We were to depart this morning at 8:30 for a four hour roundtrip into the bush towards Mount Kinyetti – the highest point in South Sudan. When the ministry officials and security detail attached to me arrived at 1pm I had to postpone the trip. My rule has always been to never ever drive after dark, and the math simply did not add up. Leaving at 1pm for a four hour minimum round trip (which usually involves one to two hours… or more, extra), with at least an hour there on the ground to make it worthwhile, meant that in the end we would be cutting it close to return to base camp in time for the mandatory 6pm nationwide curfew. Plus sunset in this part of the world matches sunrise… so add 12 hours and the big starship goes away into the western sky around 6:40pm… I chose to be safer rather than sorry.

Well then, how to fill the void of the afternoon? I decided to grab the motion picture camera, hire a ‘boda boda’ motorcycle taxi and take a quick tour of Torit. I held on for dear life as the 15 year old licensed driver took me through the market district at brakeneck speeds. I hired him for about $2.50 and had only two requests: drive ‘ploi-ploi’ (slow) so as not to loose me off the back, and secondly, avoid any routes that might take us within seeing distance of policeman or other persons that might flag us down. No matter the circumstances, I told my new found friend, “do not stop!” (I learned this rule last year when departing the airport in Juba). So off we  went from the Hotel Torit on a motorcycle trip that eventually led to the back streets of the Torit market.

I was capturing great film footage until suddenly we passed a guy in plain clothes (meaning no uniform or badge) who signaled the boda boda driver to stop and pullover. We eventually broke away and got back to the Hotel Torit. In a conversation with a local Parliamentarian it was explained to me that the guy in the market was simply trying to sieze an opportunity…