Narrator: Lin Jiangtao Text: Ge Weiyang
（01）
In May 2011, I had just spent three years dealing with the aftermath of the Wenchuan earthquake when I was given the task of going to Kenya, Africa.
The leader asked me what difficulties I had, and I said that I had experienced the life and death test of the Wenchuan earthquake, and what difficulties could I say.
Before going abroad, I took a special leave of absence to return to my hometown in Jiaodong.
At that time, my father had died, my brother was working outside, and my mother was the only one in my hometown.
My hometown has the custom of "dumplings for welcoming guests, noodles for sending guests", and I can only stay for two days when I rarely return to my hometown, so my mother wrapped dumplings on the last meal and rolled the noodles by hand next.
I joked that I was treating my son as a guest.
The old mother said, "But isn't it, you don't think deeply about it, you are arrogant to participate in the work, and you have only returned home a few times?" ”
On the morning before leaving, I went to prostrate three incense sticks for my father, and then went home to tell my mother that I was going to Kenya, Africa.
My mother was stunned when she heard this, and her eyes were red and she asked me, "Can't you go?" ”
I said I was going, I had already promised to lead, besides, I was also a big head, and I didn't want to let others go.
The mother asked with tears in her eyes: "Will there be an earthquake in Kenya in Africa?" ”
After receiving the task to Kenya, I immediately studied the national conditions and customs of Kenya, especially the latest geological situation in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa.
Formed 30 million years ago, the Great Rift Valley of East Africa is the largest seismic fault zone on the world continent, more than 200 kilometers wide, more than 2,000 meters deep, and 5,800 kilometers long from north to south.
The Great Rift Valley of East Africa
There are many volcanoes on both sides of the Great Rift Valley, the most famous of which is Kilimanjaro, which is close to Kenya, and kenya volcanoes are all in the territory of Kenya where I will work. But these real situations, I must not tell my mother.
After the Wenchuan earthquake broke out three years ago, my father, who was seriously ill at home, saw the news for the first time, because he was afraid that his mother, who was working in the field, would come back and worry, so his father immediately turned off the TV.
The next morning, the mother who went to work in the field again, heard about the earthquake and rushed home, and the mobile phone for a morning did not get through me.
Later, I learned that in the days when my brothers and I were trapped in the earthquake zone, my mother kept watching the phone and TV every day, making phone calls for a while, watching the news for a while, until I ran out of the earthquake zone after nine deaths.
After receiving my call to report safety, my mother cried and said, "Your mother would like to step into the place of the earthquake and pull you out!" ”
So I couldn't let my mother worry anymore, so I said, "The earthquake in Africa was completed tens of millions of years ago, and now it's full of animal parks on TV." ”
My mother asked me again, "Where is Africa?" ”
I found a wax stone, drew a sketch of the earth, and told my mother that it would take at least a day and a night to go from her hometown to Beijing and then transfer to Kenya.
The old mother sighed: "Sitting on the ground and traveling eighty thousand miles a day, this is the old nose is far away!" "Fourteen
I was leaving, my mother took my hand, a thousand instructions to confess, a hundred reluctant.
（02）
At the end of June of that year, I arrived in Kenya.
A week later, on July 9, South Sudan declared its independence, and China established diplomatic relations with South Sudan for the first time.
South Sudan, whose full name was the Republic of South Sudan, was the youngest country in the world at the time.
South Sudan's first president, Kiir, was elected president of the Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and is known as a national hero by the largest Dinka ethnic group in the region.
As soon as the new Government, led by Kiir, was formed, it announced to the world that it would implement economic initiatives to trade oil for infrastructure projects.
At that time, I had a feeling that it was sooner or later to go to South Sudan, because infrastructure is our ability to see, and my university major also belongs to the field of infrastructure.
After arriving in Kenya, I initially worked on a project in Kenya with Chinese assistance. The contract amount of this project amounted to more than one billion yuan, which was the largest project aided by China in Kenya at that time.
After working for a while, I was sent to Ghana in West Africa.
Ghana is close to the Atlantic Gulf of Guinea and, like many african countries, was a colony of Western powers. Because of the abundant production of gold and diamonds, pre-independence Ghana also had a name, called "Gold Coast".
I came to Ghana to implement a natural gas project, but I have been eyeing it for more than half a year, and the funds are still not in place. My gut told me that the new target for opening up African markets should be South Sudan.
