Page 8, November 15, 2009

I just returned about two hours ago from experiencing the ride back from Apok to Wau, a 5 hour ride on some of the worst roads one would ever want to experience. Just as we were getting ready to go to bed last night the father of my host Gabriel Yak, came by leading another goat that he wanted to present to me. We handled the presentation and he left with much apology that he couldn’t give me a larger gift. For me, already the proud owner to two other goats (we ate the two chickens, I think I mentioned), I am wondering what we will do this this third one. That was handled for me this morning when we arranged to have the man who takes care of the compound where we were staying take the goat to the fellow who lives nearby who is taking care of the second goat take this one and hold it. Such gifts I have never realized before in my life.
We had planned to leave the area and return to Wau at six in the morning, but with the goat and one of the fellows getting up late, we didn’t get out of the place until seven-ten in the morning. Then we had to pick up our non-participating host, Abraham Pajoc along with his wife, child and another fellow who wanted a ride to the next village. So we packed them all into the car and away we went.
I will have to admit that the addition of Abraham Pajoc to our team was in my estimation a mistake. When I met the fellow in Wau, I had a funny feeling about his understanding of what I was doing there in Sudan. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but one example was while we were at the bank, I was having him interpret for me to the teller at the bank who was supposed to have the money that was sent over. Now that we are back and still don’t have the money and August Mayai said that they had told him that they did have the money, I suspect that Abraham’s interpretation of what I was trying to do was badly misconstrued.
He accompanied us to the field site and for that part of the trip, I was pretty sure the man was going to be an okay host while I was there and that he would be supporting my other host, Gabriel Yak. Unfortunately, when we got to the village where we spent the first night, which was the same village where Abraham’s wives lived, that was pretty much the last time he was of any service to the project. We past him several times during our four-day stay, but not once did he offer to spell off Gabriel Yak, who worked hard throughout the program to make contacts for me and make other arrangements that were needed. Abraham did sit in on the meeting we had with the officials of the various villages, but again, as soon as that meeting was over Abraham disappeared and that was it. I may be wrong about what I should have been expecting of Abraham, and to me, his accompanying me to the site was simply an opportunity for him to have a free ride home from Wau and visit with his three wives and children, as well as an opportunity to bring one of the wives back home with him. Unless I am sadly mistaken on what I should have been expecting of Abraham, my recommendation is that we don’t use him in the future.
Some of the things I experienced at the site that I hadn’t completed and had to work through, first was the issue of food while I was there. We purchased quite a lot of food and water while we were in Wau before leaving, but my calculations had been grossly wrong about the water and almost as bad for the food. The cook took very good care of us and provided us with two meals a day, but with the supplies I brought her, and the fact few things were available in the market place in Apuk, it turned out that we were eating the same thing over and over until I got to the point yesterday where I was unable to eat much of anything that she prepared. First, it was just too heavy to have every day and second, it was so hot, I didn’t feel much like eating and only wanted water. That was the second issue. On the last full day that we were there we ran out of bottled water and coke that we had taken. I sent one of the people in the compound over to the market place to buy some bottled water, but they were out an only had some coke that he bought for over a dollar a bottle. Because we had taken rice, elbow macaroni, spaghetti and one can of spam-like meat, all our meals featured this with the addition of some beef mixed with the macaroni that the lady found somewhere, some goat on the last day and the Spam with the macaroni two do the days. Rice came every day and it was pretty good at first, as it was Balsamic Rice, but that ran out and the cook reverted to local rice. The noodles were good the first few days then they ran out. We had some flour which was made into bread one day, and she found some local grain that she made into some kind of Injera for a day or two. Coming here to the hotel today, was a great relief, as I arrived just in time for lunch and enjoyed a very nice lunch which made me forget most everything else I was agonizing over up to now.
Now for a review of what I was expecting and didn’t get when I got back to Wau. I SURVIVED APUK!! That’s the good part. It was funny

I did survive and accomplished all if not more that I had planned on doing. After a grueling five hour ride back from the field, I am back in Wau, but the adventure is still not over. I was not able to get the extra money Janet sent me before I left. I still had some money left from what they gave me, but no one even knows what a bank card is here, so with all the unknown expenses I had while here in Sudan, I knew I was running out of money and asked Janet to send me another $750 to a local bank here in Wau before I left. They did that, so that next morning before I left I went right over to the bank. The bank insisted they didn't have it, so I left paying half of what we owed for the driver and car with a promise I would pay him when I returned. Before we left, I wrote to August and Janet to have the money transfer name changed so that a local brother of Abraham Pajoc could pick it up, but for some reason that didn't work either, as when we returned today and talked to this fellow, he said he went to the bank and they would not release the money to him. Of course it's Sunday and the bank is closed. That left me with several problems. All my plane reservations, Wau to Juba, Juba to Entebbe, Entebbe to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Budapest depend on my leaving Juba on Wednesday the 18, without it costing an arm and a leg to change all the reservations. My plane from Wau leaves early in the morning--too late to catch my plane to Juba and the next plane leaves only on Wednesday the 18th and arrives in Juba too later for my connection to Entebbe that same day. So to solve the problem as I have two days play in Juba before Wednesday, I am going to go to the bank on Monday morning (tomorrow), get my money if they will give it to me, pay my driver off, have him take me to the bus station in Wau and I will ride the bus for about 8 hours tomorrow to Juba. Wish me luck. All depends on the bank's willingness to give me the money before noon tomorrow when the bus leaves for Juba.
This exercise reminds me of a trip I took to Panama years ago with the Exxon Shipping Company. I boarded one of their ships in Belmont Texas on a consulting assignment with Exxon. The ship went from there (five days) to Panama and dropped me off. I had to meet another ship in San Francisco on a certain day, and the only way there was by plane from Panama City which was over the mountain on the Pacific side of Panama. My only hope of getting there was a bus. But the bus only came to a place in the mountain jungle where the road had been washed out. I managed to get a ride in a pickup truck to one side of the mud slide, then I had to carry my bags about 100 yards across this precipitous washout and get the bus. It was a small local bus and no none spoke English. I rode the bus all day to the end of the route (not yet to Panama City). After walking all over the town I finally found some Mormon Missionaries who spoke English and told me there was an airport that had flights to Panama City every morning. I found a hotel stayed there, leaving in the morning for the airport where I found my ride to the city. It was an adventure as I expect this one is going to be.
But such are the days in Africa. Nothing new. Just the same ol’ thing.