E-mail from the Africa trek

Editor's note: The following are responses to private e-mail messages sent to African Odyssey team members Andrew Maykuth and Michael Wirtz. The original messages are not included.

Food shipments and religious strife
May 5, 2000
USAID last year sent 10 million metric tons of food to more than 80 countries around the world. Sudan was one of the largest recipients. The food was sent in many, many ships because there is no ship that can carry so much grain. We saw what 7,000 tons of sorghum looked like, and it could fill a school gymnasium.

I'm aware that Jehovah's Witnesses face persecution in a number of countries, especially those nations that are trying to conscript soldiers (I think members of the Watchtower Society don't want to serve in armed forces for moral reasons.)

Many Christians have rallied around the cause of southern Sudan because the government in Khartoum (the capital) has tried to impose Islamic law across the country. Many people in south Sudan, where more people are Christians than Muslim, object to living under Islamic law. Many Christians in the south say they are persecuted because of their religion. They're also persecuted because of their race -- they are black Africans and the people from the north are lighter-skinned Arabs who historically have enslaved blacks.

Sudan is a very complicated country and it is good that you are interested in the people there.
-- Andrew Maykuth

More Africa footage coming soon
May 5, 2000
Hello to all of you in Glassboro:
Thanks for your note. We're glad you're reading the newspaper. We're not equipped to send photos as attachments to e-mail because we're connecting to the Internet through a satellite telephone. It takes a lot of time. All the photos should be seen on the web site.

Incidentally, we'll be updating the site in the upcoming days with more photos and video -- perhaps even some shots of crocodiles and hippos. Keep watching at www.philly.com.
-- Michael Wirtz

An offer to help Francis Kuria May 5, 2000
That's very kind of you to offer to assist Francis and his family. He's a genuinely nice fellow and very devout. I'm sure he'd be grateful.

Did you have a chance to see the entire series? You can find it at The Inquirer's web site: http://inquirer.philly.com/specials/2000/africa

Francis has two mailing addresses. His home address is PO Box 350, Rongai, Kenya. You're more likely to reach him at work: M.A. Bayusuf & Sons Ltd. PO Box 88650 Mombasa, Kenya.

If you send him something, I'd suggest you make sure the money order is well-hidden in an opaque envelope, that you send a follow-up letter to confirm its arrival. It might be better to send the money to him in Mombasa and suggest that his employer change the money into Kenyan shillings for him.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Choice of assignments
May 5, 2000
I was also asked to go to Colombia, but chose to go to Africa instead. I've no regrets.
-- Michael Wirtz

Kenyan runners
May 5, 2000
Kenyans have gone to the Olympics. If you read the story again about Kenyans, you will see that their Marathon runners have never won the Olympics even though they excel at the sport. The answer to your question is there.

The reason so many Africans have AIDS is complex, having to do with different behavior patterns and less access to health care.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Children working
May 4, 2000
A lot of children work here, usually on their family's farms. They don't work too much in factories, at least not that I've seen.
-- Andrew Maykuth

We're not being threatened
May 4, 2000
The best way to tell what things we are doing on our trip is to read the stories in the newspaper and on the web site.

Nobody has threatened us in any way. Why would they?
-- Andrew Maykuth

The people of Africa
May 4, 2000
There are many different people in Africa. I have been to some homes that are simple huts made of grass. People have to walk long distances to fetch water, which they carry back with jugs on their heads. They cook over wood fires and have no electricity.

At the same time, I've been to many homes in Africa that are just like yours and mine. People have TV, they eat corn flakes for breakfast, they have cars, their kids go to school, they go to the beach on the weekend and they're worried about providing enough money for their families.

It's quite a diverse place, Africa.
-- Andrew Maykuth

How African kids have fun
May 4, 2000
Many Africans have fun the same way you do: they watch TV, they have parties, they play sports. Soccer is probably the most popular sport in Africa. Not many Africans have computers, so few of them play computer games. Many of them don't have a lot of money, either, so the children often make their own toys out of other objects. My favorite toys are the ones they fashion out of wire, like cars.

