Day Six - Sudan

It is Saturday and I am in Juba. My second day here. I did not sleep last night. I may have got an hour or two in but that is all. A combination of jet lag, the heat, my bed and new surroundings made it impossible. Music from pubs down the street was booming away. The bugs, which I think were crickets, seemed impossibly loud. Seriously. I was lying in bed trying to figure out if they sounded like sprinklers in a park or more like when a kids bike has the plastic things on the spokes and the tire turns...I got out of bed at 8:00. One of the girls took me to the office, where I had coffee and breakfast, chipolte and eggs as I understood it. Regardless of what it exactly was it was very good. I spent the morning trying to unlock my blackberry to make it work with a SIM card here and that failed. I have no clue why it won't work and that frustrates me. So Miriam, Natalie's secretary, took me to Juba Town to go to the bank, which was closed and to find a charger for my phone I used in Cairo. This meant I got to experience my first Bota ride. A bota is a motorbike. It was fun. It turned out to be a long adventure of testing cords, seeing if my phone was wrecked and eventually we just got a universal charger which charges my battery. It was fun though. It was nice to see some of Juba and get to know Miriam. And now I am at Arkel, which is predominantly an ex-pat hangout and Natalie's unofficial 2nd office. The plan for the evening is to find something for supper, possibly shower and go to sleep. I hope tonight is more successful than last night was.

The bug situation has been good so far. I have seen more spiders than I would like to but they have all been smaller than a quarter so that is great. AND the sandals which I thought would last me forever broke!! I should have got my burkinstocks...They are still wearable but the toe strap broke. I was so unimpressed. I have surprising taken hardly any photos yet which is a good thing actually because I learned today that taking pictures here can get you in trouble. I promise once I take some I will post them so you can see a little bit of Juba...until next time...

This is going to be a catch up post, which I am sure there will be many more of these to come. Here we go...

Day 5 - June 17th: Cairo - We (Natalie and I) woke up a half hour late, after only sleeping 3 hours, but due to the fact it was 5am we were only 10 minutes late to the airport. Our taxi driver was great. I rocked a coke at 5:30am and jammed to the lovely voices of Whitney Houstn and Tiffany. All went smoothly at the airport, although the security screener was convince I was trying to smuggle a knife on to the plane, but it was in my checked luggage so there was no problem, just confusion. Somehow we managed to get away without having our luggaged weighed which was excellent because we were both definitely overweight with both our bags. We ate breakfast at a place called Hippo's in the airport. On the drink menu is said, "Drink wine to be happy". Hilarious! The flight to Juba was totally full and overloaded with luggage. People were actually starting to fight over space for the carry ons. It was crazy. Being overweight meant for a bumpy landing...that was not fun. Initially we thought we were supposed to stop in Khartoum and then be off to Juba but this ended up being a direct flight which was fine with me. I was very tired of being on a plane.

Juba: There was an unexpectedly large amount of trees which I saw from the plane. The heat just about knocked my off my feet the moment I stepped off the plane. Instant sweat. The airport was a jumble of people scrambling to get their passports stamped and find their luggage. The luggage was loaded through a large window off of a tractor trailer by men. Definitely a new way of recieving my luggage. No fancy conveyor belts in Juba folks. A friend picked us up in his bright orange land cruiser. We loaded up the vehicle and were off. I had to sit on Natalie's lap so that was a sweaty and uncomfortable ride. Not too long though. I am living at Transmillenium camp, which is a tented camp with communal showers and bathrooms. My tent is about 8x8 I would say. It has a bed and a mosquito net. The bed is too short for me so that makes sleeping a little uncomfortable especially with the mosquito net but oh well. I will get used to it. It is surrounded by other tents so getting a breeze is not very possible. Hot hot hot. I will get used to the heat eventually but oh man... I met two other people who work for Natalie short-term. They are nice and seem to have got the hang of things here which is reassuring for me. There is a major fuel shortage so that is causing all sorts of issues here... I went for Chinese, yes Chinese food in Juba, for supper with the two girls I just met. It was good but I am finding even when I feel super hungry I don't eat too much. Must be a mixture of jet lag and the heat. The little distance I walked today brought back memories of Honduras and the townships in South Africa. The roads are sand/dirt. There is garbage piled everywhere. Little shops on every corner. And one of the cutest things, the little kids have learned to say "good morning" to you as you walk past no matter what time of day. So it could be in the afternoon and kids will yell out "good morning good morning". The smells are very distinct... It has been an eventful day full of new sights, sounds and people. A lot to take in and process. One day at a time...