This was the song that greeted me as I dropped by the river recently with some friends/clients of mine after a dinner at one of the local restaurants. The thing is, that a couple of months ago, the surreality of it all would have truly made me stop and take notice. By now, it took a good few minutes and the comment of a recent arrival to make me notice it. It was funny though. Anyway, the last few weeks have been exciting - 2 stories come to mind particularly:
1: Sudani logic
About 2 weeks ago, my company was assisting an NGO in importing some vehicles (we offer this service, as we have a great deal of experience, and the NGO's rarely have the time away from saving the world). Now we've been helping to import vehicles since the end of last year, and never had any serious problems. However, that was about to change. As the vehicle crossed the border into Sudan from Uganda with Ugandan drivers behind the wheel, they were set upon by Sudanese nationals. LRA you ask? EDF? SAF? Rebel militia of some sort? No. Disgruntled out of work sudanese drivers... Upset that the Ugandans were "stealing their jobs" (by driving the last 200km of an 800km trip - go ficure) they beat the drivers and stole the vehicles. Stole them, you say? Surely that must be considered a terrible event in the eyes of the customer who will now need to go through the whole process of procurement again, delaying saving the world even more! Well...not really. You see, in a fit of Sudanese logic, the car-jackers delivered the vehicles to the end-destination in Juba... Think about it for a second. This only happens in South Sudan. Anyway, the situation has now been resolved and our forwarding partner has secured an arrangement with the military to borrow trained drivers to move the vehicles from the border crossing and into Juba.
They stole the vehicles and delivered them... It boggles the mind.
Structural defects....:
One of the main arteries for trade into Southern Sudan, is the route from Uganda to Juba via Nimule. A treacherous road that at best is hardpack dirt, at worst a quagmire of mud, militia, and (like the rest of South Sudan) really interesting diseases. The one constant so far has been, that when the weary driver finally reaches the far side of the Nile from Juba, there is a two lane steel bridge there waiting to grant him access to the comforts of the metropolis.
Not anymore.
The bridge, originally put in place back in the seventies, and since then abused by the notoriously overloaded trucks of Africa, finally gave out on Monday. Fortunately only one side of the two-lane structure gave out, so traffic can continue to a very limited extent. All I can say is, the guy in the pickup must have aged about 40 years when he felt the bridge go under him...
In other news, it is now decided that I will not be returning to Juba in the new year. I know I mentioned this before, but it is now final. The decision wasn't easy to make, but it looks like I'll be doing a really exciting MBA program in Copenhagen, come January, and I figure I can benefit greatly from it. Also it will allow me to do even more interesting things in developing countries once I finish in just under 2 years.
So, with the inspirational words of Mario Andretti, I'll leave to go about your everyday (those of you who know me best, will understand why this quoe speaks to me) - have a good one!
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti
No comments:
Post a Comment