The Multi purpose street

3The streets in South Sudan are used for many other purposes than driving on.  Driving on the streets tends to be the least desirable thing one can do on the streets due to them being in such disrepair!  Here are some observations of things I have seen the streets used for in Juba:

• a garbage dump (any refuse tends to end out in the streets and ground into the dirt, anything from old shoes, clothing, rotten food, bones, paper and the worst offender plastic water bottles)
• business (much business is done on the streets.  Selling cheap jewelry, phone cards etc)
• play ground (children play in the streets, run around traffic and it is no big deal here!)
• social spot (many conversations, social meetings occur on the streets, neighbors meet and greet and catch up on the day)
• sewer (most areas of Juba do not have sewage systems, so it is either us a holding tank or just drain sewage to the streets.  If it has not rained don’t step in the wet areas!)
• dog breeding area (there are no abundance of wild dogs on the streets of Juba.  Many nights you can hear them barking or howling)
• a laundry room (the streets are very dusty here.  But people have no place to do laundry.  Often they are seen scrubbing their clothing in buckets then hanging it to dry.  Did you know conserteen wire is a great clothing hangar!)
• In rare cases a Cemetery (in one case on our way into a restaurant we frequent, the cemetery intrudes on to the road.  While driving on the road, you are actually driving over some of the grave sites.  It makes for some interesting smells and a VERY bumpy ride!)