The hike to the Mountain - Rock City Part 2

As we make it through Rock City, I start to notice the mud huts are not the only things that occupy this area.  Numerous anti-aircraft batterments have been placed right in the middle of these neighborhoods.  The theory is hide it in civilian areas and the potential enemy would most likely not see it.  The soldiers were polite and greeted us with a “Good Morning Kawaja”.  

The climb up was hot and steep.  I am still not fully acclimatized to Sudan heat!  After one rest stop on the way up, we made the summit.  What a view!!  I also learned even when the wind blows at a few miles per hour, it’s in the mid 30”C range and you sweat you actually can catch a chill.  It felt great!!  As we sat on the summit resting for the trip home, this massive explosion occurred near us.  I hit the deck thinking it was a shell or bomb.  My co-worker laughed, apparently they blast in these mountains to separate the rock for gravel.

The way down was much easier.  I saw a few unidentified animals that looked much like a large guinea pig, a wild bore, and some monkey’s.  We make it back trough Rock City and head back into Juba.  I found the area of Juba that maybe the hottest!  The road into town from the mountain!! It is dusty, dry, sandy and not a breath of air!  After a few hours of walking across town, we made it home.  I stood in the shower for 10 minutes to bring my core temperature down, and laid down for a nap!  I only drank 6 liters of water while walking, I guess it is not enough for a 5 hour walk in the Equatorial sun!!

The Hike to the Mountain - Rock City Part 1

Today was another day of standby.  Once we were certain we weren’t working, a co-worker and I decided to go for a hike.  This wasn’t any hike, after Google Mapping the route,  it was a 21.8 km hike in the 38’C sun up a mountain.  Juba while on very flat ground, has a number of mountains off in the distance.  These mountains are 1700-1800 feet higher than the plains.  

The walk out took us through many typical neighborhoods on the way to the mountain.  People live in mud/dung walled huts with straw grass roofs.  These huts are roughly 15 ft in diameter and will often have many people living in them.  It is so fascinating walking through a neighborhood that people don’t see white people in often.  The children would run to stare at us, as many have never seen a white man before.  These kids were fascinated by us as we were with them.  They would yell out to their friends and family “Kawaja”, which in local dialect means white man.  Many would run up and wish us a “good morning kawaja”.   One thing I have noticed is it doesn’t matter what time of day it is people always wish you a good morning.  

As we neared the mountain, we came into the part of Juba referred to as “Rock City”.  Rock City is an area that people make a living crushing large boulders into gravel.  What happens is workers climb the mountains and roll large boulders down the mountain.  These boulders eventually are split into many pieces and hand carried down to Rock City where mostly women sit and hammer away at these rocks chipping off gravel size fragments.  They hammer with mallets, an old axel, pieces of rock or anything they can get their hands on.  These women often have many children running around, while the men are up the mountains getting rocks.  All around their mud huts are piles of gravel they have broken up.  The piles are extremely neat, all divided up by type of rock and gravel size.  Each pile is of identical size for sale on the market.  

Bows and Arrows

Today, was another day of troop buildup around town.  I knew when I was leaving the hotel, things were less stable again due to the hotel being guarded with military again.  The past two days I haven’t seen a gun anywhere, again today they are everywhere.  This is the lack of stability people of the South Sudan live with everyday.  Citizens are on the edge all the time.  

I talked our drive into taking a back way to our job location to avoid the congestion that was ensuing on the streets.  He took us down narrow, bumpy single lane dirt roads in some very out of the way neighborhoods, but in the end we avoided the bulk of the traffic.  

The troops were dressed in a different uniform than the deployment a few days ago.  These guys appeared to be less disciplined, dirty and a lot less interested in harassing people.  They appeared to be going door to door, business to business and searching for something.  

On the way home from work I witnessed a number of locals being brought out of a business under gun point.  The military brass was holding in their hands some very simple hunting bow’s and handmade arrows.  I guess with the political changes happening the government wants to be sure that they are secure and a new rebellion is not going to happen.  

Out to Lunch

Today I had a fairly light work day again.  A few co-workers and I decided to head for a mid-day lunch.  We went to the DaVinci Restaurant on the banks of the White Nile River.  The restaurant is open air and is under a canopy of old growth mango trees.  We sat with this beautiful vista of the Nile rushing by, the bridge heading out of town, mud huts with a backdrop of mountains off in the distance.