What language are you learning? I think it's wise to learn languages other than English.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Would kids have fun on this trip?
May 4, 2000
I think a student would have a lot of fun on a trip like this and would get a chance to meet many new people and see unusual things. However, the journey has been difficult in a lot of ways: We're moving every day and we work long hours, so we are tired, and that's not much fun. I think it would be nicer if we could travel at a more leisurely pace.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Human rights in Africa
May 4, 2000
Most people in Africa respect human rights. They want to be treated as well, and they are generally kind toward other people.

But not all people respect human rights, and there are some pretty horrible stories out of Africa about people who are abused. I think it's the same the world over. There are even some people in American who don't respect human rights, though we are fortunate because there is a greater chance they will get caught and punished if they do.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Unemployment in Africa
May 4, 2000
We have indeed come across some problems, as you may have read in the stories we have written from Africa.

Though unemployment is a problem in Africa, many Africans hold jobs. How else would anything get done? We've met some truck drivers, businessmen, government workers, policemen and teachers. It's almost like the United States.

PS: I answer most of the mail because I'm the one who likes to write. Michael likes to speak through his photos. We answered questions addressed to him.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Schools in Africa
May 3, 2000
It's nice to hear you're talking about us in school. We are talking about you here in Africa. We've visited several schools where the children are required to clean up the school yard with hoes and brooms before classes start. I wonder if children in the United States would like to sweep the playground in the morning?
-- Andrew Maykuth

Do you have any kids?
May 3, 2000
Yes, I have a wife and a ten-year-old son named Jason. Of course I miss them very much, but I thought this would be an exciting opportunity so I went ahead. I've been able to stay in touch with them by e-mail and satellite telephone, which makes the journey much easier. Our separation from our families is short compared to what some long-distance truck drivers in Africa go through. Our first driver in Kenya and Uganda, Francis Kuria, saw his wife only one night in the last month.
-- Michael Wirtz

Border crossings
May 2, 2000
Thanks for your note. You are a courageous man for crossing the border on your own. Did you cross at Malaba?

I'm not sure if there are different Ugandan border procedures for private or commercial vehicles, but basically what the clearing agents told me was that in the past they bypassed the need to bring the log book to get a transit goods license and just bribed their way through. Now the Ugandan authorities appear to be playing more by the book.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Kudos from readers
May 2, 2000
Thanks for keeping track of us. I think you were the first person to write to us when we began the trek 11 days ago. We're almost near the finish line!
-- Andrew Maykuth

We are grateful that your thoughts are with us. We'll need them when we head to Tali on Wednesday. Thanks for following the series.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Unsung heroes: Relief workers in Africa
May 2, 2000
We haven't met your son along the way, but I know that Catholic Relief Services handles a lot of food aid into southern Sudan. I've gained a lot of respect for those who handle logistics for commercial and humanitarian organizations, especially if they have to coordinate shipments into a place as bureaucratic and difficult as southern Sudan. They're the unsung heroes of relief work.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Would kids like this trip?
May 2, 2000
We're having lots of fun along the way. We meet a lot of people who ask about what we're doing and think it's pretty strange, but almost everybody wants to help us.

A wise editor we had at the newspaper once recommended that whatever job you do in life, you try to make it fun, too. Otherwise, it's just too much hard work.

I think a student would have a great time on this type of journey. You might see a lot of things you'd never expect to see. It's like a long camping trip.
-- Andrew Maykuth

The team's families
May 2, 2000
Our wives have been very supportive, considering that this story has taken us away from them for a while. But I meet a lot of people who work in remote places for humanitarian organizations who don't get to see their families for months at a time. What we're going through is not unusual.

My parents in the States also support what we're doing. They sent an e-mail when we started the trip before Easter. I think they're accustomed to me travelling to unorthodox places.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Why take a truck across Africa?
May 2, 2000
Thanks for reading the series.

I'd been fascinated with truck traffic into Africa's interior for a few years after seeing the trucks mired in long queues at the border. When truck traffic was disrupted because of floods or civil strife, you could see the effect it had on life in a large part of the interior. Prices would rise. Refugees at camps would riot because their food rations were cut. So much depended upon a very rickety transportation system.

