Mother Nature decides its not the right day!

A co-worker and I went for a hike up the mountain the other day.  I have been very busy at work and have been unable to get out there since the first week I was in Juba.  He has never been to South Sudan and wanted to see some local culture.  It has rained a lot and the vegetation is green and lush.   We walk by the anti-aircraft guns that are spattered in the village on the base of the mountain.  Some times I have to remind myself that while Juba is not a war zone, it was not long ago and could be if politics or rebels decide it should be again!

Tiny lizards run around on the path making the mountain and rock come alive as you walk.  I am some what paranoid that the rustling in the weeds isn’t a lizard but a cobra.  Luckily I have not yet seen one!

We walk through rock city and observe the women sitting under there lean to’s making gravel.  As we ascend the mountain, I can notice the smell of camp fire.  This is when I realize how the men split these giant boulders!  The men light a fire under the boulder and heat it up until it splits.  We walk by one man who has 2 or 3 fires burning that he looks like he is busy tending.  I got to witness one of the boulders crack.  It went off like a pop of a gun!

We neared the summit and could hear the approaching thunder getting closer.  The clouds were getting darker and we collectively made the decision that we didn’t want to be standing on the highest point around Juba during a lightning storm!  The descent went quickly.  By the base of the mountain the rain started to fall.  We ducked into a construction site and sat on the porch of a large modern house that was being constructed.  The rain came down like I have not seen yet in Africa!  We could not see feet in front of us!  

My driver gives me a call and asks if he can pick us up and where are we.  I tell him I am in a construction site across from a mud hut, with goats in front, on a dirt road (that is what Juba looks like on every street!).  I have not seen a street sign since I left Canada!

We meet up with him at a local gas station after the rain calmed down and get a ride to change into dry cloths.  All I could think of on the trip home was those poor men who had been heating the boulders up all day with the fires and the day’s work was wasted when the storm came through and extinguished there hot coals!  What a disappointment that would be after hauling all the wood over, tending multiple fires, and having mother nature decide today wasn’t your day!  What a hard life!