Monday 31 October 2011

Once were wrestlers

Actually the title of this post is total crap. These guys are very much still wrestlers and the brightest and best among them are being touted by some of the more optimistic voices as a way to offer an economic alternative to cattle rustling, an problem endemic across South Sudan. Commercialising the sport would be a small but useful boost for the world's newest country, which has hardly any economy to speak of. For the most part, the people have no cash; even if they did, hardly anything is produced here and there's limited options for transporting goods so it's not much like there is much to buy in the first place.
After two weeks here it seems that the country has a long, long, journey ahead of it - a fact acknowledged by almost every one we've spoken to - but there's a generally pervasive attitude that people are proud as hell of their new country and want to do right by it.