This is not an afterthought. Because a new country established in the midst of war can be described as a hundred wastes to be rebuilt, and the most important thing is the infrastructure construction related to people's livelihood.
In early April 2012, I was ordered to return to Kenya from Ghana.
On the 24th of that month, South Sudanese President Kiir began to visit China.
In those days, we stared at the news on TV and online every day, and the news with the highest gold content was that China and South Sudan had signed a cooperation agreement, to put it bluntly, that is, China wanted to invest in infrastructure construction in South Sudan.
Soldiers are fast. After two months of preparation, I was ordered to go to South Sudan.
When I came to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, I visited the Chinese Embassy and the relevant departments of South Sudan non-stop, and after a while, I had a general outline of South Sudan in my mind.
I summed up three sentences, called poor to tremble, rich to make the heart beat, happy to swing freely.
Lin Jiangtao (center) visits South Sudan's Minister of Education
（03）
Poverty in South Sudan is staggering. The capital, Juba, is not as big as an ordinary county in Shandong, and more than 90 percent of the population lives on average less than a dollar a day, and the infant mortality rate before the age of one is as high as 10 percent.
South Sudan has ten provinces, some of which are less than ten percent in terms of water use, and less than five percent of the remaining nine. In the whole country, there are only thirty-eight kilometers of asphalt paved roads. The only railway, not only short distances, in disrepair, but also a narrow-gauge railway, is actually a "dead railway".
But you don't get to South Sudan, and it's hard to really observe her potential wealth.
Iron, copper, chromium, lead, zinc and other non-ferrous metals needless to say, not to mention the teak in Africa in terms of planting area and production, her oil alone, before the civil war, the daily output of only 250,000 barrels, which is only a trivial figure compared to the fact that she owned more than 85 percent of the original Sudan's production capacity.
The South Sudanese government has been trying to push for indigenous refining capacity and is planning to build an oil pipeline from the capital Juba to Lamu, Kenya, to reduce dependence on North Sudan. But due to a lack of capital, technology and talent, these oil development and refining projects have been slow to progress.
This is an economic shortcoming for South Sudan, but it is an opportunity for us.
When I combed through this information, I was in a state of excitement for several days, eager to get an engineering project in one day.
What we want most in the project is to get the project, without the engineering project, everything cannot be talked about.
And the people of South Sudan, as if there is as much suffering as there is happiness, especially those children, dark faces, white teeth, pure and lovely smiles.
Adults are also like this, whenever there is a happy thing, they all dance and swing freely.
I've had the privilege of meeting The President of South Sudan, Kiir, and the most I've seen is Vice President WANI of South Sudan.
Although the aid project is funded by China, it is up to South Sudan to decide what project to build, and one of the vice presidents of WANI is in charge of infrastructure.
Because I was a Chinese and didn't need a translator, especially because of China's influence over years of selfless aid in Africa, I became a guest of Vice President WANI.
Vice President WANI and Lin Jiangtao in dance (second from right)
Vice President WANI, born in the late 1950s, is familiar with China's aid to Africa.
The famous Tanzan Railway, the African Union Convention Centre, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway in Kenya, the Lagos Oketa Road Bridge in Nigeria, and even the National Theatre in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, which I don't know, Vice President WANI knows all about.
Once, talking about the traditional friendship between China and Africa, Vice President WANI blurted out the songs he learned as a teenager: "Good friends in Asia, Africa and Latin America, hand in hand on the road of revolution." ”
I say with foreshadowing that now that South Sudan is independent, it can be said that the revolution has succeeded, but education is the fundamental plan of a country for ten thousand years, and it is also the source of the strength of a new country.
A few days later, we received a notification from the Secretary of the Vice President of WANI that President Kiir and Vice President WANI had approved documents to aid the construction of two schools in the capital, The Gudler and Yapa Boma Secondary Schools, in Juba.
On the day of the signing of the aid agreement with the Minister of Education of South Sudan, Vice President WANI couldn't help but dance, and the movement was very natural, very lifelike, like walking.
Vice President WANI didn't jump in the house, he was tuned in the open ground outside, and next to him stood a guard with a gun.
Vice President WANI jumped on his own first, and after a while he pulled us to jump, and he demonstrated in front of us to jump with him in the back.
It can be said that emotions are moved by the shape of the heart in words, words are not enough to sigh, sighs are not enough to sing, and songs are not enough to dance.
