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.
