Independence Day is here!

July 9th, Independence Day is here for South Sudan.  It is a birth of a new nation!!  I write my blog 5 or 6 days before you actually read it so I Independence Day isn’t actually here yet, and I am sure I’ll have some good stories about the day.  The company will sent all our employees to another location in South Sudan, but I'll remain alone in Juba.

In the days leading up to the big day I am noticing more troop movements, guns are again visible with soldiers, and anti-aircraft guns are being moved and positioned around town.  With that said, people are painting buildings, sweeping the streets, picking up garbage, putting up signs, and driving in the streets blasting music with their new flag flying off the vehicle.  Many citizens are proud to have a new country, but are also skeptical of the politics.  

There are many possibilities and rumors floating around how this day is going to go off.  I hope for the sake of South Sudan (and myself), it is a peaceful day of celebration.  But as one of the  billboards on a round about near us says “It took a combination of bullets and ballots to earn our hard earned independence.”.  

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Edit:  The above I actually wrote days ago, but as I sit on my balcony watching the sun set behind the mountains of South Sudan this is what I felt.

July 8th, 2011

I am sitting in my apartment in Juba.  The sun has set.  The next time the sun rises, Juba will be in a new country of South Sudan.  With the crack of dawn, is literally a birth of a new country.  The struggles that these people in South Sudan have gone through have been massive.  They have been engaged for many years in civil war, rebellions, and dishonest government rule.  Many of their friends, families and neighbors have suffered or perished.  Only time will tell weather the people of this new country can organize, prosper, and create a society that will shame the people from the North, who once ignored and degraded them.  

With the sun rise I hope comes a new day in history for this new country they call South Sudan and the end of poverty, suffering and war.