On the map, it lies quietly in the hinterland of the African continent, starting from Juba, the capital of the Republic of South Sudan, winding from south to north through the jungle and grassland ravaged by mosquitoes at 40 degrees Celsius in Africa, and extending to Rumbek, the third largest city in South Sudan.
Juba-Rumbek Highway is the largest highway in South Sudan and the only highway connecting the north and south of South Sudan.
This road, which originated from 20 1 1, was born with the independence of South Sudan, but it was repeatedly stopped by war. The biggest difficulty in building such a road is not from high temperature, malaria and cruel environment, but from the ever-present potential danger of war.
The people who built this road are a group of China people, mainly Shandong people.
During the Spring Festival, the project personnel of South Sudan Nile Investment Company took a group photo.
Listening to the gunfire of the Spring Festival.
Liu Delong is well aware of the power of guns.
During his ten years in South Sudan, he experienced two wars. At the most dangerous time, the shell landed next to the yard and almost blew up the newly built base. Liu Delong and his colleagues can only hide in the basement where vegetables are stored.
Liu Delong was one of the first people from China who came to the south to build roads. 20 1 1, in the same year that South Sudan declared its independence, Shandong Expressway Group came here in response to the call of the "Belt and Road" policy. Since then, South Sudan Branch of Shandong Expressway Nile Investment Development Co., Ltd. has been established and rooted here. South Sudan is called the last "virgin land" in Africa. As an important part of the aid project to Africa, Liu Delong's task is to build an important road here that runs through the north and south of South Sudan with his colleagues-this road from Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to Rumbek, the third largest city, flows south along the Nile, like a pearl chain, connecting several important towns in South Sudan in series.
In order to build this expressway, Liu Delong has spent five Spring Festival here. As the oldest "big brother" among the overseas employees of Nile Investment Company, Liu Delong has no time to be sad: the menu of the New Year's Eve dinner has been changed again and again, and finally on 29th, 2008, he and the chef decided to prepare the ingredients: braised prawns, braised pork with plum vegetables, spicy fried chicken and braised yellow croaker with sauce. Although there are only four dishes, there are chicken, fish and meat, and there are both northern and southern flavors. Because of the epidemic, we can't get together for the New Year in the past two years, but the hometown flavor of this foreign country can comfort the homesickness of the boys a little.
Liu Delong is a good cook. As the eldest brother in the project, he often cooks in person to improve the food for his brothers.
Nile Investment Company has dozens of overseas employees. Everyone who stays here for the Spring Festival actually has a reason to go home: Liu Delong is 57 years old and he has become a grandfather. It stands to reason that he could have retired the year before last, but he didn't want to participate in the base construction here. He returned to South Sudan despite the opposition of his family. Dong Guangpu, a novice father, has never held a son since his child was born a year ago. In recent years, Wang Liang has been to many overseas countries to do projects. The word "reunion dinner" is already a luxury at home. ...
Everyone has a common reason to stick to it: building this road is not only a task, but also a meaning and responsibility-
For the important mission of "One Belt, One Road", the Juba-Rumbek project will be the first expressway in Africa that fully adopts China standards and China norms, providing an important platform for the export of China standards and norms; After the project is opened to traffic, it will change the current situation that there is no highway traffic artery in the north and south of South Sudan, and the journey between the two places will be shortened from the current two days to five hours, which will constitute the most arduous task of the whole East African highway network construction.
The hope of the road is above the ruins.
Liu Delong still remembers the situation when he first arrived: in the ruins after the war, even Juba, the capital of South Sudan, it was difficult to find a decent civil building and a road that could be called "expressway". It is difficult for people to distinguish between a city and a suburb. The so-called bustling urban area may be just a thatched house as dense as the market. In many feature films about Africa, there have been such primitive thatched houses-round walls made of local unique soil, and then a bundle of thatched roofs were laid on them.
Into the thatched cottage, sultry, dirty, dark, only bundles of thin light projected from the thatched gap.
Thatched huts inhabited by local residents in South Sudan.
In such a completely strange country, the first problem is that there is no safe accommodation, no clean water and no stable power supply. Liu Delong and the first group of colleagues who came to Shandong Expressway can only choose to live in containers or temporary buildings filled with iron plates and foamed plastics.
As for the supply of vegetables, South Sudan has no habit of eating green vegetables. If you want to eat green vegetables, you need to rely entirely on imports-Uganda, Kenya and other surrounding areas. If the freight is blocked, most vegetables and materials will arrive in a few days or dozens of days.
