Boon in South Sudan

Ghostwriter Elma here again. Klaas is going south for a few days. To El Obeid. When I asked him what he was going to be doing there as I thought his work was based in Khartoum he replied:

"Nu ga ik wat doen wat niemand wilde doen. In het kader van een of ander project krijgen ze voor een paar miljoen materiaal. Dat moet ff verdeeld worden. Maar niemand wil personeel leveren en niemand weet hoe het moet (ik ook niet) maar het moet wel 2 november klaar want dan komen de generaals. Nou dat los ik wel op .... of niet. In ieder geval weer een vliegreisje stukje van het land zien foto's maken interessante mensen ontmoeten en niemand "dood schieten."

If anyone wants to read more about the recent history of Sudan there is a book about The Lost Boys of Sudan which has just been re-released. Dave Eggers ~ What is the What (Wat is de Wat) is written in the form of a novel but is the true story of one boy's journey away from his village after it was destroyed by government forces who believed that the villagers were supporting the SPLA (Sudanese People's Liberation Army). All the writer's earnings from the sale of the book go to development projects in the south of Sudan. I can't say that Dave Eggers is my favourite writer (he's not bad, but he does tend to drift a bit) but I certainly learnt a lot about the country that I didn't know before.