Funerals are always sad affairs. No one wants to say good bye to a loved one. I have now seen a few funeral precessions in Juba. They are hard to miss. Usually the casket is loaded in the back of a pickup truck and is accompanied by family members and friends. The men look somber while the women wail, cry and scream very loudly. It is very hard to miss.
The pickup drives to the cemetery, for burial. The men dig the hole with shovels while the women continue to wail. They place the casket in and cover it with the dirt.
The cemetery looks like an overgrown garbage dump with many of the severely impoverish people living in it. Garbage is everywhere, there are tarps and tin sheds for shelters strewed around the grave yard. There is no organization of where someone is berried, it appears where ever a hole can be dug is the grave. In fact on our way to a favorite local restaurant, we drive around the grave yard. Many of the graves encroach on the road. Most are unmarked and are just mounds of dirt, while some (presumably the wealthier) have cement poured over the grave with a cross or a marker. No mater where you are in the world, and how common death is, we as humans do not like saying good bye to our loved ones.
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