I'm going to try and be a bit more expressive about what Juba is like on a daily basis since I unfortunately can't take pictures the way I might in other places. Juba is the capital city of South Sudan, but has only been so for the past two years. The south suffered under the joint country of Sudan from favoritism of the north by its colonial rulers in the past, and then favoritism for its Muslim areas in the north by it's Muslim government. As a result while places like Khartoum were developed over time the south was not, nor were its cities. While I haven't seen Khartoum first hand, I've heard that the level of development is much higher there. Juba still very much feels like a city figuring out how to be a capital city.
While it has no lack of government buildings, it does lack paved roads on all but the most central of its roads, and I've been told none of the roads connecting Juba to the other six counties in the state of Central Equatoria are paved. Most people in Juba fill jerry cans out of water tanks that are filled directly from the Nile with very little sanitation or filtering as far as I can tell. There are some programs that filter the water, but most of the time I see water being pumped directly from the Nile into water tanks that are then drive to various locals where people fill jerry cans. I guess maybe its possible that some of these water tanks have some sort of internal filtration system, but that seems unlikely. These are not fancy tanks, just large metal buckets essentially. I drink exclusively bottled water here, a luxury few can afford here. A bottle of water cost just under $1 US and the average daily income here is just under $3 US, when it comes to feeding and housing a family I imagine bottled water moves further down the list. Everywhere you go there are water tanks with piles of jerry cans that people fill and then peddle away on their bikes with. I feel very lucky for the filtered water I shower in everyday, as well as the bottled water I drink.
Juba is very different then Cairo or Ramallah in that while they lack certain services, they are very much constructed cities, capable of providing basic services to many of their citizens, as you would expect of capitals, and they are capable of providing some entertainment for those who live there or are passing through. Not so with Juba. There is nothing to do in Juba in terms of entertainment, there are no movie theaters, shopping centers (only the open air markets for the most basic of goods), parks, concert venues, or other forms of entertainment that might be considered normal for a capital city. There are government offices, NGO offices, churches, mosques, hotels, some nice restaurants, and the rest of the buildings/homes/shops/bars are pretty much constructed out of corrugated metal or mud walls with straw roofs. This means that in the evenings expats pretty much hang out in their hotels or some of the nicer restaurants or bars to eat and drink beer. Occasionally there are events like karaoke hosted by an embassy, but these are directed at the expat community, and not at locals.
There are lots of internationals that live in Juba, and I don't mean just Western internationals. There are huge numbers of Kenyans, Ugandans, Ethiopians, etc., living and working in Juba. They are generally resented by the local population because they are viewed as taking jobs that locals could otherwise have, and they face a certain amount of harassment/racism/resentment here from the South Sudanese.
I feel like Juba is hard to describe because it often doesn't feel like a city so much as a random collection of buildings, huts, and IDP camps built out of tarps and twine and other found materials. The roads turn to rivers of mud in the rain and make transport incredibly difficult. Even though most people might consider me to be roughing it in my prefabricated room and the shared showers and bathrooms that remind me of summer camps as a kid, I know I'm living a luxurious life compared to most locals. My room is always dry, has air conditioning (a real rarity with the exception of hotels and NGO/UN offices), and internet (almost impossible to find outside of hotels or the rare internet cafe). I can afford food at places that are hygienic, bottled water, and medical care when I need it. These are not things that the local populace has access to on a regular basis.
Many people in Juba work for the national or state government, or the police/military. Regular pay checks for these jobs are rare. Even though they are regularly and fully employed there is often no security around a pay check. The police have been out in force lately with check points stopping cars to check that they have all their paperwork in order, and extract bribes to let them go when it is not, my driver say "They are hungry." They mean for money, but really the police may just actually be hungry because they haven't been paid in a number of months, and still need to feed their families. My boss discovered that the social workers we work with had not been paid in three months, yet they still showed up to every meeting she had, and were running the programs they had been setting up. Most people diversify here in terms of work to keep earning money, a social worker may run a small laundry business on the side, or raise chickens so her children can sell the eggs in the market, and her husband is sure to have a job in a different sector so that hopefully both paychecks aren't cut off for too long at one given time.
I'm worried the situation will only grow worse soon since Sudan has decided to stop accepting oil from South Sudan for export out of Sudan since Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting rebels on it's boarder and in Darfur. South Sudan will shut down the last of its oil production in the next week or so, and then 99% of South Sudan's state revenue will be gone until oil production gets turned back on. South Sudan is land locked and its ability to export its oil is entirely dependent on Sudan's willingness to do so, the two countries had just come out of a long disagreement over oil profit sharing agreement when I arrived. I hope the two countries can come to some sort of resolution quickly, because while the oil is stopped people in both countries will suffer as government revenues fall. (I believe Sudan received $3/barrel for each barrel it exported for South Sudan under the previous agreement, which was a major boon to the Sudanese economy as well).
Anyways, I guess that's enough on life in Juba for today. In more mundane goings on I'm feeling much better, pretty much back to normal aside from the last vestiges of my cough, which is always the last part of a cold to go anyways. Joining my grey lizard friend last night was a tiny brown lizard that fell off the roof when I walked into my room. Much to my annoyance this one seems to enjoy inhabiting the floor, which is somewhat frustrating since I've already stepped on its tail once. I hope it moves to the walls soon, or finds its way out. I'm excited to start the week off healthy and hit the ground running to make up for the lost time at the end of last week. Hope everyone had a good weekend!
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