Day Twenty Seven - SOUTH SUDAN OYEE!

All of the people of South Sudan celebrated the victory of nationhood today, after a very long struggle. They are “free at last”. The 54th country in Africa and the 196th country in the world! The Dawn of a New Nation!

The official celebrations started at 10am at the Dr. John Garang Mausolem and lasted until late afternoon with a parade, and many official speeches.

Our celebration started at 9am at Arkel where we had breakfast and got prepared to walk to the mausoleum because there was no vehicle movement besides foreign dignitaries and police, so footing it was for us. Natalie, Nawaz, Nicole, Akshaya and I all walked together. Not even five minutes into our walk we were stopped by the police...This is how the conversation went:
Police: “Hey! You. Come here!” (pointing at us Kawaja’s (foreigners))
Us the Kawaja’s: Sheepishly walk over to the truck full of police men.
Police: “Take these and give them to people”
Us the Kawaja’s: Take the pile of South Sudan paper flags and sticks, say thank you and happy independence day.

We were quite relieved to know we were not in trouble or that they didn't tell us to go home. Haha. We were stopped due to our lack of national pride! We weren’t being patriotic enough because we didn’t have flags! Good moment of the day.

One of the strangest sights of the day was the airport actually. It was like a parking lot for planes. I don’t think Juba has seen so many aircrafts in such a short period of time. AND it is so weird that there were flights at night. The airport is usually only open from 8-5 and we live right near the airport so hearing planes at all hours of the day was odd.

It took about an hour and a half to get to the mausoleum. Along the way we passed out the flags to soldiers, children and other random people. Natalie actually met one of the guys she worked with in Cairo. She hasn’t seen him since 2008. Very small world. We made it to the parade after a lot of hello’s to soldiers and Oyee’s to everyone. Oyee is a cheer and basically means hooray....every other word was Oyee yelled at the top of people's lungs. The parade was amazing. Tons of traditionally dressed groups of people, cattle herders, dancers, soldiers, orphans and widows of the war, and many many other groups. Once we got to the mausoleum there wasn’t much too look at except the amazingly huge crowd. We did see President Salva Kir’s envoy drive past. That was cool. And also at this point in time, we walked past a man who he had a mask on and was splashing water on everyone as he passed. We later found out that this dressed up man was a fertility blesser/doctor/I don’t know what the proper term is. So apparently if you got splashed with the water you would be blessed with great fertility…we were not at all impressed that we were splashed with "fertility water". Haha.

After all of this walking and spectating I was very thirsty, very hot, very sweaty and so ready to find some lunch and water, which is precisely what we did. We had a delicious late lunch with plenty of water. Very nice.

It was way too hot to stay out at the mausoleum and attempt to hear the speeches. So we opted to walk home and watch the speeches on tv, which we watched at Transmillenium.

Akshaya and I went to Nimule afterwards and went for a lovely swim. It was so nice. Nimule has a beautiful pool which we have so kindly been given permission to use for now. We met some diplomats children, they were at the mausoleum but complained so much they were bored their father sent them to go swimming. They were very cute. We unfortunately had to vacant the pool due to a thunder and lighting storm.

I called home today. Figured it was a good day to call and see how everyone was doing. Mom was quite speechless at first. It was funny.

Akshaya and I ate supper at a very small and very local shop down the street. Ugali, greens and eggs. Good to fill the stomach and cheap which is excellent.

We went to De Havana again for the continued celebration of Independence. It was fun. Very packed. I also ventured next door to Logali house and I met 2 of the late John Garang’s sons. Very interesting, very cool. I have met many people who are working with or for the president, SPLA or other important sectors and have had major influence in the liberation of the people of South Sudan. It is unreal.

Only regret of the day is that I did not have my camera. We weren’t sure what security would be like so with the size of my camera it may have been difficult to take pictures, but sadly it would have been totally fine. I know from experience I should ALWAYS bring my camera, but oh well. Even though I was not able to document the day, I was able to fully take in the moment without looking at everything through my lens.

Signing off today from the newest country in the world!!!

PEACE!