The route we chose to Sudan came about serendipitously. I had originally thought about following a commercial load, but I found from talking to transporters that much of their business is relief aid. When the possibility arose about travelling to Sudan because I have not spent that much time here and it allows us to cover an important story at the same time as we're writing about transport.

Norwegian People's Aid, the humanitarian organization that we're working with, was also very cooperative from the moment I proposed the idea to their people in Nairobi, so they've made coordinating this trip much easier.

Best to you and your students at Penn State.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Life for the average Kenyan
May 1, 2000
Gosh. What's life like for the average Kenyan? There are so many different types of Kenyans -- rich, poor, middle class.

I'll let Francis Kuria, the driver of our truck speak, on the issue. He thinks the average Kenyan has to work harder to earn less money than he or she did 10 years ago. The average Kenyan can't save much money, and is always earning barely enough to pay for current expenses of their families. The average Kenyan can speak out against the government, but not really make a serious effort to oppose the 23-year-rule of the current regime. The average Kenyan worries a lot about ethnic politics and is concerned that somebody else is getting ahead because they are a member of a more influential tribe.
-- Andrew Maykuth

How the team's holding up
May 1, 2000
We're happy to hear that you're enjoying the series. It makes the sweltering discomfort we're going through this evening a little more bearable.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Realities of Africa
April 28, 2000
Greetings from Uganda.

Michael and I visited Ethiopia a couple of weeks ago, where there is a very bad drought and some people are starving. That was pretty unsettling.

Before our truck trip began, we saw one casualty of a road accident on the highway. That was it. People aren't killing each other willy-nilly on the streets.

I think the we in the media have to be careful about creating the impression that Africa is only characterized by starvation, disease and mayhem. Those are indeed aspects of Africa, but I'd like to leave you with this impression:

On Wednesday morning Michael and I saw some school children in the pink uniforms sweeping up the dirt playground of their "school yard." The school, called the Osire Community School outside of Tororo, Uganda, consists of a couple of broken down buildings and some trees where the children are taught in the shade if it is not raining. We stopped and the headmistress invited us over while she assembled the 290 children into lines, where they stood at attention, well-mannered and respectful.

The headmistress, Jennifer Osire -- the school is named after her father -- told us the community had started the school because the nearest school was two miles away and overcrowded. The students pay an annual tuition of $10 each, and the school does not yet get any government assistance. After she finished, the children sang us some songs -- the Uganda national anthem and When the Saints Come Marching In. Then they got on with their studies.

It was a delightful experience. I can't imagine that happening in the United States, that we could just drop in on a school like that and be welcomed with such open hearts. We left them with some pens and a few other gifts.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Children in Africa
April 28, 2000
Hi. Thanks for following the series. I can't say that I've seen any children driving trucks, especially the big rigs that move cargo between countries. I can't say I've ever seen that in four years in Africa. The trucks are a big investment for their owners, and there are so many unemployed adults around who are qualified to drive them for less than a dollar an hour that it's hard to imagine an owner entrusting such an expensive machine to a child. There are plenty of children working in Africa at odd jobs, farm labor, etc. I'll keep my eyes open for youthful truckers, however.

I also have not spoken with any children about AIDS, but now that you have asked, I will.
-- Andrew Maykuth

West Africa on another trip
April 28, 2000
Thanks for your note. Glad we're conjuring up some fond memories. If I survive this trip, I'd love to go to West Africa and bounce around the Sahara. I haven't spend much time in that part of Africa, though I hear it's spellbinding.
-- Andrew Maykuth

More about Maykuth
April 28, 2000
Thanks again for your letter and your words of encouragement. You're very kind and Michael and I are delighted that you're keeping up with our trek so closely.

I am not very religious, much to my mother's disappointment, but I know people take their religion seriously and I respect people of strong religious faith. I try to be as even-handed, as understanding and as neutral as I can be when reporting on matters of religion. When people tell me their actions are motivated by religious faith, I am comfortable reporting that. No matter what the religion.

