Out for a walk on the streets.

Today is our day off.  I feel like I have been on holidays since I got here!  I’m sure I’ll have busy times coming.  I finally slept a full night.  Since departing Canada, five days ago, I slept a total of 12 hours.  While I didn’t feel over tired, I knew lack of rest was catching up to me.  

After rolling out of bed late this morning (930 am), I showered, shaved and got dressed.  I walked over to the office to quickly check in and fill my water bottle up.  The heat today is horrendous!  My guess on the temperature is somewhere around the high 30’C range and I would bet by afternoon it will be easily 40’C!

Before it got to hot I decide to go for a walk on the streets.  This is something I have tried to do everywhere I have travelled and is the best way to really see the area.  Since I don’t really know where I am, I just started to walk down the street which I was staying.  

First thing, streets in Juba are not paved for the most part, only a handful are.  The dirt roads are littered with garbage that has been ground right in, there are puddles of water even though it has not rained for days.  There is no sewage system and homes will have a pipe out the side wall that runs into the street.  So don’t step in the wet areas!!.  Traffic drives on the right side of the road in this country, but it doesn’t matter, while dodging mounds of dirt, huge rocks, people, dogs, garbage, sewage, chunks of metal, or constant potholes the passing vehicles end up snaking their way all over the place.  

As I make my way further from my hotel, I see many roadside shacks, some are business, and some are homes.  Many have been made out of tin or other junk they can salvage.  I do get stares as I walk around.  I don’t think they see many white people walking around this part of town.  But saying that, nobody bothers me and some even greet me saying “Good Morning”.  I continue to walk and end up at a local market.  There are many strange fruits and vegetables.  Again with the chaos! People are reaching, pushing, haggling, vehicles are honking, police are ticketing vehicles, motorcycles (boda boda) are ripping around.  This is truly where local trade happens.  It is interesting to see where locals go to get their food.  Yesterday I went to an expat grocery store that reminded me of a general store in Northern Ontario to shop.  I could get most things I get at home.  The people in the market have a much different selection!  I watched a guy trade some identifiable fruit for some goats.  Now he had to get them home.  Who wants to put goats in your van?  So instead he lifted them up to the roof rack and tied them on.  I watched the van drive off with two goats baahing away.  There was a lot of sugar cane, and charcoal for sale also. 

I kept walking and I end up at the port on the Nile River.  There, barges were being off loaded of sacks of grain, building supplies, animals, and piles of fruit.  

As I kept walking, I start to realize I might be a little lost.  I am starting to get very heat exhausted but am determined to not have to call our driver to come and pick me up in a strange part of town!  I finally cross something that looked familiar from earlier in the walk and find my way back to the hotel drenched in sweet.  I hand the security guard of the hotel the bottle of water I had.  He looked hotter than I did.  He gives me a huge smile and thanks me over and over.  I run up to the air-conditioned surrounding of my hotel to have another shower and rest.