The vice president of a country who can dance in front of us foreigners, I think, is not just a matter of nature, Vice President WANI is using dance to send a signal to us, to his people, that happiness is a way to deal with difficulties.
（04）
The development of oil blocks in South Sudan is mainly carried out in the form of joint ventures, and the large joint ventures include DPOC, GPOC and SPOC.
Of the two companies, DPOC and GPOC, China accounts for 40 percent, Malaysia accounts for 25 percent, and Indian stone accounts for 14 percent, so China's advantage in South Sudan's oil development is self-evident.
Therefore, we mainly aim at oil development to do work. To this end, the South Sudan branch was established in 2013 and I serve as the deputy manager of the branch.
The opportunity finally came. In the summer of 2013, with the easing of relations between North and South Sudan and the continuous improvement of oil production in the oil area, we were awarded the construction and development project of 124 oil areas belonging to GPOC.
On July 4, we signed the first batch of contracts with GPOC companies, mainly for infrastructure projects in the oil area, and after the completion of the sub-projects, the next project contract can be renewed.
The soldiers and horses did not move, and the grain and grass went first. The grain and grass mentioned here refers to forty-four large-scale construction equipment.
On July 27, I led a team from Juba and began escorting construction equipment to Bentiu, where the 124 oil area is located.
In addition to the forty-four sets of construction equipment, there were more than seventy people accompanying the entourage, and the size of the convoy was very rare in south Sudan, which was not long ago.
We are also highly vigilant. On the basis of the preliminary investigation, a detailed driving route was planned, and nine heavily armed guards were applied to the vice president of WANI, and six maintenance workers and a local native guide were hired.
I also made careful arrangements for the order of the convoy. Guard vehicles are distributed at both ends of the front and rear, in the middle are dump trucks and tractors equipped with heavy equipment, and we ourselves sit in three off-road vehicles in the front, middle and rear positions, so as to contact in time when encountering situations.
Large machinery and equipment
After leaving Juba, we headed north to Lumbak, South Sudan's second largest city.
By this time, we had walked nearly six hundred kilometers. For four days, an average of sixteen hours a day, although the body was a little tired, but everyone was still very happy.
Because at this speed, although the road behind is a little more difficult, but in about seven days at most, the convoy will reach Bentiu, where the 124 oil area project is located.
And we were happy too soon.
（05）
On 31 July, when we arrived in Lumbak, it suddenly rained heavily and the entire road was soaked in the shape of bread. Since then, we have been struggling through mud and swamps.
On August 1st, we arrived at Waya, the economic center of northern South Sudan. After replenishing fuel, food and water overnight, at 9 o'clock the next day, we braved the rain and continued to rush.
At 9 p.m., I looked at the odometer and it took twelve hours to drive less than a hundred kilometers from the tile house. At this time, the convoy could not continue to move forward, because most of the vehicles were trapped in the cement nest, and when we rescued, not only did the trapped cars not come out, but the rescued vehicles also fell into it.
At about 11 o'clock in the evening, I informed everyone that they were going to spend the night in the wilderness, but the accompanying guard squad leader said that it was dangerous and that they had to return to camp in a small town they had passed by.
The guard squad leader, kinkou, is a veteran of the South Sudanese War of Independence, who was selected to the Presidential Palace Guard Unit after independence because of his proficiency in shooting and fighting.
KINKOU's attitude was very firm, there was no room for negotiation, and I had to obey.
KINKOU assigned four guards and dozens of black brother drivers to guard the vehicles and equipment in situ, and then personally led four guards to escort us back to camp.
On the way back, the heavy rain was still falling, and sitting on the bumpy off-road vehicle, I remembered the experience of the Yingri Road project during the Wenchuan earthquake five years ago.
On May 12, 2008, when the tragic Wenchuan earthquake broke out, the thirteen brothers of the project department were separated into three different positions nearly 20 kilometers from east to west.
On May 14, after I learned of the safety of the other five brothers, I decided to lead the evacuation of the seven brothers in the project department.
On May 19, I borrowed the satellite phone of the chief of the Sichuan ForestRy Corps of the Armed Police in Gengda Township and contacted the leaders of the company who came to the rescue. On May 20, we began to evacuate from Gengda Township in the direction of Wolong Town
That night, it was also raining heavily. People are tired and can't do it, so they climb uphill and walk, and when they go down slowly, they simply roll over and roll down.
