Day 312 - Going North

Today I watched 7 lorries carrying soldiers convoy out of the barracks today. They were headed North. Only time will tell how far this fighting will escalate.



Yesterday a huge rally was held downtown Juba where the President Salva KIrr addressed all that attended about the fight against Sudan. It was basically a recruitment rally. Only one of our courses ran due to all of the students attending this rally. We have only had one student join the cause, which is good. Our existence here would be irrelevant without students.

If you are a person who watches the news, reads the newspapers, should know at least a small amount about what is going on between Sudan and South Sudan.

South Sudan captured the oil-rich area of Heglig on Tuesday April 10th, which was declared a part of Sudan before the CPA, however according to the 1956 border agreements this area belonged to Unity State. It was not until the 1980’s that the President changed the borders to put Heglig within Northern Borders. Heglig, which is locally known as Panthou by the indigenous people in Dinka language, had been a low-key disagreement between Sudan and South Sudan and specifically between the Abyei region of Southern Kordofan state in Sudan and Pariang County of Unity state in South Sudan. All of South Sudan believes the Heglig is a part of Unity State. They say Heglig is not a border area, but deep inside South Sudan’s territory and warned that the SPLA will not allow SAF to continue encroaching into the territory of the Republic of South Sudan by force. South Sudan said their forces had to respond to the "aggressive provocation" by Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) after which they repulsed and pursued the retreating forces into Heglig town which subsequently resulted in the fall of the area to the SPLA on Tuesday. South Sudan is vowing to defend the 1956 borders, which states that Heglig and area is a part of South Sudan not the North.

Sudan is now declaring that their mission is to “liberate” the people of South Sudan from the SPLA, whose agenda is not that of the people. Sudan states that because they are the reason South Sudan gained their own power, they now have to solve the problem of the SPLA, which they created. South Sudan considers these statements as confirmation that Sudan never wanted the South to become independent.

This is an on going fight and I am not sure if either President of either country will be able to come to an agreement without the loss of numerous lives...

Bashir says it all...“Either we end up occupying Juba or you end up occupying Khartoum but the boundaries of the old Sudan can no longer fit us together, only one of us has to remain standing”.

Day 306 - Lux

I like making friends.

This is my new friend.

Her name is Lux.

She just opened her eyes 3/4 of the way today.

I am so proud of her.

She likes to sit in my lap.



Sad thing is I probably won't be allowed to keep her.

But I love her already.

She is so cute.

Day 298 - Last Day

Mombasa was an extremely interesting place. Many extremes. Poverty. Middle class. Big grocery stores. Little corner stores.

Coco Cola had its mark on absolutely everything. Coco Cola Signs everywhere!

Tarmac. Everywhere. It was overwhelming and extremely enjoyable to drive on. They outlined potholes with spray paint. I found that very entertaining. I kinda think we may do that back home, but they did this with every single imperfection in the road, big or small. I did not experience the real Mombasa, but that is ok for now I think...

The beach was amazingly wonderful. I did not want to leave it.

I have been trying to find a hammock to set up here in the compound and brilliant individual I am I did not look for one while I was in Mombasa...I did get to spend some lovely hours relaxing and reading in one though...



Hot water showers are still a luxury. I must admit I used way too much water there. I didn't shut the water on and off as I usually do. I just let it run. Horrible. But the warm water was sooo nice!

I had numerous conversations with locals on the beach selling things and the security guards about South Sudan. The opportunities there, what the security situation is, how the country is doing. It was awesome. I met some America guys at the resort and they had no clue where South Sudan was or that it was the newest country in the world. Funny how when you are so involved in a place you get offended by that kind of stuff. It just makes me wonder if they have been living under a rock to not know of the newest country in the world. I am sure there are things like that else where that I do not know about but still...NEWEST COUNTRY!

I wrote down a list of things so that I could remember to write about them and you know what I did? I lost the piece of paper I wrote everything down on...Fail.

So I will leave you with this...

Day 297 - Excursion

My alarm went off at 9:30am today. There was no way I was going to miss my breakfast and it was delish.

I spent a lovely hour reading on the beach and basking in the sun.

