Whilst doing some weekly shopping In Bentiu to placate the hunger and virtue of the few staff that have come back.I decided we had better check to see if our tickets on the Thars Jars to Juba flight had indeed being written into the journals of 748.
Mulwel was contacted due to his status as Bentiu oprerations manager.
“ I forgot to ring Meesta Tim there is no plane on Tuesday the Government has taken it for the Day”
The decisison was made we would have to drive to Juba as we had to be in Cairo on Thursday and then on to Holland etc for our Bank presentaions.
Also we needed to check the new road out to the south as it is our new life line for the project in the coming months as the North sudan is just too hard to deal with at the ports and customs.
Monday morning 5 o’clock we leave my mate the Gov has at the last minute organized an meeting of local dignitaries for us to meet on the way down.” to ensure our safe and timely arrival in Juba” he forgot to add Sudan time.
So off we went on my first serious Sudan road trip .Extra fuel ,tyres, tools , tools, food our translator youg Zac and no soldier this as we now live in the 193rd country in the world and it is all peacefell and chilled so we are all gwarlong.
Daylight was emerging as we went past Thar Jars airport which was to have been our destination if the bloody plane had been coming.
As daylight began in enest we left the oil fields properly and started topass through some unfamiliar country and the new world of the soith beagn.
Crossing some large wash areas we came to our first Village of Rumbkuia .A village that on the whole made mMaanga feel like a metropolis .No water trucks to fill up the drums on the road just a squeaky hand pump bringing up brakish water from the ground ,skiy cattle , kids not able to have a wash because no water ,a church reminding of the failed attempts of Christiandom trying to tame and control the proud Nuier people of the area.
A mission down at Leer is still been run by several fathers ,Sisters and Brothers and has been going since the turn of the century continuing to heal, teach and train the locals but not control or tame.
George the local county commissioner of Mayendit was our first place of cal as he was to take us to the new road and make sure we did not get lost.Unfortunately for us he was still in bed and upon arising sent his car back to thar jars the way we had come to get fuel for his trip.
After a cup of tea so sweet my teeth sang for a week we waited and waited will george had is breakfast , A quick local meeting of extreme importance to his [we had just been elevated[ to VIPs thanks very much .Man are we now import ant.
After two hrs of chatting, siphoning fuel, George having breakfast ,a walk of the Village amenities ,meeting the kids by Zacc and myself .
We were summoned back as we were keeping George waiting from moving on to show us the way.
Rumbkuia sites
George's Police force
Town water pump water brakish
Kids Rumbkuia no water for washing
Town square
Shop Mayendit
New road
Mayendit
New Road
With Rumbkuia behind a village on the brink of starvation over the next few months we headed off to the county headquarters at Mayendit which at the time I thought was the village with the least I have been to.
Rubbish every where,the odd shop although the “bakery” did do good bread . Dependant on supplies from Khartoon as till now the roads from the south and juba were non existant they are realy quite forgotten and I don’t know how they survive during the wet .Some move to bentiu and the handouts I gues the rest just struggle to exist and some just die.
Certainly the skinniest and poorest I have seen so far until we went along the new road and it is no exaggeration we were the first Kwagas to venture into this area unless some intrepid missionary had walked there.But judging by the peoples reaction to us we were an extreme novelty.
Maypar well what can I say it just has nothing except it is know on the new strategic road to protect the oil fields. Maypar is the most remote and nonfacilitised place I have ever been the people are incredibly generous and friendly and have so much hope foor the future it is just so humbling.
Just the fact we have called in and were going to start using the road to get our gear in from Mombasa was perhaps the biggest event since the war end apart from the referendum.I think our presence was a signal that change will happen in the new country and change will come but boy it is going to be slow.
From Maypar we went to Rumbeik along the new road and we were able to get to a 100ks an hr once .But the road is good .
Rumbeik the capital of Lakes State is quite large and perhaps one of the cleanest towns around it has a large UN presence .After meeting the Governor who told us the road to Urol was a bit rough we set off on the second last leg to Juba 110ks later and 4.5hrs later we got there.Road was jjust a tad rough to say the least as it was dark I will have to take the photos on the way back.
Urol to Juba just a bit rough .So 20hrs after we left we arrived at our house in Juba
Couple of jobs in the morning and we were off to Cairo for a planning meeting with Head office .Cairo was ok except ripped off as usual. I left the morning before the bigger demonstrations luckily as they closed the airport that night.
So I am sitting in a hotel room in Amsterdam finishing this off .Bloody cold minus 4 the first day and should be warm today at 0
Off to The Hague today for bank meetings tomorrow and then London Cologne / London /Nairobi/Juba and drive home.
Maypar