In the final section, we were running with a super-physical will and confidence, completely ignoring the rocks on the hillside on the side of the road. At dawn the next day, we managed to reach the town of Wolong to meet the rescuers.
At that time, we were facing natural disasters, but in South Sudan, in addition to bad weather and road conditions, we also had to guard against "human plagues" at all times.
Moreover, during the Wenchuan earthquake, we could give up everything except life, and this time, we must not be less than people and equipment.
The "human plague" in South Sudan is mainly robbers, and on the way back to Wawu that night, we encountered robbers for the first time.
（06）
Suddenly, the black brother driver braked the SUV with one foot.
I looked under the headlights and saw a figure rushing out of the grass on the side of the road in the middle of the road.
I rolled down the window glass to see what was going on, the cold muzzle of a rifle, already aimed at my head, which felt like a python clinging to me.
At this time, the muzzle of another robber's gun was also aimed at the black driver brother on the side.
My brain was suddenly in a vacuum, because as soon as the robbers pulled the trigger, my black brother and I would die.
Kinkou, the guard squad leader sitting in the back row, and a guard quickly got out of the car, also aimed their AK47 submachine guns at the same time at the two robbers, and warned the robbers loudly in the vernacular.
The two robbers were not afraid, and they also shouted in the vernacular that the driver and I got out of the car.
I stepped out of the car and stood in the rain, the robber still pointing his cool gun at my head, and the other robber also pointed the muzzle at the driver's head.
I asked KINKOU in English, "Do they want people or money?" ”
KINKOU didn't know the local vernacular, so he could only ask in English, while the robbers couldn't understand English.
After a few minutes of this confrontation, more than twenty robbers also surrounded each other with spears and knives.
A leader approached and shouted, "Money! American dollar！ ”
Only then did I understand that the robbers were asking for dollars. So I drew a line at the robbers, turned around and went to the car to get my bag and pay for it.
Suddenly, Kinkou shouted, "Lin, NO!"
I looked back and saw three other guards who had caught up, two of whom had already pointed their guns at the robber, and one of whom had also pointed a gun at the back of the robber's head.
After a few more minutes of confrontation, the robbers looked at the first sight of our five AK47 submachine guns against their only two rifles, and only then did they roar and retreat with more than twenty robbers.
Guard Squad Leader KINKOU
Driving away the robbers, we continued on our way, to the destination of a small town we had passed through when we arrived.
Because of the heavy rain, it was night again, more than thirty kilometers of road, and we walked for more than four hours.
It's a small town without a name. We were a group of sixteen people, and the only place where we could stay could accommodate five people. After another hour of searching, everyone finally settled down in several groups, two people in a small bed, no washing water, the toilet was filthy and disgusting.
Heavy rain fell until the morning of August 3, when it cleared.
We found a clearing, parked our cars together, took off our mud-covered coats, simply washed them in a rotten blister, and then put them on the roof of the car to dry.
After 10 o'clock, the sun began to poison. At 2 p.m., we put on our half-dry clothes and prepared to rush to the place where we had missed yesterday.
There are no restaurants in this nameless town, so we had to eat biscuits with mineral water.
When we were passing through the tile house, we bought a watermelon and kept it in the car without being willing to eat it. Under the scorching sun, everyone was very thirsty, so they divided and ate.
At this time, a group of local black children came.
The black children of South Sudan are very cute, and they greet you from afar and call us "white". In their eyes, there is no distinction between yellow skin and white skin, so we Chinese "black eggs" who are engaged in engineering have also enjoyed being white.
South Sudan's indigenous people are mostly polite and friendly, especially children.
The group of children came one after another and lined up to shake your hand. In their opinion, it was a great honor to shake hands with us "whites", so every child rushed to shake our hand.
We gave them some of the biscuits to eat, and each child's face was filled with gratitude and excitement, probably because they hadn't eaten such a delicious thing in a long time. But our supplies are limited, and we can only give them a taste.
After walking around us, the group of children found that we were eating the remaining watermelon peels, so they couldn't help but pick them up and eat them with relish.
Unexpectedly, two more groups of children came in a row, and they nibbled on the remaining watermelon peel twice. Looking at the watermelon peel that was only a thin layer left at the end, I had an indescribable taste in my heart.
Back at the wrong place, we began to use excavator drag, car trailer, human cart and other methods, for three days, the convoy finally reached the ABINUM area on August 7th.
