Guava palaver

These are the infamous chimps that I was blipping a lot about in July and August. We finally managed to convince the authorities in the south west that creating a Yambio Zoo was not a priority and that the chimps would continue to suffer with bottles being thrown at them and cigarettes placed between their lips. The mistreatment would have eventually led to a disturbed chimp lashing out, at which point it would have been killed for the safety of the people around. Such is the cruel default life of an orphaned chimp in South Sudan.

The chimps are certainly doing better - less needy, better fed, no tobacco and more balanced behaviour. However they still require urgent veterinary care as they have skin and hair issues. I was reassured slightly by the government who said they were continuing to work on the permits to move them to Uganda, which is what we've been recommending.

On the way back from errands in town, Sebit bought some guavas from a woman who was carrying an almighty weight of them on her head, scuttered across to where the chimps are kept, where they were grabbed eagerly.

Meetings and errands were relatively successful. And relatively sweaty. We dealt with all categories of government worker today: highly disinterested, tight-lipped, sentimental, anti-Trump, helpful and mouthful of chewed up groundnuts. Fraser, one of our key contacts at the Ministry of Wildlife, was in the mood to reminisce about working in the former Sudan. He was candid about South Sudan's problems when I mentioned the raft of new government red tape that drains NGO budgets: 'they want to get you by the testes'.

The government's coffers are virtually empty so ministries have to devise new ways of lining them, and the comparatively well-resourced humanitarian sector is relatively easy amenable prey. In large NGO operations such as Oxfam or the Danish Refugee Council there are enough support staff to deal with demands for new number plates or permission letters for this and that, but it's a massive drain on our very small team's time to run around town satisfying the latest tenuous request.