this past week the police have decided to enforce a mandatory license plate change...all cars must now have "SSC" (standing for southern sudan central equatorial state) instead of "NS" (which stood for new sudan). i guess they got sick of the 'new sudan' name for the country and are going to try southern sudan now. there are a few more years until they need to decide...should they chose to become independent (is that not a time bomb waiting to go off). so anyway, there are mobs of police men patrolling the streets pulling over any car that has an NS plate...at least the cars that appear to have a driver who has some money. after being pulled over, which happened several times in the course of one day...the police explains the new law and then demands 40 pounds ($20) for a penalty. then he writes you a receipt which you can show to the next police and get off without paying again. well the amount the receipt is made out for is 30 pounds...so the police are skimming off 10 pounds for every car pulled over. you just gotta love it, classic africa!
the rains are also falling at greater frequency and it's turning the town into a giant mud pit. many of the roads in the country side actually become impassible and a lot shuts down in some of these areas. the other problem that arises are the migrating land mines...with rains and erosion, land mines start moving and suddenly they are in places that were once cleared or safe.
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