In these three days, only half a meter wide suspender and twelve centimeters of wire rope for the trailer, we broke a full sixteen.
Escorted en route
（07）
When we came to ABINUM district, the local mayor heard that we were here to build and did not need a penny from South Sudan, so he gave us a large room in his house and found a very rare mosquito net.
We took a painful shower and changed into clean clothes, as there were no mosquitoes, and it was the best night of our twelve days since we set off.
Before that, many people in the convoy had contracted malaria due to mosquito bites, but fortunately we brought some medicines to treat malaria, and after taking them for several days in a row, most of them were cured except for a few black brother drivers.
There was a U.N.-assisted hospital in the ABINUM district, and we sent the drivers of the more seriously ill black brothers into it, but one of them died after only two days of treatment.
Doctors at the hospital said it was because of the onset of falciparum malaria. We asked the hospital for evidence of treatment, informed our colleagues in the capital Juba to contact the relatives of the driver of the death, arranged for a lawyer to deal with the aftermath, and sent a special car to transport the body back to Wawu.
The black brother, a Ugandan from south Sudan, felt even heavier as I watched the car pulling him away.
After two days of staying in the ABINUM area, it was August 9th, but difficulties and obstacles followed.
From the ABINUM district to the north, the original road has been washed away by floodwaters, and a local loader that went to rescue other trapped vehicles also slid into a roadside ditch.
When I took everyone to check it out, the flood broke the road opening even bigger.
Later, a dirt road was finally found that could be walked, but it could only barely pass the dump truck and the off-road vehicle, and once the heavy equipment slid into the ditch, it could not be dragged out at all.
There is also a serious problem that worries me the most, there are many robbers on this road, and the danger index has risen sharply.
In addition, our convoy is full of people, the material consumption is fast, the food prepared before departure has been exhausted, and the supply of the ABINUM area is pitifully small.
And most damningly, we ran out of reserves. The only way to do that is to reach Mayom is it possible to contact the locals to make the transfer.
With the consent of kinkou, the head of the guard squad, I decided to park my heavy equipment in the ABINUM area and organize other vehicles to march towards Mayom in the heavy rain.
And the greater danger occurs on this road.
The ABINUM district has given up the house
（08）
At about 2 p.m. on August 9, KINKOU and I noticed at about the same time that the convoy had been followed by robbers.
This time, there were as many as a hundred people, of which ten guns could be seen, and the rest were all armed with spears and large knives.
So many robbers have come, and it is no longer possible to send away with tens of dollars. I judged that they wanted to rob people with equipment, and on this condition, they would demand more dollars.
At this time, it was raining heavily again, and the convoy was moving extremely slowly, which was a perfect opportunity for the robbers to loot.
The guards led by KINKOU are veterans who have experienced the war, not only have rich combat experience, but also are extremely brave, we have great trust and care for them, and they are also very loyal and responsible to us.
As soon as they saw that danger was coming, before I could speak, they jumped out of the car like springs under their butts, loaded bullets, triggered their hands, and put on a three-hundred-and-sixty degree alert.
KINKOU asked me, how much power do you have. I say that my right is that even people with equipment can be safely sent to the 124 oil area.
KINKOU asked me again, can the device be abandoned?
I said that if I gave up the equipment, I had to ask my superiors. In fact, I didn't want to give up the device at all, so I pretended to dial a mobile phone number that had been cancelled, indicating that the KINKOU phone could not be called.
Kinkou thought for a moment and said he and the guards would try it.
I told KINKOU with some concern that if it wasn't life-threatening, don't shoot.
Kinkou ignored me, grabbed the A47 submachine gun, and shot a magazine into the sky. And let the Turkish translator shout loudly, we are invited by the South Sudanese state to carry out the construction, do not need a penny of south Sudanese.
The robbers' guns were all rifles and shotguns, and when they saw the fully automatic A47 submachine gun in the hands of KINKOU and others, they knew that they did not have much advantage, so they automatically gave way to the road, but continued to follow the convoy that continued to advance in the rain.
Half an hour after the convoy advanced, the danger reappeared. Suddenly, in the bushes at the bend of the road, more than two dozen people appeared, holding guns and spears and knives, blocking our way.
Kinkou immediately greeted him with a gun, while the native translator continued to shout loudly, and eight other guards scattered in formation.
After about ten minutes of this confrontation, the robbers, who had only two guns, withdrew again.
