south sudan: juba

we had visited sudan several times, but this was our first trip to southern sudan. we had a great time (more on this in a future blog - since this is such a fascinating place i may have to do a few different blogs to cover it all. just tell me if i talk too much)

back to southern sudan: it may as well be a completely different country. northern sudan (capital is khartoum) is mostly arab. the people look arabic, the food is arab influenced, the religion is mostly islam and the land is desert. however, southern sudan is mostly christian, the people look african and its green. the only similarity to the north is that arabic is also the main language.

the capital of the south, and the city we lived in for the month, is called juba. for many years, juba was an enclave of the northern government as the southerners fought a war which lasted from 1983 to 2005 and killed an estimated 1.9 million people. as a result, juba has been bombed and fought over for many years, and only since 2005 has started to grow. roads are just being built (now there are 3 or 4 main paved roads in juba) and having a herd of cattle walk down the street is not an uncommon sight.

buses such as these travel northwards, but due to the conditions of the roads travel is unpredictable. a truck trip to khartoum may take a couple of weeks. apart from flying, the only alternative is to take a barge up (or is it down) the nile. this option can take 3 to 4 weeks.

this long-time brother has been running a shop in juba for many years. you cant claim to have been to juba unless you pay a visit to victor stores! and even though it is a hardware shop, visitors will sit down and be treated to traditional sudanese hospitality of a cold drink.

since 2005 when the war ended, juba has been growing exponentially. many of these are immigrants from neighbouring kenya, uganda, and congo looking for business opportunities. these ladies were from congo, selling gold jewelry. their gold is 'guaranteed for three months'. what happens after that, i asked. well, if your skin is oily then it starts to tarnish!

juba had really beautiful sunrises and sunsets. unfortunately the sunrises were all during morning worship, but i got a few of the sunsets. although the sun sets behind a big mountain, but they were still pretty...

another night...

more on juba coming up soon!