Driving & Cell Phones

Not together…but I’m sure this will become a problem soon. 

Juba, is a very interesting place to be as it literally is being built (they just got lights by the airport and an ex-ray machine was also JUST installed there – yikes!) Anyway I will take and post pictures of ‘Juba town’ soon…but its fascinating. 

There are streets, a few paved, but mostly dirt with huge potholes and no street signs or even names for the streets (its leaving me a bit disoriented).  Some people drive on the right, some on the left, some cars have steering wheels on the left, some on the right, and a zillion motor-cycles which they call boda-bodas.  There are no rules.  It is a bit chaotic. 

Also of peculiar nterest...I needed to buy another phone (my ‘global’ phone wasn’t working, but now it is, but its best to have 2 here).  However, none of the phone manufacturers will sell real phones in South Sudan, there are only Chinese imitations that you buy literally in a black market.  Think phone brands like 'Mokia', 'Sansumg' and the luxury brand, 'Porsche'.  So I went with my South Sudanese colleague (because I tried to buy one the day before but the vendor refused to sell to me) to an open air market where he bargained in Arabic and SUCCESS!!  I got a phone that is half in Arabic, half in Chinese, with a crooked screen, a 2 hour battery life, and the whole thing vibrates when you use it.  It will probably break in 3 days. 

The Compound

So I live on the UNDP compound and I work on another compound.  The compound I live on is older and is actually quite nice - in comparison to the UN peacekeeping compound out by the airport (and the swamp!) that consists of tiny, hot pre-fab containers with little container bathrooms that you have to leave your hot container for in the middle of the night if you need to go to the loo.  But compound life is interesting: you pull up, the driver shuts the car off, the guards check IDs for everyone inside, other guards check the bottom of the car for bombs and other nefarious items.  And only then is the car allowed to proceed through the second gate.  At our work compound we also all individually must go through a metal detector…and then you are behind big cement walls with lots of barbed wire for the rest of the day.

I live in an actual structure.  I have a small room, with a single bed & of course furbished with a mosquito net!  I do have my own bathroom, which is very luxurious by Africa standards.  There is a toilet and a spicket (read: my shower) with cold water that comes out of the wall.  The lights are powered by generator that runs from 6pm to 9am (so no staying home from work sick, unless you want to be in the dark!)  Cement floors and mesh on the windows and a fluorescent light make it complete.  But I hung up some pictures and postcards that make it feel like home. (If you want to send me something please send postcards & fotos!)

My Mosquito Net

My Tiny Window

The best part is that I got very fortunate and live with 3 other women (from Italy, Norway and the Philippines) and our cat Twinkle.  Even though I am allergic to cats, Twinkle is quite the hunter and keeps away the snakes that have known to be prevalent – thus, I will put up with allergies.  Twinkle is this tiny little cat, who squeaks and sounds more like a bird than a cat.  She is very curious and we often find her in some very odd places, yet she doesn’t like be petted and will let you know with her sharp claws, yet she must also be the center of attention.  And since they don’t have pet food in Africa we feed her dried guppies... 

Twinkle Hunting

Little Monster

South Sudan

South Sudan became an independent nation on July 9, 2011 succeeding from the north and Khartoum after decades of civil war.  Sudan had been ruled by the British Empire and at times Egypt however the ruling powers had different polices for the north than for the south and as a result the two regions developed differently.  The north tends to be Muslim, Arabic-speaking and desert; while the South tended to be Christian, English-speaking and had most of the countries oil reserves. 

While it is exciting that the South has won their independence after decades of civil war and control from the North, they emerge as one of the poorest countries with some of the world’s worst health indicators and almost zero infrastructure.  Studies estimate that only 8% of women are literate, 13% of the total population has access to basic medical care, and 90% of people live on less then $1 per day.  So you can imagine living, working and trying to do some good will be challenging.

Do one thing every day that scares you

This tidbit of advice was passed down from Eleanor Roosevelt via my parents on graduation – and I took it seriously.  I was focusing my job search on development positions in Latin America or California becoming a bit demoralized with the job search…but then I was offered a position with the UN in South Sudan – the world’s newest nation!

At first, I thought no way am I going to take a job in a post-conflict country and besides I don’t know anything about Africa!  Let alone have gone there!  I never saw myself working for the UN let alone in a place that was just coming out of civil war.  This isn’t the intended direction I had for my life!  But then as I started to think about it and talked with friends, professors, family, former co-workers, I realized this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  When I realized the only thing holding me back was fear, I figured this would be a good way to get started on doing one thing everyday that scared me :-)