Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
shook their heads. 'Good. I will pay you well, but you will not get a penny until we arrive.
Do you understand?'
The elder of the two, who introduced himself as Ariike, began to rummage in the child's
schoolbag over his shoulder and produced a dog-eared notebook. 'Sir,' he said with an un-
usual smile, 'let me write this down.'
He produced a pencil.
'
Warking de Nayl,
' he wrote at the top of the page, stopping once to look at me. '
An
exhibition to wark thru Youganda, Ruanda, Tazmania, Kenya and Ethyopia.
'
'That isn't quite what . . .'
He looked at me with an earnest frown. 'I was a teacher of English and speak it perfectly.
See?' Proudly, he pointed at the gibberish.
'Excellent!' I said. 'Then there can be no mistakes.'
'You will sign?'
I took the stubby pencil from him and scrawled my name at the bottom of the page. An
agreement had been reached, a contract signed. I had two new guardians on the way north,
and it was time to see how far we could get.
Heading north out of Juba, the river soon became a vast entanglement of channels banked
in vast swamps and flat, lush flood plains. All around, the grass was kept short by the thou-
sands of cattle that roamed the river looking for new pastures, all under the watchful eyes
of their herdsmen, members of the Mundari tribe. Back in December this area had been
torn apart by rebel fighters, who had swarmed through the villages massacring all the for-
eigners and soldiers they could find - but now the district was safe, thanks almost entirely
to the efforts of the Mundari themselves. The Mundari are traditionally cattle herders and
agriculturalists, but their reputation as a peace-loving people is matched only by their ca-
pacity for violence in times of need. That, a local woman told us, was the reason even a
white man could walk this stretch of the river unmolested: where the Mundari held sway,
the rebels were too frightened to come. I could tell why. The Mundari live on a diet of
milk and fish, but look as if they supplement it with steroids. They are as imposing and
statuesque a people as any in Africa.
The Mundari are also a very stoic people. One day, I was passing the fishing village of
Terekeka which lies on the west bank of the Nile as it begins to widen and become the
Sudd. I'd been looking for a place to sleep, when one of the soldiers suggested we take a
boat across to one of the islands and make camp amongst the Mundari herdsmen. Thinking
it was better than the usual corner of a filthy police station, I heartily agreed and we took
passage on a tiny rowing boat. Twenty minutes later, having navigated the floating islands
of matted rushes, we spotted what we were looking for.
'There they are!' shouted Ariike with glee.
