a letter from Yei, addressed specifically to the Mayor (and his four underlings). Once in possession of this, we finally got his (and the four other requisite) signatures and were able to proceed; unfortunately, we had lost most of the day, but out enthusiastic team still went out at 4:30pm to see what they could get. Two hours later, they came back with nine completed interviews, which was not bad given what had preceded us the day before.

While waiting for them to return, I went off and had a quick lunch at the Indian restaurant and then sat outside my hotel under a huge tree reading my book. Around dusk, two women appeared and spread some fine Congolese cloth on the ground that they were touting. Although I wasn’t interested in buying any, I did chat with them and learnt that they were refugees from the DRC. Oh, and their kids were absolutely delightful – one kept running off every time his mother talked to me or anyone else, and the other, a seven month old baby, just couldn’t stop smiling and laughing when I talked to her. I suspect she thought I was funny-looking, which wouldn’t be a first.

Given that I was not happy with my insect companions the previous night, I decided to go into my room and proceed to kill every bug that I could see or hear; I am pleased to say that I was successful, and had a very good night’s sleep. Too bad we had to wake up super-early for our 7:00am departure.

Day 11: Tuesday, July 18th 2006
 

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...

Day 12: Wednesday, July 19th 2006
 

Yei, Western Equatoria, Southern Sudan to Juba, Eastern Equatoria, Southern Sudan (Latitude: 4° 5' 60N, Longitude: 31° 37' 0E, Altitude: 550m, Time Zone: GMT+3)

Waking up to the smell of the wet ground was nice, and I got ready and prepared for our departure to Juba. Juba is the political capital of Southern Sudan, and currently the site of the peace talks between the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) Rebels and the Ugandan Government. Unfortunately for me, that meant that I had lost my ‘nicer’ accommodation in Juba, and had been relegated to a ‘regular’ tented camp.

The journey out there was less arduous the the previous day’s, as the road was in better condition to the one to Arua; in fact, the road is better than many paved roads in Kenya! The ride also confirmed my previously mentioned descriptions of how green Southern Sudan truly is. However, as we approached the former line of control, many of the areas off the road were noted as having mines and warning people to stay off. There were also lots of burnt out tanks and buildings, as well as Chinese-built people carriers full of soldiers moving towards the barracks outside of Juba; if I closed my eyes for a moment, I could imagine a scene of war and panic unfolding in front of me and was more than expecting an ambush at some point. However, the UN Peacekeepers we kept driving past solidified that the war was truly over.

Closer to Juba, we saw piles and piles of unspent and undetonated munitions which were being gathered for collection and mass destruction. However, it is a little unnerving to see handheld missile launchers (with missiles nearby), grenades, and small bombs just lying a few feet off the road. Thankfully, the war is truly over, and these things have seen their days. We finally made it into Juba, and stopped by at the office to drop a few things off and organise our accommodation. Thankfully the replacement camp that was selected for me was only three minutes away from the office, so I was pleased. I am now the proud inhabitant of a tent with an adjoining toilet and shower. Well, calling them a “toilet” and “shower” is optimistic; it is a personal port-a-potti and an outdoor shower like you’d find at the beach in any developed country, but with privacy screens.

After checking-in, Sungura took me for a drive around town while the handler went to the Chamber of Commerce to seek permission to conduct our surveys. Given that they are cousins (or so the handler claims), I saw no reason to go and left him to it. First, we went to exchange US$ into Sudanese Dinars; this was straightforward as there is a uniform price: US$1 = SD220. I am convinced there is a cartel, and these guys are making millions, but what can I (and every other development worker and enterprising business person) do? Well, supplement their income by buying sunglasses and fake watches from them as well?

Sungura then took me to his house, a mud-walled hut with a roof with layered hay; it was very cozy and actually quite pleasant. He is in the process of making it appropriate for his family (who are based in Uganda) with extra beds and things; he already has a mosquito net, cooking utensils, and some personal items. Despite the heat outside, it was cool inside. On the way out, his neighbours kids ran up and kept saying “Morning,” the only English word they appeared to know. They were so adorable, and all wanted to shake my hand... I don’t think too many foreigners go into that part of Juba, so it was as interesting for them as it was for me.

On the way back to the office, I got to see the entire Southern Sudan ministries complex, the burial site of the esteemed leader, Dr. John Garang. In fact, we made a quick stop to his wife’s office (she is the Minister of Transport & Roads) at my uncle’s suggestion, who knows her. She was not in, but her secretary asked me to pop in on Friday morning before my departure, which I will definitely try to do. He also gave me her card, which is indicative of how much actually development needs to happen – the Minister has a Yahoo address as her primary means of electronic contact! On the way back to the compound, we had lunch at a little Ethiopian place near the office which was excellent – but cost $16. I don’t think I would have spent that much for a quick lunch for two in London or the US... Prices here really are exorbitant! I hope I manage to survive on the US$50 I changed, otherwise I will get fleeced once more by the walking forex bureaus!