Nadia and I ventured out on the town. We went to a place called Bambalulu, which is an organization that runs programs for disabled people so they can make an income. The things the make are really great. They make clothing, jewelry, metals works, woodcarvings, bags, etc. They make and sell the items to various companies/organizations all around the world, 10,000 villages being one of them. A very valuable and amazing project. We got to watch some traditional dancing. So cool.



From here we went to Nakumat, which is a big supermarket here and oh my goodness was it overwhelming. You could get almost everything in there. SO MUCH. Granola, nuts and chocolate for me :) Haller Park was next. It was so lovely to be in nature, surrounded by massive trees and animals. Some hippopotamus, water buffalo’s, antelope type things, a whole bunch of crocodiles and so many monkeys!!









Nadia came to White Sands and spent a few hours with me at the beach bar. It was really nice. We watched the moon rise on the horizon and it was orange! Bizzare. I have never seen that before. It was beautiful. We made friends with some guys from the US who are here for work. Yes they are staying at White Sands while working. I wish. Haha. Tembo was on the agenda again tonight so I ripped up the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning.

Day 296 - Love/Hate

I have a love-hate relationship with the beach. I love the sounds, the beauty of it and I love the water, however I really do not like the things that live in the ocean touching me. I do not like the salt water on my face and in my mouth or the taste of the salty ocean water. Seaweed wrapping around my legs makes me scream and have a minor panic. It is just so nasty. Like having slimy worms curl themselves around you. Not a good feeling.



Love-hate relationship.

I relocated today. I moved to White Sands Resort which was rather unfortunate considering Nadia was staying at Continental but our organization skills were not top notch so separated we will be. After I got settled in my new room....



I spent the day on the beach, lying on a lounger getting some sun and chatting with Nadia. We of course took breaks to go in the ocean and even got caught up in a game of beach volleyball. It was excellent. I have never played beach volleyball. It turns out to be really fun.

The evening consisted of eating really good food and then going out to a club to dance. It was awesome. The place we went was called Tembo. It had great music, definitely not what you hear played in Juba. You could actually dance to this music and enjoy yourself. It was a very good night.

It was a beautiful and relaxing day.

Day 295 - Mombasa Continental

I am taking a much-needed break from Juba. I am spending five days in Mombasa Kenya. Hopefully after these five days, spending hours on the beach, a little bit of sight seeing and a whole lot of doing nothing, I will go back to Juba more rested and relaxed.

I left for the airport at 9 AM with two of our instructors whom were going to Cape Town. It turned out my flight was not leaving until 11:40, which meant that I had about three hours to waste at the airport. I managed to do this and only spent 40 minutes sweating excessively in the airport terminal.

After a sketchy take off, an hour nap, and a sketchy landing I was in Nairobi. Hello Kenya! It was cloudy slightly chilly afternoon, which was a drastic change from Juba.

The flight to Mombasa was much smoother and enjoyable. I rather enjoy it when it does not feel like the plane is going to fall apart. It is these kind of flights that make me feel slightly crazy for voluntarily putting myself on an airplane…

Mombasa. I exit the airport to find a man standing with a sign with my name on it. He was the one to take me to my hotel. I hop in the van, which has no A/C. I would have been annoyed with this however it allowed me to experience the sights and smells of Mombasa. His name is Bernard and was very good at giving me the driving tour of Mombasa. It is very humid here which is such a strange feeling. The air smelled much like Juba does at first, like dirt and trash, but slowly the smell of water and the ocean overwhelmed the smells of dirt and trash. It was wonderful.

I am staying at the Mombasa Continental Resort for the night. Sleeping in a king size bed. Then I will be moving to a different resort in the AM. Right after I was settled in my room I put on my flip-flops and headed to the water. It was amazing! Gorgeous view, palm trees and soft sand beneath my feet. Relaxation at its best.



I love the beach.

Day 294 - TEAVANA

My boss went to the US and brought me tea.



This one brings me great joy. All it says is Black Tea on the label but little did I know it was deceiving me with its plain label. I opened it and to my surprise it was so totally not regular black tea. It was summer in tea form! THERE ARE STRAWBERRIES AND APPLES IN IT!



SUMMER IN TEA FORM!