Late as usual.

Eid Mubarak!

Finally back after Ramadan and a prolonged eid vacation.

To recap what happened during this leave:
-Saw Sudan snubbed by the coverage at the Olympics{Opening ceremony}.
 -Was ashamed at the number and level of athletes representing Sudan at the Olympics.
-The GOS and GOSS are still dithering about reaching an agreement.

-The prime minister of Ethiopia is dead.

-A plane full of government officials crashed and apparently was not supposed to be in the air as it was classified as unsafe.

-The US is dangling the prize of normalized relations in front of the GOS for their cooperation in who knows what.

-Had some fantastic coffee from some great tea ladies.

-Visited more family than everyone you know on facebook.

-Was stunned {like every other Sudanese} at the astronomical increase in commodity prices.

-Seriously considered jumping ship and taking my family out of this country to anywhere where the economy makes sense.

-Overheard NGO workers discuss rentals and actually felt sorry for them{lol}.

-Watching Barney dubbed in Arabic I concluded that the purple asshole is the antichrist.

-Enjoyed fantastic meals with family and friends.

-Lost considerable pleasure in said meals after reflecting on how hard so many people are having it this year.

-Witnessed a disturbed beggar body slam a 6 year old who he mistakenly thought was one of the kids who were taunting him in front of a pastry shop.

-Participated in street justice and helped beat said disturbed beggar.

-Felt dirty and ashamed and angry after realizing the beggar was not in his right mind. Still seeing him body slam the child was traumatising.Thankfully the child was fine {and later enthusiastically pelted his assailant with rocks}.

-Felt ashamed and sad that some stale baklava and spare change being threatened could cause someone so much mental anguish.

-Was touched by the outpouring of generosity I saw so many people display in Ramadan.

-Enjoyed my immediate and extended family and appreciate them more than ever.

Will try and post a coherent post soon.

R.I.P General Paulino Matip

The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA. His militia is/was independent of the president- I guess they made him deputy because his solders would only answer to him.  Officially they were his bodyguards.

I used to live behind his compound, which when I first moved to Juba- was a bunch of tukuls and army tents both inside the fenced compound and to the outside of it. Last year it was upgraded and you can’t see anything inside of it.

The soldiers would ‘guard’ the road, which they often called Bentiu road, (Bentiu was Matip’s stronghold for a number of years) but which most of us just called Paulino Matip’s road, or if you are new to Juba- UNDP- sleeping outside in tents. Once I was dropping off someone that lived inside that compound, I pulled off the road, slowed to a stop, and the soldiers immediately got up in anger... I didn’t realize that I was meant to turn off my lights when I got close to the gate- they didn’t appreciate that I stopped there...and being lit up while they were laying on the ground. I got lectured at... until the guy I was dropping off talked to them… I had to drive further down to drop him off. A few years ago you couldn't' drive down that road at night.

Matip fought on the side of the Khartoum government during the war, joining SPLA after the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement- and after the death of Dr. John Garang.  One thing I always say… much still needs to be written about the history of the SPLA movement.  And this man’s story would definitely be a compelling read (for me, at least)

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article43688

south sudan olympiads: congrats guor marial

I never paid tribute to Guor Marial for making us proud London 2012! And that he preferred to run as an independent olympic athlete, rather than under the Sudan flag! We also noted your left handed salute to south sudan!

He finished 47th -11 minutes behind the Ugandan- which is a sign of good things to come.  

this is what he said afterwards..

"I have no problem. I live in the United States," Marial told reporters after the marathon on Sunday. "I have running shoes. I'm fine. What about the people that are out there? This is the reason I was finishing today. For those people. They are in a rough condition, and I hope that the world is able to help them."

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/348118/paying-attention-to-south-sudan?SESS961527c7c8cdc0e97b46dd20adf37928=google

Also want to salute Lopez Lomong who ran the 5,000 as an American, and of course Luol Deng on the British basketball team.

I think all this shows that we will be punching above our weight in Rio 2016! (so i hope south sudan is taking steps to getting us representation).

rainy season.

This is probably the best time to be in Juba.

There are two seasons here- hot and dusty (which seems to last forever... but i'd say Oct-Feb/March) and then rainy and muddy which is right now. I definitely prefer rainy and muddy because at the least its not so bloody hot. When I left in February it was pretty miserable. I was in a house with no a/c, had had no electricity for months, hence no fan, and I would spend hours in bed drenched in sweat and unable to sleep. And days drenched in sweat drinking bottles and bottles of water - actually in the area i lived even getting cold water was a problem, cause the generators just could not cope.

Now that its raining... ahh... no need for a/c or fans. I even hear folks complaining that its cold (clearly they have not been to Nairobi in this time of year).

Of course then we see just how poor the drainage system is... Very few drainage canals even where its necessary. The road I used to drive on would become a raging stream whenever it rained heavily, with new valleys and gulleys created.

(But Malakal in Upper Nile, though... that was something else! The entire town was a mud bath. Everyone walking barefoot, or in gumboots because you can't walk with shoes in that mud.)

something else the rainy season exposes is the poor quality of building construction.  Actually, i think I'm going to tackle that another day- because i want to take -and post- pictures of what I am talking about. I refuse to live in a storied building here because i think there are too many short-cuts being taken when constructing... so, stay tuned.