"Everything has to start from scratch. We must dig wells to get water, generate electricity and build our own base. " This is no different from the most difficult adventure. Liu Delong recalled that poor sanitary conditions threatened many diseases. Because of poor traffic and other reasons, there is no running water system in downtown Juba, and local residents need to get water from the Nile for drinking. On the streets of Juba, you can often see various modified water tankers. The clumsy body crawled on the rugged street, and the water in the water tank was knocked out and spilled all the way. Water tankers transport the unpurified Nile to various water intake points in the urban area, and then households go to the water intake points to get water. Therefore, women and children with buckets overhead can often be seen in the streets and alleys. They skillfully put a bucket weighing dozens of pounds on their heads, put one hand on the side of the bucket to keep balance, and shuttled through the muddy and bumpy alleys with difficulty but flexibility.
Because the situation in South Sudan is unstable and turbulent, technicians need armed police protection when they work.
"It is often a bowl of water that precipitates half a bowl of sand." Liu Delong said that at that time, almost everyone who worked in southern China learned to filter and purify water with the simplest tools.
This country needs clean water, stable electricity, development and progress, and at the beginning of all this, roads must be built, roads must be built!
With the arrival of a group of Shandong people, this hope began to come true-with the signing of the general contract of Juba-Rumbek highway project by Nile Investment Company and the road and bridge department of the South Sudan government, South Sudan will have a neat and flat highway that can connect the north and the south and transport goods.
China people! Very good!
During the ten years' development in South Sudan, Liu Delong can easily find out many deep memories about the initial stage of construction: when he first came to South Sudan, many local residents were hostile to them as "foreigners" because of the language barrier, and encountered various obstacles in the construction of the base.
"Until one time, a community in downtown Juba caught fire, and it was impossible to put out the fire in a short time by relying on the local fire protection system. We were building a base at that time, and there was some stored water, which called on everyone to put out the fire together and avoided a fire in the whole community. " Liu Delong said that after the fire was put out, the faces of China people were welcomed by the local people. "The local residents sent their own chickens and admitted that China people came to help friends in the south."
Gong Fan, born in 1997, is the youngest overseas employee of Nile Investment Company. This is his first job after graduating from university. When he heard that he was going to build a road in South Sudan, it was the first time that he connected distant Africa with himself. Before he arrived, he searched Baidu.
But the reality is far more complicated than Baidu.
"I was very excited before I came, but when I got off the plane, the heat wave came at once, and there was no decent road in the city. The wind is blowing everywhere. " There are no magnificent grasslands, galloping lions and fierce war horses as imagined; Without enthusiastic African dance, what you see is only a country in a hurry after the war: except for the "runaway" of climate and temperature, every day in this work is full of challenges. In the process of construction, in addition to overcoming the natural problems encountered in road construction, we must always face the risk of war.
Gong Fan also learned how to roll dumpling wrappers in South Sudan. After a long time here, everyone's cooking has made great progress.
"When we are in construction, we must be equipped with local armed forces to protect safety. When there is no job, everyone will not go out and avoid being alone. " In the eyes of this sunny young man, the most terrible thing is not war and personal danger, but the dense mosquitoes and ticks hidden in the vast grassland.
Almost everyone has been sunburned.
It is this most difficult road to repair that makes him feel a sense of accomplishment and the significance of persistence for the first time: "We are building roads there, and local residents will wave to us when passing by and say, China people! Very good! I think I have a special sense of accomplishment at this time, and I am proud of my country. "
In the days of South Sudan, malaria is also an unavoidable topic. Even more than 90% of colleagues in the base have had malaria. The equator passes through South Sudan. The seasons here are divided into dry season and rainy season. Malaria is prevalent in dry season and cholera is rampant in rainy season. During the ten years here, Liu Delong suffered from malaria five times-commonly known as "swinging". Malaria is very common in Africa. It is infected by mosquito bites or blood transfusion of plasmodium carriers, and there is no vaccine to prevent it.
"I just feel hot and cold, sweating and sore joints." Liu Delong said, "This disease has been basically eliminated in China, but it is still a common disease in Africa, and colleagues working in South Sudan have basically had it."
Liu Delong said that he would like to thank one person in particular-scientist Tu Youyou. "Without the artemisinin she discovered, we might have died several times earlier."
The "Shandong Courtyard" is built on the edge of the equator.
