Easy driving

Last night I was in a hurry, I had to go out for dinner and I was late. So I took the car and decided to do my usual "sporty driving" just to get to destination faster.

Ahh wish I could actually do that. After getting out of the gate I realised it was Mission Impossible 7. The road in front of our compound looks like it has been bombarded with grenades (well it probably has): so full of (like my friend Charlie would say) "lunar craters" that it would just be easier to walk. And this is not even the worst. 

When it rains, because there is no tarmac everything becomes mud. It's a nice mix of black mud, brown mud and whatever else is on the road plus puddles which are never small or shallow. 

I could tell you of a million situations I found myself into but probably a picture will suffice.

Try to change a flat tyre when you're stuck in the mud and another car has to pull you out:

and that one wasn't even that bad: it took us one hour to fix everything and hit the road again.

When driving around though you really have to watch out for two crazy elements on the road (and if an Italian person is saying this, it must be really bad):

Number one: people on motorbikes. Because the road is so bad people on motorbikes jump around when hitting holes on the road. Most of the times they fall, laugh about it and jump back on the bike. Seeing people falling on their bikes happened to me twice: the first time there were two guys on the bike who fell and just stayed there on the ground. The second time the guys were four, all of them drunk: they fell and they were just laughing and laughing.. almost contagious!

Number two: drunk people walking along the road at night. So picture the scene: midnight, driving on the worst road you have ever seen, no lights, lampposts.. anything and at the very last minute you see a guy zigzagging his way back home. That's when you have to show your driving skill and prove yourself that, yes, if you can avoid the guy you're pretty much awesome.

Well all I can say is that you get used to all of this quite easily. I am the proud owner of a South Sudanese driving licence and I am currently learning with my drivers how to drive through deep puddles of mud and rivers (yes we have to do that too).

I think I may deserve some sort of award for that...??