Jumping the Border

I got to make my first trip across the border to Moyo, Uganda on Monday with Kaya and Heather. It’s only about 10 miles but it takes an hour to get there, partly due to the border checkpoints and partly due to the fact that the road is dirt and only mostly graded. The border checkpoints went smoothly. Sudan Customs and Immigration was literally a wooden shack next to a “road blockade” (a string connecting two wooden sticks on either side of the road). The Uganda version had an actual concrete building. It was strange that the two checkpoints are each about a mile or so from the actual border so for about two miles you are in “no man’s land” as Kaya said. But I got my monthly Sudan visa (apparently they are now mandating that we only have a visa for one month due to “the threat of terrorism” according to the verbiage on my visa).

Moyo is like Kajo Keji plus, no paved roads or power grid but a bit of infrastructure. It is where we do Seed Effect’s banking and wire transfers at Stanbic Bank Uganda. Moyo has an ATM, quite a bit more commerce and at least one shop with Western-ish goods . . . Peanut Butter, Nutella, British Digestive Biscuits, Heinz Ketchup and the most critical item of all, “Euro Silky” toilet paper. It only took us about 3 hours to collect our wire transfer. The tellers spend about 15 minutes on each customer for even simple deposits and withdrawls . . . point 7 of 150 on why it’s not exactly a big mystery that the cost of doing business anywhere in Africa vastly exceeds that of a place like Austria.

Afternoons in Uganda will become more frequent when it doesn’t cost me $50 each time I cross the border, but for that privilege I must endure a trip to Juba for a multi-entry/exit visa. No small undertaking given the 8 hour drive on crazy roads and the fact that Juba is flat out nuts.