Road Trip: Juba

I'm writing this from Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Holly and Jonathan got back from Nairobi late on Thursday night with our supervisors from Uganda in tow. About 15 minutes after they walked in the door they said, "We are going to Juba tomorrow and we want you to come with us." So here we are! There are many new families with our company who will be moving to various parts of South Sudan, including Juba, in the next year and so the five of us are on a scouting trip to see what is available here in the capital, how much things cost, and making some connections with various people (and in case you're wondering, there is more here than I expected and all of it is really expensive...over $10 for a box of cereal from Kenya). So far it's been really fun and I'm so glad I'm doing this trip with this group of people.

The road from Kapoeta to Juba is really horrible and even though it's not that far on a map, it took us 8 hours to make the drive. Plus we have no air conditioning in our vehicle, our shocks AND our brakes went out...but no flat tires, so that's a plus!

 David and Jonathan stopped several times to check some questionable-looking bridges.

 Me, Renee, and Holly

 This sign was about 2 hours into our trip.

 We saw plenty of tanks that were abandoned after the war.

Once we got to Juba we made our first stop at this stop called Marko's Ice Creams...best ice cream EVER, which probably had something to do with the rough car ride. No pictures of that, because obviously we ate ours in record time.

Juba is basically one big marketplace, with some banks and places to eat thrown in every now and then.

 Plenty of different brands of cigarettes available...

...and almost every shop sells large tins of milk powder...

...and there is lots of traffic, ugh. Mad props to David and Jonathan for their awesome driving skills!

We are staying at some newly built guest rooms on the East Africa Mission compound. Way nice...we have power 24/7 so we can even run a fan at night! We have had some wonderful fellowship with the people who are working here and I am so thankful for their hospitality and generosity. 

Lest you be deceived and think that we are staying here, I'll just say that this is one of the nicer aka crazy expensive hotels in Juba and we wanted to see what the pool was like. Only $15 for a day pass to use the pool.

 If someone had "accidentally" pushed me in, I wouldn't have minded. Juba is HOT.

These are the pool rules. My favorites are #3, #6, and #11.