As the convoy continued, KINKOU called me off the command car in front of me and demanded that all of us get into the relatively safe middle vehicle and never get out of the car in the event of a confrontation.
Later, I learned that the robbers were coming for seven of our Chinese personnel, who thought that we were all big bosses with a lot of money.
There have been six such close confrontations along the way. Later, in order to ensure our safety, the nine guards all concentrated on the rear of the two off-road pickup trucks, one in front of the other and the rear with live ammunition, without giving the robbers half a chance.
Even so, the robbers still did not have a dead heart, still not far away from the convoy, we walked them, we stopped them.
At 2 a.m. that day, when the convoy approached the Mayom territory, the robbers who had followed us for nearly 10 hours finally retreated.
By this time, we were already very tired, especially the nine guards, who had been on high alert all night, their fingers on the trigger, and even the blinking of their eyes was alternately alert to each other.
However, KINKOU reminded me that we Chinese personnel must not spend the night in the wild, and staying here will definitely attract robbers again.
Kinkou said involuntarily, took a guard, and escorted our Chinese personnel all the way to Mayom. I also took the opportunity to make a good front stand for the follow-up brigade.
As KINKOU expected, an hour after we left, more than a hundred robbers really surrounded us again. Seven guards fired warning shots en masse, and the robbers retreated.
Lin Jiangtao in South Sudan
On the evening of August 10, the first dump convoy also arrived in Mayom.
We had a total of twenty-four dump trucks, and early that morning I got word that only twenty-three cars had departed. It turned out that the last one slipped into the ditch, because it could not be rescued, so it had to wait for rescue in the same place.
I immediately decided, took the equipment manager and two guards, and returned seventy kilometers away for rescue.
At that time, I didn't know that there was so much courage, only that people and equipment could not be less.
（09）
Mayom is a major military town in South Sudan with a United Nations office.
As I was leaving, I coordinated with two United Nations aid trucks to accompany me. With their help, we dragged the car out of the ditch at noon, but did not advance for more than a kilometer until dark.
The reason is not only that the driver of this car has poor driving skills and slippery road on rainy days, it is simply an evil door, and the car will fall into the road ditch once if it does not go far.
In this way, when the car fell into the ditch, we dragged it, and after it was dragged out, we walked again, repeating it several times. Later, I think the young black driver brother was too nervous, and as soon as we were anxious, he was even more anxious, sweating, busy, unstable, and strange not to fall into the ditch.
In the end, more than a dozen of our rescuers climbed down tiredly, and even two guards went up, each exhausted. Seeing that it was getting dark, I decisively gave up the rescue.
The rescue failed, there was no place to live in the wilderness, and we had to leave for a nearby military checkpoint.
After negotiating with the soldiers at the checkpoint, we were able to stay at the checkpoint, but for security reasons, we were only allowed to sleep in the car.
That night, we were bitten by endless mosquitoes. Everyone basically slept a little, they had to come down and walk, they were itchy, it was too painful, it was the most difficult night on our whole journey, and the taste was worse than letting the robbers block and chase after them.
At exactly 5:00 a.m. on August 11, we rushed to the scene again to continue the rescue, because the car soaked in the ditch for one night, and the United Nations rescue vehicle also returned to Mayom last night, so it was not successful until three o'clock in the afternoon.
On this day, the rain stopped, but the sun was particularly poisonous, as poisonous as a man in a steamer, and even his black brother, who was very able to bear hardships and stand hard work, could not stand it.
By noon, we had run out of food and water, but the guards found a family and bought a large bucket of milk. Although it was unbearable thirst, because it was raw milk, we were afraid that drinking it would cause stomach trouble and malaria, so we could only watch the black brothers drink heavily.
Seeing that a day was about to pass again, I scratched my head and scratched my ears in a hurry. Because if the news is leaked, the robbers will definitely come back, and me and the equipment manager will be the focus of the robbery, and we only have two guards.
The black brother who came to the rescue
I suddenly found scattered homes not far away, so I made a plan, arranged for a guide to find all the residents in the vicinity, gathered the strength of more than thirty people, and finally pushed the dump truck out of the puddle.
After paying the local residents, we hurried to set off for Mayom, and after six hours of travel, we finally arrived at Mayom at about 10 o'clock in the evening.