Almost all people who work in South Sudan never take the initiative to mention their working environment to their families. When the family asked, everyone had a rare tacit understanding, "Not tired, not dangerous, and well paid."
Groups of Shandong expressway people came here to plan, build and build roads. With the relay construction of a batch of Sudanese, China investment institutions completed the Shandong compound, the best camp in South China. The Juba-Rumbek highway upgrade project was also successfully launched.
A section of highway that has been formed.
They will talk to their families about the local customs: the average height of local indigenous Dinka men can reach 1.95438+0 meters, and the height of women is generally above 1.8 meters. Some people call it a "giant country"; The soil here is very fertile, vegetables grow much faster than in China, and they can live, with long leaves and large fruits, making the meals in the base canteen rich and delicious; The Nile River is rich in aquatic products. A single bass weighs more than 100 kg, and tilapia grows to more than 3 kg. It may have a short growth cycle, but it tastes a bit strange and far less delicious than domestic ones. You can often see wild animals, most commonly baboons, which look particularly strong. Baboons are gregarious animals and indigenous people in the jungle. Locals have to detour when they see them. They will also talk about their own bases and roads; The "Shandong Courtyard" rose from the deep grass more than one meter high, and they built it into the "Little Shandong" in Africa. Colleagues are all stunted, and Shandong flavors such as Jiaodong Dabao, Shandong Dabao and Linyi fried chicken can be eaten from time to time. The expressway currently under construction is the most beautiful and highest standard expressway in South Sudan, which has been praised by the President and the Ambassador to South Sudan. ...
Every point is the meaning of coming to South Sudan, the meaning of working, and the meaning of persistence. In a sense, this is actually an ordinary heroism. In the shadow of war and disease, they built the most beautiful China camp in South Sudan, and planted vegetables and fruits in four seasons, which became a "land of hope".
Shandong compound built by South Sudan
What is difficult is the "forbearance" in my heart.
Dong Guangpu's happiest moment is to turn on his mobile phone and look at his son's little face.
A cute and soft little man stretched out a small hand with a hole in his stomach at the screen and shouted "Dad". Whenever this time, Dong Guangpu feels happy and a little want to cry. In order to prepare a one-year-old gift for his son, he began to browse shopping websites very early, from the color of balloons to the choice of hotels. "I am not with him, but I want him to know that my father's love has never been absent."
When his son was one year old, Dong Guangpu wrote a letter to his son. In the letter, he apologized for missing his son's growth, but he felt that the child would understand his choice when he grew up. "This is not only for the life of our family, but also for many children here. They have no clothes, no food and can't go to school. When dad and uncles and aunts have repaired the road, they can sell products, go out, build factories, go to school, go to work and live a good life like ours. "
Because of frequent wars in South Sudan, the 60km construction of the first section of Juba-Rumbek Highway was basically completed under heavy pressure and danger, and will be opened to traffic in the first half of this year. As the project manager of Juba-Rumbek Highway, Wang Liang said that the political situation in South Sudan has stabilized a lot, and the smooth progress of the project construction is the happiest thing for all of them.
"China people can go anywhere." Speaking of this, Wang Liang has a little hidden pride. He is from Qingdao and speaks with a Jiaodong accent. "Our road is the best and our base is the best in South Sudan. Now our Shandong compound has a total of more than 30 acres. We grow vegetables in the corner of the base. We grow the most complete vegetables in South Sudan, including beans, leeks, green onions, eggplant and all kinds of peppers. We also have a bunch of papaya. "
Vegetables grown in the base
Wang Liang said that when I returned to the base from work, I often saw a China worker teaching several local African workers to grow vegetables together. Over time, many African workers have learned some clear Chinese pronunciations. "Once my colleagues and I were discussing whether vegetable seedlings were loofah or cucumber, and African workers said' wax gourd' in particularly clear Chinese. We are changing the road here and changing the people here. "
When can I return to China?
Some people are in the first half of this year, some are in the middle of this year, and some may be longer or later.
"Will you go back to South Sudan after returning home?"
This is everyone's answer: "I will definitely come back, the road is not over yet."
Dong Guangpu is a "novice father". It has become his habit to write to his children in the dead of night.
Wang Liang works in a base in South Sudan.
Jiang Xu, member of South Sudan Project of Nile Investment Company.
In South Sudan, people get together to wrap jiaozi. For Shandong people, jiaozi is the taste of hometown.