It's my Going Away lunch, where I have invited the entire logistics department out for lunch. Ten out of the 40+ people show up, which suits me just fine, since I'm not a big socializer, I don't like awkward goodbyes, and there is not enough place for forty people in this small restaurant. It's a quiet gathering at first, but eventually we spark some conversations about family, our lives outside of work, and what it's like in the USA.
One guy jokes he wants to sell his son. We all laugh at his stories. He says how bad the boy is, and how he gives even his grandmother a really hard time. He's a terror and he hits his mother. I ask how old the child is. Two. Two years old, and already labeled a bad child. The father wants to give him away, and will pay someone to take him. We laugh. I can't help but notice someone asks him later what his serious price is, though.
A military officer overhears one person bad-talking the military. My staff member is saying how government or army officials will keep the pay of dead soldiers instead of search for their next of kin. He gets yelled at by the military officer for quite some time. The staff member is not at all timid, and is not intimated by the officer. They shout at each other for a while. I understand enough Arabic to know he is giving my staff member a hard time about talking bad about his country to a white person. Not patriotic. The staff member says it's not over, he will hear more this evening, when the officer will find him at his house and continue the conversation.
We talk, we laugh. I explain the distance I will travel to go home. Everyone is astonished I will travel 13 000 km. "How many days?" "Three, more with a stop in New York." That's how many days it takes to get to the capital, 800km away. We talk about the roads in the USA, how I once drove across the country from one coast to the other. I explain the distances involved, and 5000 km of roads stretching across a continent. "Tarmac? Is it all tarmac road?" they ask immediately. When I say yes, they talk about how 5000 km of tarmac road would change the face of South Sudan. They are all jealous of the one theoretical road across the US. I can't find the words to explain that it's a multilane superhighway, ten times bigger than any 'highway' here in South Sudan, and part of a network of similar highways lacing throughout a continent.
One guy jokes he wants to sell his son. We all laugh at his stories. He says how bad the boy is, and how he gives even his grandmother a really hard time. He's a terror and he hits his mother. I ask how old the child is. Two. Two years old, and already labeled a bad child. The father wants to give him away, and will pay someone to take him. We laugh. I can't help but notice someone asks him later what his serious price is, though.
A military officer overhears one person bad-talking the military. My staff member is saying how government or army officials will keep the pay of dead soldiers instead of search for their next of kin. He gets yelled at by the military officer for quite some time. The staff member is not at all timid, and is not intimated by the officer. They shout at each other for a while. I understand enough Arabic to know he is giving my staff member a hard time about talking bad about his country to a white person. Not patriotic. The staff member says it's not over, he will hear more this evening, when the officer will find him at his house and continue the conversation.
We talk, we laugh. I explain the distance I will travel to go home. Everyone is astonished I will travel 13 000 km. "How many days?" "Three, more with a stop in New York." That's how many days it takes to get to the capital, 800km away. We talk about the roads in the USA, how I once drove across the country from one coast to the other. I explain the distances involved, and 5000 km of roads stretching across a continent. "Tarmac? Is it all tarmac road?" they ask immediately. When I say yes, they talk about how 5000 km of tarmac road would change the face of South Sudan. They are all jealous of the one theoretical road across the US. I can't find the words to explain that it's a multilane superhighway, ten times bigger than any 'highway' here in South Sudan, and part of a network of similar highways lacing throughout a continent.