I ended up watching one and a half movies at the camp, got through two magazines, and decided to call it a night, skipping dinner as my lunch wasmore than enough. Surprisingly, given that it is a tented camp, there were very few mosquitoes in my tent, so I slept like a baby. Let’s see what tomorrow holds.

Very interesting. Many thanks for writing the daily reports.

Hope all is well-looking forward to more installments.

Great report. Although I was in the Congo when I was a kid (mid 1970's), is it simply too dangerous nowadays to venture into it? Keep the journal coming!

Day 13: Thursday, July 20th 2006
 

Juba, Southern Sudan

After waking up early to meet with the team, perhaps for the last time, they went off to collect data for the rest of the day. I spent most of the morning at the office, cleaning up the data they had previously collected and further developing the database which we were creating.

I found a small Indian restaurant (well, if a place with plastic garden furniture and tablecloths that look like they were stolen from Luigi’s Pizzeria qualifies as a restaurant) called Little Asia where I managed to eat some naan and paneer. It fascinates me how Indian restaurants seem to spring up in the most obscure places – Ugandan border towns and bombed-out buildings in Southern Sudan, to name a few. Anyway, Sungura dropped me off there, and after lunch I walked back to the office. I was surprised to feel safe walking through Juba town on my own, regardless of being the only brown person within visibility.

I spent the afternoon with Sungura. We started out by driving past all the ministries (again), NGO field offices, and the like, after which we went to visit his friend Francis, who owns a little woodworking shop for which he recently bought a sophisticated Italian machine to enable him to cut a wide array of furniture. He told me that he had it flown in from Khartoum at a cost of $3,000 because of the lack of roads between saw and Juba, which astonished me. How a small-scale, jua kali trader had $3,000, and more importantly, that he was sophisticated enough to understand that this would help his business grow and then to spend that much money to bring in such a machine left me scratching my head. I was thoroughly impressed with his set-up, especially after he showed me his collection of Polaroids of the previous work he had done that had found it’s way into UN/NGO households and offices around Southern Sudan.

Francis also moonlights as an estate agent (well, I like to think that, but he he was really just doing Sungura a favour), as he took us to see a house for the head of VEGA in Kenya who will shortly be transferring to Juba. It was an old and worn, but large and inviting bungalow hidden behind a six foot high wall and with a wide patio leading up to it. It wouldn’t have been out of place on the set of Out of Africa, with the exception of the fact that it was flanked on both sides by similar homes, and no beautiful scenery. In fact, this little trip to this ‘nice’ part of town had me thinking about Yei, which I thought was actually much more beautiful and pleasant a place to live due to the climate and open space.

After visiting the house, I learned about Francis’ third and final occupation was as an unpaid tour guide of Juba (again, a figment of my imagination, but he pointed out everything we drove by, although many of the landmarks or buildings he showed me were either piles of rubble or a shadow of their former selves. He took me to the Juba Bridge, which crosses the Nile and provides commanding views of both banks and th the river. We crossed over one way by vehicle, and then returned by foot. He seemed to know soldiers on both sides of the bridge, despite the fact that on the Western side the troops were SPLA, and on the Eastern were those that are loyal to the Government in Khartoum. I half jokingly asked him if he was a soldier, to which he curtly replied “Yes,” but which led to the demise of our conversation and to a quick return back to the car. War, which side one was one, and its associated casualties remain a sensitive topic here, so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but I was.

I enjoyed my drive around town, and we dropped Francis back to his workshop before going back to the office, where I spent a some time on the surveys before making my way back to my tented hotel. I wasn’t keen on dinner, so I skipped and spent the evening talking to a pair of Tusker-chugging Kenyan IT geeks who had been in Juba for four months straight setting up IT systems. At this point, I was quite excited about getting back to Nairobi, so attempted to retire to my tent fairly early, but was stopped by a family of large frogs sitting outside my tent. I did not want to open the zipper for fear of them becoming my bed mates, and they did not seem even slightly perturbed by my presence, so we had a little showdown – me staring down a bunch of frogs waiting for them to get on my way. No, I would have ust picked them up and moved them if I knew anything about amphibians, but given the collection of poisonous things in Sub-Saharan Africa, I wasn’t taking any risks (ok, I was just scared!), and managed to eventually move them away with a few large stones.

