Cueibet Sudan trip: Day Six - 6th Feb., 2010

Saturday morning was cool and we woke up from the best night's sleep on the trip. We showered, packed our bags and then went for breakfast... As we ate, we talked about how nice it would have been to stay an extra day to worship at the New Sudan Lighthouse Church. As we talked, something arose in John and I and we changed our minds about the whole thing... Faith arose in us and we reasoned that God was for us and we would in fact make that flight out of Juba even if we traveled by bus on Monday from Rumbek to Juba. So we agreed and changed our plans...

We sent on Janet ahead to Rumbek to get her pass renewed. When Janet came to the guesthouse, she was already packed to go. We also had another thought that we should get a letter from the Commissioner to help her renew the pass. So she went and caught him just as he was leaving the house. The letter he wrote spoke of a man touched by the life of a godly woman. He spoke with highest regard about her character and how much of a peace maker she it... I was blessed to read it. The new plan gave John and I time to spend with Silas and Pastor Samuel in Abiriu, so we left our stuff at the guesthouse, loaded Janet and her stuff into the back of the Guesthouse Land-cruiser and took off toward Abiriu where they would drop us off and continue to Rumbek with Janet.

That is when we began to run into some trouble. About 5 kilometers down the road from Cueibet, we saw logs stretched out across the road and a group of village youth standing if front of it with crude weapons (spears, knives, clubs and the like)... Thank God I never saw an AK47... By the time we stopped the vehicle I could tell our driver (a local named Balaah) was already angry at them for their behavior. After a barrage of argument from both the driver and the mob, he put the Land-cruiser back into gear and powered the vehicle right over the logs and off we went. He then explained to us that a local chief had passed away and the youth had been "sent" out to gather money for his funeral... Balaah didn't buy it.

We thought that might be it, but about 3/4 of a kilometer down the road we saw similar road block. These guys were already angry because they had seen us run over the other road block. As the argument escalated, the tempers grew hot and things were approaching a physical fight. Just as Balaah was about to put the vehicle in gear a second time, a young local we had been carrying in the Land-cruiser decided to get out and try to defuse the situation. That didn't do anything but give them a hostage. Balaah didn't realize the man had gotten out and took off over the logs again.. Then he realized and stopped about 100 meters up the road... Finally after about a five minute stand off, they released the young man and we continued... The problem for us is that we had to return past that point in the evening and again Sunday morning as we started our trip back.

John and I spent the next 6 hours as the guests of Silas and Samuel and Grace, Samuel's 18 month old daughter who had been born in Nairobi in 2008 while they were our guests at Nairobi Lighthouse Church for training... We had a blast. We ate, sang and spent about 2 hours talking to Samuel's 91 year old dad about the Lord. Evening came quickly in such good company and we proceeded to the bus stop in search for transport back to Cueibet and the guesthouse. We waited for what seemed like an hour... Then, who should show up??? Balaah, on his way back from Rumbek... So we hopped in.

As we went we prayed for peace and safety on the road. Our prayers were used once again, as we approached the same series of road blocks we had hopped in the morning. This time, the mob was even angrier to begin with, because of the way we passed over the logs in the morning. Balaah stopped and started to argue with them... I got to thinking that he was actually enjoying the argument... In mock, he gave thew a one pound note at them... About 1 / 20th of what would have appeased them. That really made them mad... They began to grab at anything they could get ahold of in the front of the vehicle. Now seated in the front was Balaah at the wheel, John in the middle and me at the passenger window. Nobody except John and I knew that John had Silas's laptop computer in a plastic shopping bag under his legs... Fortunately nobody grabbed for it... (I think they did not see it). Then a bit of comic relief... They grabbed for small plastic bag in the middle of the dashboard. As a hand reached it another one reached over the top of John's head and grabbed the same bag. Then a tug of war ensued... I looked up and recognized him as the same young man who had tried to break up the argument that morning... He was about 2/3rds the size of the young man from outside who was tugging against him. But guess what... The guy in the car won and got his treasure back... (it was a bag of fruit). Then they tried (unsuccessfully) to get the car keys out of the ignition. That really made Balaah mad and he started it and climbed over the logs and off we went...

When we got to the next and last barrier, Balaah had had it. He hit the log going about 50 mph (70kph)... We hardly felt the log as we bumped over it... I gained a new respect for Toyota Land-cruisers that day.

Back at the guesthouse, we ate, traded stories and prepared to leave. We also requested Balaah to drive us to church, which was past the crazy youth barricades...

The other thing we had on our minds that night was the fact that Balaah had reported to us that Janet did not have enough money to renew her pass... We had given her 15 SP short of the amount needed... Money was running out quickly and we trusted God it would be enough to get us to Juba...