Charles

The day began with a ride to a community meeting in the back of the truck with 3 Wildlife Service rangers, 3 AK-47s, a piece of boiled yam and innumerable community members clinging on. I was discussing with Jinubi, the most literate ranger posted permanently to Bire Kpatuos Game Reserve about setting camera traps and collecting elephant dung for testing. Jinubi has ten kids with one wife, contributing to South Sudan retaining its title as the country with the highest number of births per woman. When I first came to South Sudan Jinubi was in jail as he'd leant (for money) his government issue gun to a poacher who then accidentally injured a ranger.

1st Lieutenant Charles Mathew 'Mobut' Dikumbo, one of the key Wildlife Service officers in the state, is resting here after the earlier community meeting finished and we drove, waded and trekked to the ranger post inside the Game Reserve. Several years ago this post was abandoned and moved ten kilometres closer to the nearby villages due to the presence of the Lord's Resistance Army. Now that threat is reduced the post can be relocated but resources, as at Bangangai, are non-existent. We are making an assessment of how we can best help, with Charles' supervision.

In many of South Sudan's government departments people are organised into the same military rankings used by the British, a hangover of the days when essentially everyone was a member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. This is the party that pushed for independence from Sudan and spawned the government's Sudan People's Liberation Army, the main player in the ongoing conflict.

Charles is South Sudan's version of a modern man, rejecting the idea of taking more than one wife, which is an accepted position in traditional Zande law. He's pushing his five kids hard to get as good an education as possible. Often found sporting shades, a Manchester United bandana, a Chelsea shirt, with Congolese music playing off a radio, bellowing into a phone and striking fear into the hearts of his subordinates, Charles is politically astute and is easy to work with. It's safe to say I'm man-crushing on Charles.

Friday evening at the rangers' camp on the edge of the Game Reserve, with weaver birds clattering above and their old nests being knocked to the ground by the wind, is another reminder of how fantastically adventurous life can be. Right now I wouldn't trade this for queuing in a crowded bar to pay £4.50 for a pint, cold autumn gusts brushing the pavements outside.