Adventure in the cattle camp

Early this morning Tim and I set out to visit one of the cattle camps we had been hearing about. As I said before, life revolves around cattle for the Dinka people. The cattle camps are where the cattle stay in the evenings and during the day time they go out into the fields to graze. Usually young boys or girls between ages 8 and 16 are in charge of them. Sometimes they go far, far away from the cattle camp to find water and grasses to eat.

It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to reach the camp, and to get there we journeyed through brush, chest-high grasses, and trees that scraped, clinked, and clanked along our Landrover vehicle. By the time we arrived at the camp, one of our tires had gone flat.

The cattle were just leaving the camp to graze by the time we got there, hundreds of them of all colors: white, black, spotted, speckled, brown, and red. The cattle owner said there were about 700 cattle in his herd. A crowd of people surrounded us as we stepped out of the vehicle and shook our hands in greeting. At the camp we could see smoke rising from fires where women were cooking and children running around amongst a bunch of tukuls (grass-roof huts). The owner of the cattle said there were about 150 people in his family living there at the camp. From my understanding, the Dinka are pastoralist and will move their camps to find better land for grazing and water maybe once a year or so, depending on the resources that are available.

As I wandered around with my camera, a crowd of curious youngsters followed me. Beneath the shade of a large tree, some young men were helping a cow give birth. The feet were just emerging from the cow's behind. Some boys also put on a pretend wooden sword fight for me and Tim. I hope you enjoy the photos.

After we hung out there for a bit, I asked if we could follow the cattle herd that had left so I could get some more cattle photos. Little did I know that this adventure would involve "getting lost" in the bush. After we replaced the tire with a spare, we drove on from the camp for another few miles until we found some cattle. It was beautiful to be out in the middle of the vast golden grasslands with the cattle and blue sky. That is where I took the photo of the boy and his cattle.

Our guide and translator Abuna (Father) Elijah, told us, "we'll just take some photos quickly and head back to Rumbek". It was mid-day and getting quite hot. After our cattle photo shoot, we continued driving through the brush for what felt like forever. Conversations were happening in Dinka between the driver and Abuna and the others. We stopped cattle herders along the way and asked for directions. We kept driving, and driving. We came across other camps, asked for directions, and kept driving. No one told us we were lost, but it was beginning to feel that way. Tim and I started conversing in Spanish and he asked me, "Do you think we'll make it back in time for our flight tomorrow?" I just laughed and said, "good question". To make the long story short, we ended up picking up a cattle herder boy and he guided us back to a dirt road path that we followed all the way back to the dirt road that led back to Rumbek.

And now I must go before my internet bill is too high...Tomorrow we're off to Nairobi and then on to Egypt!