Rough Road Trip to Juba

Last Thursday morning I got up at 4:25 am (10 minutes ahead of my alarm), got cleaned up, drove to the outskirts of town to pick up Dennis, celebrated Mass at 5:30, and was on the road to Juba by 6:15. Even though Juba is only about 125 km (78 miles) from Torit, it takes about 4 hours to get there because of rough roads and delays. One of our first sights as the sun was rising was the car abandoned in the middle of a huge pothole puddle shown above. Little did we realize how close that would be to our own situation at the end of the day.

The delays come in the form of multiple check points at which you are usually asked to transport a soldier or police officer (which I'm generally willing to do if it's only one or two and they're not carrying weapons). What makes it more complicated, though, is that other people who are looking for a ride often wait at these check points and cram themselves into the vehicle as soon as the door is opened. Since the Landcruiser is the "Mary Mobile," I try to use as a criteria: whom would Our Lady want me to carry in her vehicle? Accepting other passengers, though, is often complicated by the fact that they often want you to carry large sacks of produce they're trying to get to the market of which you only become aware when you see them being dragged toward the vehicle. Not long ago during a rain storm a man on the side of the road frantically waved me down and asked whether we could carry his wife, whose leg was badly swollen to the hospital. Of course we said yes, only next to see the woman emerge from their hut with two pretty healthy looking legs that were able to carry not only her body weight, but a heavy sack of grain, too. Our finaly delay on the outbound trip came in the form of a flat tire about a quarter mile from the airport (our destination). We suspect we got the puncture about a mile earlier when a police officer signaled us to pull over and asked us to give his companion a ride to the airport.

The return trip was a different story. Our departure was delayed till mid-afternoon because we took advantage of the trip to Juba to pick up some furniture (two metal cabinets and a dozen plastic chairs) supplies for the House of Mercy. Our farewell to Juba was accompanied by a stone that flew from the wheels of a passing vehicle and left a chip in the center of our windshield that has since grown into a "smile" that reaches up in a semicircle to the roof on both sides. (I felt bad about that till I went to the market it Torit to get some super glue to try to seal the crack and saw the windshield of a government vehicle that looked like a spider web.) We had to stop several times to re-secure the plastic chairs that were tied to the roof rack but repeatedly shook loose from the bumps in the road. The last time we stopped to secure them we noticed our second flat tire. By the time the tire was changed (fortunately we carry two spares) it was almost sunset and we weren't even halfway home.

It's much more difficult in the dark to avoid potholes and ruts, and to determine the best way to maneuver through water and mud. Perhaps that explains how we found the right rear of the vehicle submerged in mud up to the tail light and the vehicle itself pitched at a 45 degree angle toward the passenger side, unable to move forward or backward even in four-wheel drive low. Thank God the electric winch on the front of the vehicle had a cable long enough to reach a thorn tree in very high grass about 25 meters away. (I am very grateful to Toyota for offering that "African specification" on their Land Cruisers). With the added assistance of two young men on a motor cycle who stopped to help push we were out of mud and moving again about an hour after getting stuck. Two check points later we were on the final stretch to Torit, where we arrived at about 10 pm, a little beat up but grateful to be home.

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