South Sudan Goes Green!

Fields just to the east of Torit Town.

In my experience, things rarely go as planned in Sudan; they are always shifting. That goes especially for travel plans.

Lands between Hiyala and Ikotos.

A couple of months ago I booked a seat for July 13th on the missionary flight that stops once a week in Torit on the way from Juba to Nairobi. For lots of reasons (time, expense, safety, ease of travel) it's the best way to go to Kenya. For well over a year, the day for the stop was Tuesday. Still, I knew it was a good idea to email the flight service a week ahead to confirm my seat and make sure that nothing had changed. Well, I found out the flight was changed from Tuesday to Wednesday, and would put me into Nairobi just 12 hours before my flight to the US on July 15th, and I knew that was too close for comfort. If anything went wrong with the missionary flight, there was no other way I could get to Nairobi in time. So I asked whether their late afternoon flight on Friday might be able to stop, but that's always iffy because the airport on the border closes at 6:00 pm, and the smaller airport in Nairobi used by the missionary flight service closes at 9:00 pm. So, the only definite seat I could book was for last Wednesday, a week earlier than I had planned, and I found out with only half a day to wrap everything up in Torit for an extended time away.

The village of Lobira, on the main road between Torit and the Kenya border.

The flight was a real blessing, though. The landscape of Southern Sudan was the greenest and most beautiful I had ever seen it. I couldn't help but remembering how scorched the land was just a year ago, and to see it so lush and verdant, and know that meant an abundant harvest for people who had suffered from hunger for a year, really made my heart glad. We flew over a number of communities I could recognize from the air, and had some breathtaking views of the Didinga Hills.

Mountain airstrip in Nagishot.

Small clusters of tukuls (familiy huts).

The amazingly beautiful Didinga Hills.

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