New wife

Bennett has a new wife, a sixteen year old called Prusilla. She lives in one of the rural communities near to our project site. His existing wife Margaret has joined us on this field trip as she wants to vet the new young wife. Bennett says Margaret will assess her suitability when they go and weed groundnuts together. Generally the acquisition of a new wife proceeds smoothly and families live harmoniously. However if an existing wife protests against a new woman being introduced as a friend (a precursor to becoming a wife) the husband is supposed to drop the idea. It's when the husband still has a fancy for the new female 'friend' that problems with adultery can rock the household.

The journey from Yambio to Andari, one of the ranger posts that the project supports, was relatively smooth. Since I was here two months ago the area has filled up again with people returning from the Congo. In a couple of places local people have taken it upon themselves to create roadblocks to extract tolls from users. Local authorities are desperate for revenue of any kind, especially in these far outposts away from the reach or interest of central government. It's a dangerous game where local militias have been and remain a real problem. There is a stepwise development from illegally exerting pressure on road users to suppression of a local population, and fuelling of instability. The government Wildlife Service rangers travelling with us managed to get through with only a packet of cigarettes acting as the road tax. I would have felt very uncomfortable parting with any money to such a request. We still legitimised their illegal action to some degree by giving away cigarettes.

Batista, who has featured in blips before as earlier this year he needed financial help to transport his dying mother home, is the most skilled ranger operating from this ranger post. He told us he has three wives - Victoria, Letitia and Elizabeth - who all get along well. I would love to know what the wives think to the same question. Batista is a good contact to the project, advising on re-establishing this ranger post, restarting patrols, collecting information and re-equipping after everything here previously was seized by rebels.

As we drifted off early in our tents, a gunshot was heard. Apparently this is workers at a nearby maize farm protecting the crop from raiding civets, and not anything more sinister.

I liked the way that these oranges were resting on this big leaf.