Back at Mayom's place, the five brothers who were waiting for me and the equipment manager came forward to hug me and the equipment manager, but we both couldn't take care of this, grabbed the mineral water bottle and drank it like a binge, until each person drank two bottles of mineral water in one breath, because we didn't even have the strength to speak without drinking water.
In fact, in the middle of the road, the equipment manager had already collapsed, because we were afraid of malaria, and we did not even dare to drink fresh milk, let alone the rain on the side of the road.
At dinner, the equipment manager and I ate the usual amount of double portions, several black brothers ate the usual amount of three portions, and the driver ate the usual amount of four portions.
（10）
Extremely tired, I decided to rest in the safety of Mayom while making a reserve transfer and replenishment.
During the two days I spent in Mayom, I was most impressed by a little black boy.
This kid, eight or nine years old, was wearing an adult T-shirt.
Why is it hanging, because it is too fat and too broken, it has wrapped the child's ass, which is either a hole or a hole, and a pair of slender calves are covered with mud.
At first, the child just stared at me in a daze and didn't speak.
The look in his eyes was numb to the point of suffocation, without a trace of innocence and happiness. Only children who are extremely poor and helpless will have such eyes.
At noon on August 12, we ate at a local lamb stall, which we called a bistro.
We asked for six plates of lamb, but the taste was really not good, plus the weather was too hot, so everyone's appetite was not big, and we simply ate a few pasta.
With this effort, the little boy came to us again, and his eyes looked directly at the lamb on the plate that did not move a few pieces.
We picked up the plate and gave him six plates of lamb in turn.
The little boy ate too fast to be described as gobbling, and you put the lamb on his hand, only to see him spit on it with his mouth, and he didn't see how to chew it, and a plate of lamb was already in his stomach.
After eating six plates of lamb, the little boy ate a few more pastas, and it seemed that he still had not eaten enough. I was afraid that I would spoil the child, so I didn't dare to buy him another meal, because he had already eaten enough for the four of us adults.
What touched me was that he himself was hungry like this, and he could even out some food for another little friend who came around him later.
When the little boy was holding the lamb in his hand and eating it, some mutton oil flowed to the elbow, and a shocking scene occurred at this time.
The lamb was gone, and the little boy was reluctant to swallow the oil that seemed fat and difficult to swallow, so he licked it with his tongue down his wrist until he licked it to his elbow, not wasting even a little bit of oil.
Seeing this, I burst into tears, and everyone else turned around sadly.
I personally experienced the Wenchuan earthquake and escaped from the pile of dead people. Since then, my heart has hardened, and nothing can make me cry again. But looking at this poor child, my tears flowed freely.
I thought of my daughter. At that time, my daughter was already in junior high school, with no worries about food and clothing, in addition to studying, learning Chinese painting, practicing guzheng, and living happily all day at home.
In contrast, the child's happiness and happiness is to be able to eat a full meal, which may be his lifelong desire.
We were leaving, and the little boy was silently following us, expressing his gratitude and attachment to us in this way.
The black kid
When I got to the car, the little boy stood there dumbfounded, his eyes looking straight at me.
I understood that this boy wished that we would come to this place to eat in the future, because of our arrival, he had a full meal.
At that time, I really wanted to take this poor boy and take him with me, and I dare not say anything else, it was no problem to let him eat a full meal every day, but I was just a hurried visitor.
（11）
Mayom is more than a hundred and fifty kilometers from the oil zone on the north-south Sudanese border, and the town is full of soldiers with submachine guns, as well as many tanks and cannons parked together.
KINKOU told me that the soldiers and weapons would be ready to rush to the border of South Sudan, where the atmosphere of war is already strong.
We continued on our way to the 124 oil zone, where the atmosphere of war was even more tense, because in the event of armed conflict at the border, we would be trapped in Mayom with equipment.
Another reason to rest in Mayom for two days was that I wanted to contact the vice president of the United Oil Company GPOC, which is responsible for the 124 oil area. Because the road after that is more difficult, we urgently need a large flat tractor to open the road ahead.
On August 13, I contacted the vice president, but he said that he would not be able to send out the tractor until the 16th. We couldn't wait any longer, and on the morning of the 14th, we continued to venture on our way.
Looking back on these days, our greatest danger was the robbers, and we foreigners were the main targets of their robberies. So, before I set off, I decided, this time, to take our own people to the oil zone, leaving the dump truck driven by the black brothers in Mayom for the time being.
