Day 400 - First Anniversary

A celebration. That was what took place on Monday, July the 9^th. Contrary to what many, many news stories say, the mood was high and joyous. “S.S. marks first anniversary of independence in a wary mood”. Obviously the last 365 days have not been perfect, filled with violence, corruption and a failing economy, however the people are still and will always be forever celebrating this day until the end of time. This day is what people have fought for and will continue to fight for. This is their country.

 

Being fortunate enough to experience celebrations last July 9^th, the celebration of the newest country in the world, this year was half of what last year was. This all makes sense considering the budget for the celebrations this year was significantly less, and people celebrated this day in their own home towns instead of Juba. Many factors. Walking the same route we did last year and going to the same Memorial for the celebrations brought back great memories from last year. This year…..

Streets were cleaned, flags, banners and signs hung, soldiers and security spread out, roads closed, shops closed for business and hundreds of people walking down the streets. Celebrations actually began at the night before with tons of kids, youth and adults packing the streets of Juba. People crammed into Prado's, trucks, anything with wheels on it, driving around the city and honking horns to mark the first anniversary since separating from Sudan. It is seriously amazing how they manage to fit some many people in/on a vehicle. Dangerous, but still impressive. There were flags, spray cans being lit, spraying flames. I am not sure why the celebrations involved so many dangerous activities...it was still an awesome sight to see. Everyone filled with pride and joy, and in a lot of cases a lot of booze....

What I would call a parade, consisted of each military sector in S.S. accompanied by the military equipment and machinery, as well as, a fire truck and two transit buses. Transit buses in Juba! Can you imagine? I have no clue where they are from or where they came from.  It is amusing to me that I was more in awe of the transit buses passing by, rather than the massive tanks and machine guns or grenade launches (I am no expert) mounted on the back of trucks passing by. We were able to take photos without any problems for about half of the parade, then a very angry soldier came charging past yelling, “NO PICTURES! NO CAMERAS!”. Of course we put our cameras away as asked and brought them back out once the over zealous soldier had gone. 

  

The Memorial was full of people. Some packed under the shades provided, people straining to see and hear the speeches of dignitaries and the President. There were some dancing; some playing drums and others wandering around aimlessly congratulating each other while taking in the sights of people joining together to celebrate a great day.  Some were taking photos of the sights, or of the khawaja’s walking around, they/we were seriously a big spectacle at times, including us. We were 7 khawaja’s walking around taking pictures brings a lot of attention to a person. We were constantly having photos taken of us, videos, and asked many of times to take picture of and with people. It was entertaining that is for sure. This year there was a truck throwing, not handing out, that would not be the South Sudanese way, throwing water bottles to the crowd. The number of people passing out last year during the celebrations must have taught them something. Good thing they stepped up this year and provided people with water, even if it created a danger of being hit on the head with a flying water bottle if you were not paying attention. 

 

Halfway through the celebrations two helicopters passed by overhead and threw some unknown papers out. We thought it must be flags but it did not really look like that. None of them actually fell over the Memorial grounds so we will never know what the papers had on them. The helicopters were awesome though. Just look how cool they are.

A GREAT DAY.

"We want to... see a South Sudan that grows its own food and is eradicating poverty and ignorance"

I agree Desmond Tutu.