Day Eighty Four - Observations

Today as we were driving from Wau to Aweil, I tried to imagine the stories of all the people we were passing on the side of the road. I had a long time to contemplate this considering the drive is a bumpy 3-hour trek down maram dirt roads.

It really depends on whom the person is you are passing to imagine what their life story is. And really this is all my imagination and I am probably not close on analyzing these people by what they look like or what it was they were doing. There were some men on bikes with piles of wood or charcoal on their bikes. I wonder how long they had been riding for with that heavy load weighing them down. I am sure it is much longer than I think. Then there are the people who are just walking. I wonder where they are going or where they are coming from. I wonder where they live and what it is like.

There are people on bikes, people walking, people sitting. I noticed there were many more women and men with traditional clothing and jewelry compared to when I was north of Aweil. I wonder why that is? They are certainly beautiful people.

It would be amazing to do a study and research of people here by coming out to the rural areas and fully immersing oneself into their culture and live among them for a long period of time. It would certainly be a challenge but it would be incredibly eye opening and life changing. I would love to learn more about rural culture here. I am sure I will not learn by going out to the bush and living with the people there but in one way or another I will learn more. I think this type of research and observation of a group of people is called Ethnography (I may be mistaken on that)

On a lighter note, I saw for the first time today a man riding a bicycle with a live goat hanging in a sack on either side of the back of his bike. I almost didn’t believe that it really was goats in the sacks, but sure enough, they were goats. Sudanese people transport just about anything on a bicycle it seems. Priceless moment.