Aeronautic mishaps

I wrote this several weeks ago, before the Christmas holiday, but am just getting around to posting it:

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Traveling from Juba to Yambio today was one of my favorite travel adventures, surely a story that will be re-told many times over dinner.

First, I checked out of the lovely Paradise hotel. Having a kindred relationship with all hotel employees, Pauline, the desk clerk and I exchanged phone numbers and promises to hang out next time I’m in Juba. So, I’ve made my first local friend. A+ in the sociability department.
My driver picked me up, and told me that we had to go pick up my ticket. We drove through a really cool part of town. I managed to take some pictures out the window of the car. (sorry for the quality of some of them…)

The United Nations operates a Humanitarian Air Charter Service. Basically, the UN has an airline to fly people like me around the world to places that normal airlines might not go. The driver hopped out to get my ticket and I watched goats eating the
foliage and part of the World Food Program (WFP) sign.

Tickets on humanitarian flights consist of a half sheet of paper, torn on the bottom, with your name and flight time handwritten on it.

Then we were off the the Juba airport...

The Juba airport deserves its own blog post... so I won't do it the injustice of fitting it in here. Let me just say, it's an experience.

I presented my ticket, an official letter from my organization, my travel permit (yes, the one that says I am a 6’4” tall African man), and my passport to the guy at the counter and I made it through and was off.

The planes were smallish, with 2 propellers, seating around 30 people. (since I wrote this initially, I was flown in an even smaller plane, seating 6. I was about 2 feet away from the cockpit and the very cute South African pilot... that story might also warrant a separate blog post)

We had to make a stop in Rumbek to let some people off the plane. Everywhere in South Sudan, except Juba, you land on a dirt runway. Now, this is Sudanese dirt. Red. Dusty. Dirt. We landed and some passengers disembarked. I was looking out the window when I see this guy inspecting the tire and the landing gear, then he calls the stewardess out, and she starts inspecting the landing gear, then the pilot gets involved. At this point, most of the passengers are on my side of the plane, peering out of the windows, checking out the action below.

Next thing you know, I see a airplane sized jack and a spare tire being rolled out from the cargo hold. Yes, really, this happened.

The stewardess and the pilot changed our tire while we waited under a tree.

I got to experience my second Sudanese airport of the day, Rumbek. Think: dirt landing strip, tree, lean-to with a refridgerator selling cokes. That's about it...

And, in case you don't believe me... I made a video, which you can watch on my next post...