Leaving Rumb&k a little after noon, the skies had cleared some but menacing clouds remained to the south. It had rained heavily the night before and part of the morning, the implication being that the roads would now be slick mud. We are driving to Mayend!t via Maper to visit ongoing construction projects and plan to spend the night in Mayendit before proceeding to Pany!jar the next day. The first stretch out of Rumb&k is laterite surface and the going to good, but soon that ends and the driver has to battle the slick black cotton soil. This is a rental vehicle and it is the driver's first trip in the 'bush' - recall it is all relative since we are driving out of Rumb&k.
The area we are driving through and plan to go to have been involved in ongoing cattle robberies and fighting. There are three clans, tribes, people groups, what ever you want to call it, who live in the region and we drive through the middle of it in order to access each of the sites. Cattle is the traditional currency and culturally necessary in many circles in order to marry due to the dowry. Women are worth varying number of cows, depending on their skills and abilities, height, and other attributes. Typically a young man is looking at 30-100 cows in order to marry a woman. Cows vary from $500-$1000 so you can do the math to determine the value of a D!nka, Nu$r, etc woman. Other than the need to obtain cows for a dowry, cattle raiding is similar to robbing a bank. It would be equivalent to a pick pocket if you only nabbed one or two, but when 100s of cows are captured and the herders killed or chased off, that would be a successful raid. The other issue at stake is revenge killings, so during raids or other altercations, when people from one tribe are killed, there will be revenge attacks in the ensuing days, weeks or months.
The trip today takes us through more and more mud and the spray from the windshield wiper doesn't work so I think the driver was purposely diving into mud pits just to get more water on the windshield with which to wipe off with the blades. At first the driver was taking it too slow and it was starting to get annoying, particularly when I knew it was fine to go faster, but the last thing you want to do is tell a driver to speed up...then they think it means faster for anything and you end up thrashed much more when the road deteriorates...or if there is an incident they may turn and blame it on you for making them go faster. I hold my tongue. He find the acceleration pedal. I also don't like it when the person in the back seat talks to a driver since the driver will tend to turn around when replying, taking his eye of the road, if even for a second, that is when the big pothole can punish the shocks and your butt. The other problem with a talking driver is they will slow down the longer they talk as if multi-tasking is too much of a chore.
There is the Mador Junction, the point where you turn North for Mayend!t and South to drive to Pany!jar. Both are in the middle of no where and the flat grasslands of South Sudan stretch as far as the eye can see. The road is laterite, so in better condition, however the layer of laterite is not adequate so there are soft spots and pot holes. We arrive in the evening and check out the building of the County HQ before setting up tents in the worker's camp area.
Calves being herded into a large hut for night, the hut becomes a school during the day and sunday a church.
For dinner we buy a couple live chickens to go with greens and ugali mix we brought from town. There are youth wandering around the site, actually by youth I mean young men who are probably herders as well as possibly warriors that may have been involved in raids. They are tough and aggressive people, intimidating to those not use to their demeanor. Soldiers are also lingering around, as the camp is near a check point for the town. After dinner we climb into our tents. It is dark with a few stars and the moon trying to shine through the cloudy skies. Sleep is difficult when there is a drunk soldier trying to sing along to music from his phone.
The next morning's entertainment, someones chicken (read: that days food) escapes and is chased around the camp. The dumb bird runs into a hut and is subsequently caught.
I find some boiling water and fill my REI travel mug and mix in a packet of instant Starbucks coffee. I don't think I'm a coffee snob, but do enjoy a good strong cup in the morning and can put up with the instant nescafe, but the Starbucks instant coffee tastes as close to the real thing as one can get. There are different flavors, French Roast, Columbian, Italian Roast...today I had Columbian. The REI travel mug has a screw on top and mouth cover (similar to a sippy cup I guess). The mug acts as a thermos, keeping coffee warm for a long time and the cover secures the hot beverage while bouncing over the roads as well as keeping the flies out, I'm sure that was the original intent. There is no breakfast today other than a smashed energy bar from back bag.
Today we will go through a 2 hour + drive on decent (but deteriorating) laterite roads, driving through no man's land, the middle of no where. There is only one village between here and there. Grazing cows in this area is dangerous as raiding is common. After some meetings, we set off for Pany!jar.
The area we are driving through and plan to go to have been involved in ongoing cattle robberies and fighting. There are three clans, tribes, people groups, what ever you want to call it, who live in the region and we drive through the middle of it in order to access each of the sites. Cattle is the traditional currency and culturally necessary in many circles in order to marry due to the dowry. Women are worth varying number of cows, depending on their skills and abilities, height, and other attributes. Typically a young man is looking at 30-100 cows in order to marry a woman. Cows vary from $500-$1000 so you can do the math to determine the value of a D!nka, Nu$r, etc woman. Other than the need to obtain cows for a dowry, cattle raiding is similar to robbing a bank. It would be equivalent to a pick pocket if you only nabbed one or two, but when 100s of cows are captured and the herders killed or chased off, that would be a successful raid. The other issue at stake is revenge killings, so during raids or other altercations, when people from one tribe are killed, there will be revenge attacks in the ensuing days, weeks or months.
The trip today takes us through more and more mud and the spray from the windshield wiper doesn't work so I think the driver was purposely diving into mud pits just to get more water on the windshield with which to wipe off with the blades. At first the driver was taking it too slow and it was starting to get annoying, particularly when I knew it was fine to go faster, but the last thing you want to do is tell a driver to speed up...then they think it means faster for anything and you end up thrashed much more when the road deteriorates...or if there is an incident they may turn and blame it on you for making them go faster. I hold my tongue. He find the acceleration pedal. I also don't like it when the person in the back seat talks to a driver since the driver will tend to turn around when replying, taking his eye of the road, if even for a second, that is when the big pothole can punish the shocks and your butt. The other problem with a talking driver is they will slow down the longer they talk as if multi-tasking is too much of a chore.
There is the Mador Junction, the point where you turn North for Mayend!t and South to drive to Pany!jar. Both are in the middle of no where and the flat grasslands of South Sudan stretch as far as the eye can see. The road is laterite, so in better condition, however the layer of laterite is not adequate so there are soft spots and pot holes. We arrive in the evening and check out the building of the County HQ before setting up tents in the worker's camp area.
A watering hole (borehole)
For dinner we buy a couple live chickens to go with greens and ugali mix we brought from town. There are youth wandering around the site, actually by youth I mean young men who are probably herders as well as possibly warriors that may have been involved in raids. They are tough and aggressive people, intimidating to those not use to their demeanor. Soldiers are also lingering around, as the camp is near a check point for the town. After dinner we climb into our tents. It is dark with a few stars and the moon trying to shine through the cloudy skies. Sleep is difficult when there is a drunk soldier trying to sing along to music from his phone.
I find some boiling water and fill my REI travel mug and mix in a packet of instant Starbucks coffee. I don't think I'm a coffee snob, but do enjoy a good strong cup in the morning and can put up with the instant nescafe, but the Starbucks instant coffee tastes as close to the real thing as one can get. There are different flavors, French Roast, Columbian, Italian Roast...today I had Columbian. The REI travel mug has a screw on top and mouth cover (similar to a sippy cup I guess). The mug acts as a thermos, keeping coffee warm for a long time and the cover secures the hot beverage while bouncing over the roads as well as keeping the flies out, I'm sure that was the original intent. There is no breakfast today other than a smashed energy bar from back bag.
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