rattling of the pathfinder punctuated the soukous playing on the radio, the vehicle swerving and careening, back and forth across the washed out, pot hole ridden dirt road. a chaotic game of finding the smoothest part of the road while missing the biggest holes. fish tailing, slamming the breaks, hit big holes full on with a thump - this driver was the worse i'd ever driven with. once we hit the ditch, front end sunk in, only saved by four wheel drive that lead us back in reverse. the loose gravel, the ruts, the narrow single lane bridge crossing. bridges that no longer have guard rails or railing - a single span of metal pieces, gaps between decking, flowing streams below. the tall grass rush by on either side of the vehicle as we make the 180 mile / 4 hour drive. carcasses of trucks along the road, broken down and abandoned, destroyed by land mines, careened off the road and unrepairable. but mainly just broken down due to the abuse suffered at the expense of the road.
yei was a pleasant town, red sand roads, make shift wooden stalls lining the roads with boxes of cigarettes, soap, canned goods, crates of beer and other necessities. the city now has a power plant, one of our projects out here, providing non interrupted power from 7 in the morning until midnight every night. the glow of the town in the evening, showing some progress in development - or at least a donation from the united states of america. people are lining up to connect, power is one of the utility services everyone wants. televisions, phone charging, evening lighting, radios and an odd fridge. people are happy and they are paying their bills.
they are widening the road in yei, so a bulldozer is basically tearing down everything within the new roadway corridor. if you had a shop that was in the way or a house, though luck. either a down tree crushed it or the large blade of the dozer demolished it.
people seem laid back and more relaxed, then the uptight urban dwelling of juba. juba seems to be a city on the machete's edge, ready to ignite at the smallest instigation. the tension is thick like the humid air, suffocating any sense of hope. in yei, people are doing their thing, living life, going to market, satisfied with the life they have - no visual signs of desperation or over crowded city centers. although living with the threat from the bastards from LRA and other worthless plankton who are a threat to peace and economic improvement.
the trip back was hair raising and nerve shattering. leaving juba the day before, we were stopped at a check point, part of the city wide search for illegal weapons. well we had a private security guard in the vehicle who had a few clips of ammo...we were going to pick up his gun. well, the sight of the ammo got the military dudes a bit wound up and excited. the letter our guard had was inadequate to satisfy their demands to explain what the ammo was doing in the vehicle. the intersection where we were stopped was in a busy market place, with a large mosque on one side and a former rebel commander converted into the military on the other corner. the former rebel commander at one time fought against the SPL@ but had been included in the current regime, however the commander kept his own security forces. so today, the spl@ wanted to inspect the compound for weapons, but were being denied. the road was lined with guys armed to the teeth, giant rpgs, ak-47s, and everything in between, belts of ammo strapped across their bodies. the compound was surrounded. and we were on the other side of the intersection. this was not a good place to be...any little spark and this could end up in a miniature baghdad. we finally got out of there and move on to collect our guards ak.
we moved on to yei, despite a little harassment at the checkpoint leaving juba.
on finally returning to juba, a cold pilsner washed away all frayed nerves as a heavy storm swept across the Nile and drenched our camp.
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