South Sudan Becomes a Nation

I posted the following comment to a New York Times story today.
South Sudan, the Newest Nation, is Full of Hope and Problems

"I truly wish the peoples of South Sudan a bright, safe, prosperous future.  I spent a short six weeks in Southern Sudan in 1984, working on the first oil project in the country. The prospects for economic development spinoffs from the oil revenues were tremendous.  Unfortunately, after 20 years of peace, the fighting restarted the day after my arrival, with attacks on our facilities.  I did not get to spend my expected two years of work in this amazing place.

I say amazing, because it was the people who I most remember today.  The beautiful, bright young faces of children in small villages, smiling and hopeful, excited to interact with a foreigner.  The young engineers, graduated from college in Khartoum, with a real job to do.  The people of the souk, selling their fried-in-front-of-you chicken and goat meat; selling a myriad of other handmade and imported products.  Vibrant commerce given a chance to bloom by peace.  The people, whether of southern agrarian or northern nomadic origin, working together to make a project and a nation. The workers, some ill with malaria, who came each day to install facilities, working long hours in 120 degree heat to feed their families. 

I often wonder where some of these people are today.  The young engineer to whom I gave my engineering texts when I left?  The kids in the mud huts?  The truck drivers in their colorful cabs?  I can look at Google satellite photos and see the remains of our camp...but I can't see the people.  I wish them well."