Kejo Kiji

So on Wednesday we set out for Kejo Kiji, about an hour and a half late due to various reasons, but not actually that far behind in terms of African time. We set out and immediately began fording streams/little rivers, which continued to be the practice for the rest of the five and half hour ride over bone-jarring roads.  Here are some of the waterways we forded in our land cruiser , we were very fortunate in that it hadn't rained the day before, so they were all at very low levels:

This one actually was a constructed "bridge" (our driver informed us it was very well constructed as bridges go) and that crossing before had been very dangerous here. It's not meant to be an actual bridge, but constructed to control/widen the flow enough that cars can cross without fear of getting suck in the mud or high water.

The walls (that's a wall right there cemented together) help keep drivers on the rockier areas of the stream/river beds so you don't end up mired in mud or deep sand. 

Shot through the windshield as we approach a stream.  Sorry for all the bits of car window that get in the way of the shots, this is what happens when you take picture through a car window as you bounce up and down a rocky road. 

Fording more water. 

The view down the road to Kejo Kiji.  

More local scenery.

 Lunch! Catfish and ugali (corn with what I can only assume is mixed with lard or something similar sort of in the style of masa for tamales, only their corn is a lot less tasty).  It's picked up and rolled into balls and used to mop up the stew the catfish comes in.  It's kind of tasteless, but very good with with the stew soaked up in it.  The catfish was also delicious.

  Washing out hands, in the bush style.

Eating the ugali.

 The "town" where we ate lunch.  This was about it, except for another row of stall on the other side of the road.  This is the major stopping point between Juba and Kejo Kiji.

 As we were about to enter the mountains.

This is actually a fence, the plants grow up and are intertwined around long sticks run horizontally through them.  These are very common fences all over Juba and smaller villages as well. They're beautiful, mostly I think because they're so natural looking. 

 The view of Kejo Kiji county from the hill the county offices sit on.

It was kind of breathtaking up there.

You could pretty much see the whole county.

Also, there were really cool rocks, the whole area is very rocky and the rock runs in linear planes that are really interesting.

 The climb down from the hill the offices were on.

 Bottom of the hill, that's a kid working on breaking up rock.  The kids work after school and on weekends in the quarries breaking up rocks into the piles you see around him to pay for their school fees.

 This was our dinner at a local restaurant, the ugali was white and the fish was whole. It was a bit intimidating if you can't tell from my face.  I was a little unsure about the whole fish/taking the scales off thing.

 A more direct view of my dinner. The white ugali was actually not very good, it was harder and didn't really have any taste.

Me putting on a braver face before we dug in. The fish was pretty decent, although couldn't really compare to the catfish earlier that day.

View down the corridor of the hotel we stayed in.  The hotel only had power from 7-12 p.m. each night so that's when we charged up our laptops for the next days work and such.  The hotel was clean, which was the most important thing, but no internet, no air con, no hot water for showers, and no western toilets, but we managed alright. There were mosquito nets.

Driving around Kejo Kiji was really interesting. At one point we drove to the police station to do our interviews and it happened to be the time of day when all the kids were out in the schoolyards for recess.  Every time we drove past a school (and there are a lot of them) one of the kids would spot us and start yelling "Gowaja!" (white person!) and suddenly all the kids would be screaming "Gowaja!" their games forgotten and they would run to the edge of the schoolyard to wave and yell so I waved and smiled back as we went by, it was hard to resist, they were pretty adorable.  

Our meetings went well and late the next afternoon we set off down the bumpy road back to Juba.

 The drive back to Juba right around sunset.

 The view out the back of the white four-by-four, the official vehicle of Africa, and getting across whatever the road throws at you.

 The view driving home.

 Getting close to Juba, the Jebel (mountain) with the sun going down behind it.

Home sweet home, sunset over Juba from the gates of the Bedouin Hotel as we got out of the car. I leave Juba in eight days, and the report is still very much in the works, so sorry if posting slows down, I won't have much to write about as I'm now spending most of my days hunkered in my container typing away.  Doesn't make for very entertaining writing (or lead to any particularly good pictures), but I'll try and post at least once more before I go.