I attended the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School. I'm not sure they remember me, and considering some of the things I did when I was that age, I'm not sure I'd want to remind them.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Sudanese war and relief efforts
April 27, 2000
World Food Program does use a lot of planes to ship relief food into inaccessible parts of southern Sudan, but it's a very expensive method of transport. If there are roads, trucks are preferred because it is cheaper. The only other reason to use air is in the event of an emergency, when aid needs to be delivered a great distance very quickly.

But the Sudanese war has been going on for 17 years, and the aid agencies that work there go through an elaborate process of forecasting nutritional needs and pre-positioning food to meet those needs. For instance, some agencies are trying to ship food into southern Sudan now by truck that will be consumed in June, when the area is engulfed in rains that will make the roads inaccessible. By sending the food in now by truck, those agencies can save millions of dollars of donor money -- that's your tax dollars -- to stave off a famine that would require a hugely expensive airlift later. The big aid agencies have very sophisticated logistics experts who spend lots of time trying to deliver food aid at the least cost.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Teaching with the series
April 25, 2000
Thank you for your note. It warms our hearts that that you are using the series to educate your children about Africa.

Africa is a beautiful continent, a place of such dramatic extremes especially when it comes to human behavior. I've never seen such horrible things as I've seen in Africa -- the ethnic violence in Rwanda and Eastern Congo, mob justice in South Africa or Zimbabwe or the mutilation of innocents in northern Uganda or Sierra Leone. At the same time, I've rarely encountered so many generous, compassionate people. While plenty of people have their hands out when they see us, often the poorest people we meet in the countryside insist on feeding us or giving us their chairs to sit in. It's a humbling experience, because we have so many more resources to give them.

I've never been able to reconcile the stark differences in the way people behave here. It's one of those mysteries that makes Africa endlessly fascinating. We're blessed to be allowed to work here.

Oh, and the danger is a relative thing. A lot of the things we're seeing as we travel are part of ordinary life in Africa, and once you learn that and become accustomed to that, they become less fearsome. Everybody takes risks in their lives. What we're doing is no less risky than what many Africans do every day as part of their normal lives.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Wild animals?
April 25, 2000
Thanks for your notes. Michael and I are fine and comfortable and not scared at all. I am, of course, frightened of wild things but I take some comfort in knowing that they are more frightened of me than I am of them. We stay out of each others' way.

It's nice that you think we are brave and the ones delivering the food aid, but we just observers who have tagged along on a truck ride. The real heroes and brave people are the truck drivers who work on these highways every day and the relief workers who live and work in southern Sudan.

I live in South Africa with my family, so I don't get back to Philadelphia very often. Otherwise, I'd be delighted to visit your school. Instead, we'll have to settle with the Internet and the World Wide Web, which brings us all close together even when we are separated by great distances.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Students asks how the trip got started
April 25, 2000
So many questions! Maybe you'll be a journalist when you grow up.

I came up with the idea of travelling with a truck driver several years ago when I saw a lot of truck drivers who were stuck at the border between Congo and Rwanda. Some of them had been stranded there for weeks. I thought they would make an interesting story. So I guess you could say I volunteered for the trip.

Michael, the photographer, was asked to come over and join me for the trip. He has had lots of experience travelling in remote parts of the world like India, Afghanistan, Honduras, Sri Lanka and Romania.

Because there are two of us and we have so much gear, we have hired a four-wheel drive vehicle to follow the truck as we travel across Africa. That way Michael can go driving off to take pictures of the truck as we travel down the highway. The car is driven by a man named Peter Byakaganba, who is a Ugandan I've worked with on previous trips.

We are very busy all day long taking pictures and writing down notes and talking with people. We also get lots of e-mail, so we spend some time answering our letters.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Sleeping quarters
April 25, 2000
For now we are sleeping in beds in hotels and guest houses. The driver, Francis Kuria, and his son, James, sleep in double bunks behind the cab of their truck. All of us have it very comfortably compared to some of the truck drivers whose trucks do not have sleeping compartments. They stay in crummy hotels or even sleep on mats they put on the ground beneath their trailers.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Travel route to oil fields of Sudan?
April 25, 2000
We won't be travelling as far north as Bentiu, but I've read and heard reports about the fighting up there. The Sudanese rebels say that since the Government of Sudan began exporting oil last year from Unity State, the increased income has given the government the ability to upgrade to more sophisticated weaponry. The population in Equatoria, near the Ugandan border, are experiencing that with the increase in bombings recently.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Travel route
April 24, 2000
Our route will take us near Moyo, but not through it. We'll be going a little to the west of Adjumani, through Arua and Koboko. We plan to do a sidetrip to Gulu to see some of the children who were victimized by the Lords Resistance Army.