Once I finally made it in, I looked around (and under the beds) for more frogs, before packing, and crawling into bed, where I tossed and turned for hours.

Day 14: Friday, July 21st 2006
 

Juba, Southern Sudan to Nairobi, Kenya

By the time my alarm went off, the sun was up, the roosters were crowing, and the poor goat’s who were going to be slaughtered crying all the way out the gate. I hastily freshened up, packed, and made my way to the VEGA office, bag in hand, ready to finalise the project and head back to Nairobi.

As the flight was scheduled for 12:30pm, we left the office at 11:00am for the short trip to the airport. Sungura dropped me at the front of the little building (I have seen bigger living rooms, I swear), only to be hassled my a parking attendant in full military dress; we managed to convince him to take a picture of the two of us and the car in front of the airport, which seemed to please him and he quickly forgot about our vehicle and the ensuing havoc it was causing at the tiny airport.

I made my way inside to the check-in line, which was typical of Africa – three people working behind a desk, yet only one able to check passengers in. I finally made my way to the front after 15 minutes, at which point the let my choose my seat by showing me a photocopy of the plane’s layout and allowing me to point to a seat, which they promptly marked with a big, fat ‘X’. Ah, the good, old fashioned way. For some reason, the check-in process once I was at the desk seemed to be faster then the computers used elsewhere – perhaps something airlines should thing about adopting instead of their complicated seat pre-allocation systems.

While waiting in this relatively long queue, I learnt that I would also have to go through immigration and customs, which involved filling in one form and getting a series of stamps and having my bag looked over by some too-old-for-real-work military man. Sungura was completing my forms while I was in the check-in line, after which I proceeded to have my bag glanced over by the Inspector-General of Luggage (as I aptly named him, not his official title). He glanced at my bag, my passport, and put little security stickers on my two pieces of luggage. On closer inspection, I noticed that the two numbers on the stickers on my bags were the same, which was odd as it said ‘Serial Number’ above each number my definition of ‘Serial Number’ is that each one is unique, and hence, has identifying characteristics. Upon further inspection of other people’s luggage, I noticed that each one had the same serial number, which just made me laugh out loud; thankfully the airport was noisy at this point, otherwise I am sure people would have though I was insane.

I eventually got through all the formalities, and plopped down on a nice leather settee and waited for the flight. In fact, despite just being the regular seats in the airport, they were much nicer than those found in many airline lounges in the US and Europe – perhaps another thing airlines should learn from the people here. The final event before my much anticipated departure was the arrival of the Vice President, which resulted in the airport being shut down, a huge military presence, and a delayed flight by an hour. This didn’t annoy me the way it would have if I had a meeting to run to somewhere on the Continent, especially as I got to watch the pomp and pageantry unfold in front of my eyes: Military escorts, village elders, police officers, etc. - all lined-up to meet and greet the VP. The only thing lacking was a band from a local school playing ‘Hail to the (Deputy) Chief’. Oh wait, I forgot – the schools here don’t even have books, so instruments are out of the question. Anyway, he got a 7 gun salute (yes I counted – I figure the other 13 were somewhere drinking their mid-morning beer), which is funny as they fired live rounds at the airport – in any developed country, this would have led to a number of planes falling out of the sky, but thankfully the air traffic around Juba was non-existent tat this point, so everyone was fine.

We eventually made it on the plane, and as I snuggled into my seat, I thought about what a a wonderful and eye-opening two weeks I had, all the things I have seen and people I have met. Although I was ready to go home and eat real food, I hope that the work we did here will benefit the local community, and the thoughts I shared with you have got you thinking about a world far away from your own.

Really enjoyed your report! African visits and tales always help me put my own life in perspective and your trip sounded fascinating.

Very interesting read... I was part of a team with State looking at the new US Consulate site in Juba earlier this year... which tent village did you stay at? Juba Raha? Luckily I got to stay on the Consulate compound and had hot water when I woke up in the morning. Sudan Airways was a treat going back to Khartoum as well... speaking of VP's, our team did run into Mrs. Garang in the VIP lounge before we left the airport... BTW, was the cargo plane still stuck at the end of the runway?

Keep up the posts!

thezipper,

Unfortunately, I left Southern Sudan at the end of July, and haven't been back since! :-(

I stayed at a little place around the corner from the USAID/Winrock office, but it wasn't Juba Raha as the peace talks were being held there, so we got kicked out!

Mrs. Garang is the VP I referred to above; what a small world. She is also a friend of my uncle's, who is based in Nairobi.

Yes, the plane is still there!!!

Unfortunately, there won't be more posts on this topic anymore as I am not there, but I am glad that you enjoyed the report.

AAmerican_in_London