The Republic of ARMY

14. Hard Work

I had probably read up a lot on all the desert trees I could find. The short trips we made to places like Hala'ib and either border of Bir Tawil helped empower us.

It had been four months of our tree planting project and just days after Dr. Li and Richard's departure for a very important project they were overseeing (which Mercy doubted, but who was I to ignore her feelings? Dr. Li was gorgeous. Even I felt a little insecure standing next to her).

We were headed to our solar farm to check on the progress again. The temperature had suddenly began to drop, and the locals we had visited just days before had said that the rainy season was headed our way.

Not that it ever really rained that much in Bir Tawil anyway.

Ethiopia's Blue Nile had burst its banks while we had been attending a tree planting ceremony near Lake Tana. We took part in it too, and were in turn awarded with a number of seedlings that we took home with us.

Our enormous green house would grow the seedlings for us.

Mercy's gloomy mood wasn't helping get any work done. I didn't know what to do, so I asked her to brainstorm any ideas that she had about more drought resistant crops that we could plant.

Her sighs wore me down.

"Okay, you have five minutes. Tell me what's bothering you."

Her eyes widened, then before I knew it, the young lady was talking at a speed of a hundred words in under ten seconds. She talked about how she missed Richard, how he left saying he wasn't sure when he was coming back, and how, oh my gosh, he was so hot when he smiled at her while doing a smoulder and-

"I think your five minutes are up."

She took a deep breath and her shoulders seemed to straighten as her smile broadened. All the worry seemed to have somehow faded from her mind. "Thank you unnie."

"Korean? Well, I didn't know you were multilingual."

"We Stan multilingual, don't you know?"

"Hold my coffee," I gave her my cup then bowed. "Annyeonghaseyo Raina Inmida. J'habite Nairobi, Kenya. I am an Environmental Health Officer who has green thumbs, na ninafanya kazi Bir Tawil kwa project kubwa sana ya UNEP."

"UWU!" Mercy cheered and clapped. "We Stan a multilingual queen!"

"Okay, okay, okay, let us get our heads in the game."

Mercy hugged me, making me smile from how cute it was. Then we embarked on the important daily activities that had been halted due to my intern's strange activities.

As the hours wore on, we got into our trusted landrover and were driven off to the northern parts of Bir Tawil, where we still hadn't done much of anything yet. The driver was one of the military guys, and Mercy and I along with a few other people went to look at the area properly.

"The locals from Egypt say that when the Nile floods, the dam has an influx of water and some of it may sometimes end up here."

"What about the south?"

"Well, for the south, our forest project is doing quite well."

It really was. We had suddenly discovered some grass growing under a few solar panels, and this made us all very excited. The progress was going well. We just wondered when our setbacks would strike.

"So, do we have to wait for a few more days?" I asked as I watched the other landrover draw up. It brought surveillance equipment to set up and the camera would be powered by a solar panel and batteries mounted on a tall pole. They got busy working and setting everything up. I found myself smiling as the temperature seemed to drop a little bit.

"The weather has been changing lately."

"I am so glad we have air conditioned cars," I told my brother who laughed.

Once everything was set up, we headed back to a temporary shelter which was set up nearby. About a hundred tree saplings were brought to start the northern territory project.

I happily supervised and planted trees with them as the day got cooler. The holes which had been dug were quickly filled with the media that would help retain water and make the plants stronger.

They worked in Atacama, why would they not excel here?

At this point, we had put in a lot of strategies, some which were not even in the original research paper and project proposal. Even then, I was glad that things were coming along well. Still, at the back of my mind, the setbacks of our entire project nagged at me.

What if it didn't work as well...?

What would I do then?

I shook my head, and turned to Mercy who was only too ready to engage my mind in a rewarding conversation about using drip irrigation for the trees instead of sprinklers.

"It will work better that way," she told me as the vehicles trundled back to the site. "The beauty of the drip irrigation is the picturesque green things that could emerge from the soil due to the water surplus in everything. It also makes a perfect backdrop for awesome movie-like scenes and graphics. The only problem could be, that the water lost would be greater than the water absorbed, and we aren't all about that."

"How about we come up with a balance...?" I suggested, making her tilt her head. "This project allows for experimentation, right? How about, in the south, we set up some sprinklers and let them water the ground every evening and night? Maybe something will grow? We can run that for a whole month and see what happens."

"What about that solitary tree we saw?"

"It isn't the only one, but we were trying to set up a few other trees in that area so we could water there daily."

She nodded. "I trust you unnie, however, let's have a meeting with everyone."

Author's Note: I don't know much about Bir Tawil, and I know it is like a hundred kilometres from the closest point on the Nile, but in this scenario, things have somewhat been exaggerated. Also, with modern innovations, it is possible to divert some of the water to Bir Tawil... It will just be really expensive and might negatively affect Egypt's water crises.