Thanks for your note.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Trans-African Highway
April 24, 2000
Thanks for your note and thanks for following the Africa series. The Mombasa highway has been repaired in some parts around Tsavo National Park, and the Chinese appear to be doing a decent job of it. But the work is progressing very slowly, and I'd say that less than 10 percent of the road is fixed. Most of it is horrendous, considering the volume of truck traffic that goes through there. The road was so bad that a minivan had broken its front axle in the rubble, and the driver just left the vehicle in the middle of the road, its bumper pushed into the pavement.
-- Andrew Maykuth

What do Africans think about their trip?
April 24, 2000
This is an exhausting trip, but so far it is not so scary. The driver, Francis Kuria, and his son, James, are very capable at driving the truck, so we feel safe. Most Africans we meet think it's strange that a couple of Americans want to travel through Africa in a truck, but they treat us very nicely.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Experience of living in Africa
April 24, 2000
Thanks for your note regarding our trip through Africa.

I've lived in Africa for four years, so I am always amazed at how many Africans make do with so little. I am always grateful for the many things we have as Americans, and sometimes ashamed about how much we waste and how we could be so much more generous.

Michael and I travelled to Ethiopia before we embarked on our truck trip, so I'd have to say the hunger we saw there was the most moving image I've been left with for some time.

You asked how children could help: When I was young we used to collect money for Unicef. Unicef is one of the lead agencies working in southern Sudan, so I think any pennies collected for them would go to good use.

Children in Africa make a lot of their own toys out of found objects -- plastic bottles, wire, etc. They do have access to TV and videos, though not nearly as much as Americans do. James, the son and assistant to driver Francis Kuria, enjoys watching action videos and WWF wresting at night -- he pays about 15 cents to sit in a store on the roadside truckstops to watch the videos.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Experience of living in Africa
April 26, 2000
Thanks again for your note and your encouragement. We haven't seen the presentation of our stories in the paper or on The Internet, but we're told they look pretty spiffy.

It was sweet of you to offer your connections in Uganda to get us out of our little mess. Bayusuf is working pretty hard to expedite the process -- they know we're stuck here with their driver. Kuria is also working hard to get out. I think they're working pretty hard to get the rig fixed. They're a big trucking company and this sort of thing happens all the time. It's part of the routine of Africa.

We had been told before starting the trip that the Uganda border crossing could be protracted, so we planned a few things to fall back on in case of a delay. One thing I've learned after living in Africa for four years is patience.
-- Andrew Maykuth

More about Kuria
April 27, 2000
Francis Kuria is a member of the Full Gospel Church, a protestant fellowship. He was raised as a Catholic and joined the Full Gospel Church four years ago because he thought the emphasis on Biblical teaching suited him better. He hasn't told me about any sort of great epiphany that he went through before he was born again. I think he has been an honest clean-living guy for a long time: he quit smoking and drinking in 1972 so he could save money to buy his farm 14 years later.
-- Andrew Maykuth

Never a dull moment
April 27, 2000
Thanks for your letter. I share your preference for newspapers -- I've worked in print all my life -- though I think there are ways we can incorporate responsible, thorough, engaging news reporting onto the Internet. This African Odyssey is an experiment in that.

Regarding your other questions: Unpredictability is the elixir of life, if you ask me. We enjoy meeting new challenges and trying to sort through unanticipated problems. It's fun. Gosh, if we wrote the same, predictable story every day you wouldn't want to read the newspaper, right?

We're certainly not bored yet on this trip, either. Not yet. I'm carrying some extracurricular reading material and I haven't found time to open the book. Maybe the next trip.

Thanks for your thoughts and taking time to write.
-- Andrew Maykuth