Because we were in a buggy, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, we walked more than seventy kilometers. Everyone is happy about it, suddenly a heavy rain poured down, the off-road vehicle began to slide frequently into the ditch, a car fell down and needed several to rescue, often the car was not rescued, the rescue car also slipped into the ditch.
The rain was too heavy, the dirt roadbed was soaked softly, the buggy did not slip into the ditch, the chassis was almost flat with the silt, and it was very difficult to advance half a meter.
It was getting dark and we had to camp out in the wilderness. Because most of the off-road vehicles slid into the ditch, several vehicles were separated by a distance of more than two kilometers. I assigned personnel and guards one by one, and basically every car was overcrowded.
At this time, several local black brothers who were passing by were also trapped here by heavy rain, and I called them to squeeze into the car and say, "Ride with the black brothers in the wind and rain."
South Sudan is located in the tropical rainforest, at night mosquitoes do not dare to open the car door, but after a long time in the car, they can't breathe, so they have to get out of the car every half an hour to breathe.
But as soon as the car door was opened, a large number of mosquitoes buzzed in like a small plane, catching the people who were still in the car and biting them like crazy.
Before dark, we changed out of our soaked clothes, only the shoes could not be changed, the shoes filled with muddy water had soaked the feet white, I simply took off the shoes and threw them out of the car, resting barefoot.
By the next morning, a pair of feet had been bitten by mosquitoes and were swollen high. I counted, and more than two hundred bags, large and small, were bitten.
（12）
On August 15, we ran out of food.
There was really no food to eat, so we had to take out the raw potatoes and raw corn that Mayom bought and roast them, and there was very little mineral water left, so I let you and you let me drink it. In this way, we had another difficult night in the wild.
Roasted corn to eat
At noon on August 16, the flat-bottomed tractor sent by The United Oil Company finally caught up.
Grader tractor is a kind of road construction and traffic rescue of special equipment, light wheel platform has a person high, both can scrape the road surface, can also be dragged and pulled, the force is infinite.
So, I let it open the road in front, scrape out the hard roadbed first, the off-road vehicle followed closely behind, and once the car was missed, I used the scraper to cover the chassis and drag it out. In the late afternoon of the day, our vanguard arrived at Bentiu, the site of the 124 oil zone.
On the morning of August 17, I called to inform the dump truck on standby in Mayom to hit the road. In the eight days since, after several rescues by dispatching flat-bottomed tractors, the convoy has all driven to Bentiu.
The day the convoy arrived at Bentiou was August 24, and looking at the twenty-four dump trucks lined up in a row, everyone was so happy that the black driver brother couldn't help but dance African dance.
After a burst of joy, everyone took a bath in pain, and then fell asleep upside down, sleeping for two days and two nights.
Some people have arrived at the meal point, and they can't shout at him for half a day. Others were blinded and suddenly got up to find clothes and muttered, "Go, tow truck!" ”
After the break, we started weighing, and as a result, everyone lost more than ten pounds.
At this time, KINKOU told me a heart-pounding news.
On the night of our arrival in the 124 oil zone, a caravan of about forty people was hijacked by the same group of robbers, because there was not enough cash, most of them were killed, and those who survived were those who spoke the local vernacular.
I asked KINKOU why the caravan didn't have guards.
KINKOU said the guards belonged to private companies and most of them would run away when their lives were in danger.
I gave KINKOU a thumbs up from the bottom of my heart, saying that he and the guards were not only brave, but also very loyal.
KINKOU says without hesitation that just as we represent China, they also represent the countries of South Sudan.
（13）
The 124 Oil Zone project officially started in early December, but on December 15, the civil war in South Sudan broke out.
Later, the situation became increasingly critical, with local state media saying the civil war had displaced more than a million people and killed more than 10,000.
On March 7, 2014, all project personnel from 124 Oil Zone returned to the capital Juba.
On March 10, I went to visit the president of the United Petroleum Company GPOC. The GPOC's president told the rebels and government forces at camp 124 in Unity State changed hands several times, and all contractors were depleted of equipment and were either robbed or destroyed.
When I left the office of the president of the GPOC, my heart was heavy, and I had a taste that I couldn't say. War is like this, it destroys not only tangible things such as material life, but also makes people's spirits terrible.
I couldn't help but think of the little boy who was about my daughter's age and whether he was still alive. If you are lucky enough to be alive and the people are there again, will you be able to eat a full meal?
The black kid
Recorded in January 2015 and revised in May 2022