The Road Trip

Needless to say, we did not actually get out of Juba by 7am. This was a problem because Bishop Paride had a meeting in Torit at 11 that we were seriously in danger of missing. But first no one was packed, and then there was something wrong with the car, and then Ed needed to call Western Union and Father Hector needed a Yahoo account created so one thing led to another and then all of a sudden it was almost nine.
We all crowded in to Bishop's big Land Cruiser-Ed and the Bishop in front, George, Neesha, Lamoi (the assistant driver) and me crammed in the back. No seatbelts (sorry parents).
As an aside, let me just say. A couple days ago, on the way to the Sister's restaurant to eat, as George, Neesha and I were sitting in the back seat, a HUGE LIZZARD scampered out from underneath the driver's seat (incidentally right where my feet where) and looked utterly startled to see us. We were startled too. There was lots of yelling-I yelled because it walked on my toe, Neesha yelled because she wasn’t expecting a lizard, and George yelled because Neesha and I were yelling. It was pandemonium (lizardonium) with everyone just squawking “Lizard! Lizard!” and trying to get their feet off the floor and the lizard being all “People! People! @*! %!” and trying to hide back under the seat. But I watched him like a hawk. We all got back out of the car and the Bishop looked around for the lizard, complaining that this was the second time in a week and that they had better not be breeding, and George (having regained his manly composure) loudly told us all we had imagined it and there was no lizard and Ed didn’t notice that anything was happening because he was trying to figure out his Thuraya Satellite phone and had it about two inches from his eyes. We couldn’t find the lizard so we decided to drive to the restaurant and have someone get it out there. We got back in the car (with our legs on the seat, except for George who confidently put them down on the ground-which is all well and fine considering the lizard was no where near him at any time during this whole thing).
When we got to the restaurant, we all hopped out and of course, every single person who worked at the restaurant (a good 30 people) were sitting around peeling potatoes and greens and they all turned to look at us. Those of us in the backseat exited the car very quickly, while Bishop went over to the group of people and explained our problem. A man in a mechanics jumpsuit came over with a big stick and climbed into the car, so of course Neesha and I instantly whipped out our cameras. The guy started aggressively poking under the seat with his stick while the Bishop shouted instructions to him and we clicked away with our camera. But the lizard was crafty. It went to the other side of the seat, then to the trunk then to the front. We chased it back and forth. We caught a glimpse of it at one point in between the spare tire and a shovel in the trunk and were all re-impressed by how large it was. (It was freaking huge!) But before we could spear it on the stick, it crawled to the gas pedal and sat there, as if saying “ha-ha fools!” Of course we poked it in the stick again, and it is at that point that it ran up into the engine. We turned on the car to try and fry it out but it stayed put and meanwhile every single one of those 30 people was staring at us as if we had lost our minds. I guess we were a form of afternoon entertainment. Anyway the moral of the story is that we never found the lizard, so getting into the car, in very tight quarters, was somewhat stressful. We kept waiting for the lizard to reappear at any moment.
Anyway we got in the car. It was pretty cramped but the day was absolutely perfect for a long drive-cool, not too sunny, just fantastic. We drove to the sister's restaurant to pay our tab and while there got some bread and fruit for the journey. Then we started out.
Bishop is a good driver. He hits potholes, but well enough that you don’t necessarily feel it. We drove through the center of Juba, past a hotel called the New York-hotel and discotheque-and out into the countryside. We crossed the Nile (!!!) which looks, predictably, like a large river, (thrilling nonetheless) and then started out. It was so green and lush; there were bushes and trees and mountains-such incredible mountains. They were enormous and green and covered with trees and elephant grass and rocks and they towered over these small villages of tukuls. Every village we passed through, kids waved at us, and one boy even blew me a kiss! It was fantastic. We just munched on really delicious bananas, and oranges, and fresh baked bread and this trail mix of sesame seeds and peanuts which is high in protein and energy, and Gatorade. We kept seeing trucks turned over in the middle of the road or rotting and rusting off to the side. The air smelled like every good thing-orange and mint and blooming pansies, and honeysuckle and lavender and earth and the smell of young leaves when you crush them up. I know most of these things could not possibly have been blooming by the road, but it smelled like it nonetheless. We went over a bridge where a truck had toppled over a while ago and apparently, (they told me this after I took a picture of it) bodies were still trapped under the truck. And as we got closer to Torit, the rusted out hulls of trucks set into the bushes were the actual trucks that were destroyed when Bishop Paride made the food convoy trek to Torit during the war. He could tell us what each truck had been for.
It was so beautiful seeing the houses set in the valleys below the mountains. Goats and sheep were running everywhere, some along side the road, some in the road, some sleeping on big rocks. At one point we saw these small antelopes the size of dogs by the side of the road. The whole time we were eating fruit, leaving a trail of bananas and orange peels from Juba to Torit.
About halfway through, Ed and Bishop switched and Ed started driving. Ed is a good driver when he concentrates-but he wasn’t concentrating for most of it. We would point out people or trucks oncoming for him to slow down, and speed bumps. He was not so good with speed bumps. Part of it I think is the luck of the road (he got a better, more well maintained stretch of the road that Bishop Paride had had) but he drove about 2 times faster and hit about twice as many potholes (with about half as much grace and skill). The piece de resistance was when Ed drove over a bridge and was going on about maps-thus completely missing the giant speed bump which he hit going about 80 km launching George into the roof, me into the front seat, and Neesha and Lamoi (who had both been sleeping) into each other. It was painful.
Additionally, though the lizard didn’t put in an appearance, a bug flew up my pants. I didn’t realize it and kept swatting at my leg, wondering why my pants were so tickles-when I hit something solid I freaked out and extracted it and felt gross for about 20 minutes.
We finally got to Torit and dropped by the Bishops residence to say hi (Bishop Akio that is-the current Bishop of Torit) and then we went on to the mission where we were staying. It turns out, we aren’t staying in tents which I’m a little disappointed about-though it’s hard to be when you see the rooms we are staying in instead. They are these self-contained rooms-meaning they have their own bathroom with a shower and flush toilet) and there are two rooms, a front room and a back room for both George and Ed and Neesha and I. I moved my bed into the front room so Neesha and I get privacy without being too far away from each other (in case she has nightmares or I get freaked out by a bug). There are no fans (the one downside) but the windows open so as long as we figure out how to hang our mosquito net (currently a problem as we are lacking the bamboo poles we need to lash to the bed legs) we will be fine. They are really nice rooms. The whole compound is really nice. There is an office a couple feet away from us where, when the generator is turned on from 7:30-10 at night, we can get internet access, and then just lots of land and greenery and a section with the tents under some trees. I'll describe more lately. Right now I'm going to move my bed closer to the window.