The food was extraordinary.  I don’t believe I could have had a better meal in North America.  I had a vegetable, calamari stir-fry that was amazing!  The prices at this restaurant were very high, but they were still half of what you would pay at a comparable North American restaurant of this caliber.  Plus you could never get a view and atmosphere like that at home!!

On the way out of DaVinci’s I got talking to a local man who does fishing charters on the Nile and would take us out for some Nile perch fishing.  These are not like the perch at home, they are huge with big teeth!!  It looks like it would be a lot of fun and a few of us are going to try to fit this into a day off.

My adventurous coworker and I decided to walk home from DaVinci’s and the other two went with the driver home.  The walk was approximately 20 minutes, through an area where people live in mud huts with grass roofs.  The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) is knocking down many of these tradition settlements around Juba.  They are claiming these settlements are on government land and many of these people are the ones that are hoarding weapons and causing crime.  To me they looked extremely impoverished.  When a person is put into the position of survival for themselves and family they do what they have to.  I know I would!  So instead of helping these settlements of families, the government shows up with no notice and bulldozes these parts of town for new development.  Really sad they are loosing tradition and making people homeless for the sake of development.

As we got closer to our office, we came across a older woman with a stick.  Obviously high on some type of drug and "out to lunch".  I have seen here (in Sudan) and in Uganda what I think is opium that street vendors sell in pods that are dried up.  It is chewed and the person is constantly spitting all over the place.  Most often this is done right out in public.  Back to the old woman with the stick.  She did not want us whites walking through her neighborhood.  We could see that right away, so we crossed the road and kept walking.  She yelled many obscenities in Arabic. We kept walking.  Next thing I know she smacked me in butt with the stick, I turn around a little ticked off and she was already gone!  We had a good laugh about that incident and went back to work.

Happy 4th of July! Happy Independence Day!

I have been amazed the admiration people in at least Juba, Kompalia and Entebbe have for President Obama.  I don't know why but I just assumed this part of the world would hate the USA and anything attached to it.  I am constantly spotting t-shirts with Obama's picture on it.  Photos are all over the place of him and his wife.  Girls wear jeans with OBAMA written on their butts.  I have asked a few of our drivers about what they think of President Obama and the USA, all of them have been very clear they admire the man.  Previous presidents were not liked at all.  They have all said, it is impressive to see a black man as the president of the worlds most powerful nation.

As Southern Sudan approaches Independence Day on July 9th I hope that this country can find its place in the world.  I would hate to see it loose it's culture or go back into civil war.  There are going to be major growing pains to establish a new country, develop infrastructure, education, healthcare, employment but I hope the citizens are patient.

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.

The Local Market and a New Appreciation for Canada Day.

This morning, a co-worker and I went to a local market.  My co-worker has a huge amount of experience on this continent and believes in shopping locally as much as possible rather than supporting the “western style” grocery stores that are owned by out of country interests.  The market that I had previously found during my walks, was only the face of this massive open air shopping mall.  We toured deep into the narrow maze of shops and stands.  There were shops that sold shoes, clothes , electronics, tacky novelties, and food of all types.  The floor was dirt and the roof was a laberant of tarps put together to cover the merchandise from the rain or sun.  

The clothing stores sold “western style” clothing that appeared and felt to be good quality.  A person could also purchase traditional tribal and islamic garb.  If nothing on the racks suited or fit you, tailors were sewing together outfits.

The shoe section would drive my wife nuts!  Every style of shoes imaginable, from athletic to hiking boots to formal ladies shoes to fashionable dress shoes.  Prices were about 1/4 of what we would pay in Canada for the same.  Again, you could even get shoes custom made for less than we would pay for the comparable.

What fascinated me the most was the food section.  Talking about a overload on the scenes!  The smells were anywhere from lovely to putrid!  My co-worker (who frequently buys his food here) showed me what I could eat and what to stay away from.  I must admit, there where very few fruits I had ever seen before or for that matter heard of.  Since I am staying in a hotel room and can’t cook for another week, I refrained from buying much, besides bananas.  Surprisingly, the shop owners didn’t raise their prices just because we were weren’t locals.

As each day passes, I feel a little more comfortable being the minority.  I have learned a little bit of Arabic and can sense when I should continue to walk!


One last thing, HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!  Canada is 144 years old!!   I am presently in a country that is going to celebrate it's day of birth in 9 days and Canada day this year has a lot more meaning.  Even though we are over taxed, live in a cold climate, have perpetual problems with our government, we are truly very lucky to live in such a healthy, clean and prosperous place.