A life of rock breaking

Collecting the big rocks

For all my complaining over the past few weeks, it seems like life could indeed be worse.  Ever since I was a little boy, I remember hearing stories about the hard life of prison labor as part of books, movies and other forms of entertainment.  The most hideous punishment I remember hearing about was breaking rocks for no other purpose than to exact a punishment.  Nothing could be worse that having to perform the most useless tasks.  Dig a hole and then fill it in, break a big rock into smaller rocks, collect grains of rice from grass (as shown in Brokedown Palace)…. all these things remind me of the chores I used to get from my father so that I “had something to do” after school each day.

Breaking rocks at the Jebel Mountain

At any rate, never did I imagine that breaking larger rocks into smaller rocks was an actual… you know… career.  Close to the Jebel Mountain at the outskirts of Juba, Sudan, there is an area called Rock City.  Aptly earning it’s name, there are dozens of little shacks (lean-to’s really) housing people (most commonly women, but sometimes children and men folk as well) that just sit around and break large rocks into small rocks.

It’s certainly depressing to see anyone making this a full-time enterprise with nothing more than stone tools (yes, they break the rocks using other rocks).  Sitting in a cloud of rock dust and k wondering how it must feel to be breathing in rock chips and occassionally smashing one’s own fingers (it must happen from time to time).  A small box of rocks brings in about 1 SDG (about 50 cents) and I honestly don’t know what a pile of rocks brings in, but if it’s more than 20 SDG (about 10 USD), I would be very surprised — people always expect a bulk discount no matter how much labour it took to create the pile.  Not to mention the fact that in 6 months, I’ve never seen a deal struck to buy some rocks.

So, I may have some problems in my life, but considering the fact that I could have been born the son of a rock breaker and inherited the family business, I think I should consider myself very lucky. As should we all.

(Or course, these days I am VERY lucky having met an certain man that brings me nothing but smiles and joy!!  MLKKH!)