Living in Juba: ups and downs and explorations

Hi there,

The past week has been a week of ups and downs. The positive thing is that fieldwork has really started now. Daily I’ve been traveling to Kator payam to conduct interviews or just to observe how cases and people are being dealt with in the different offices at this level of government. I’ve finally managed to transcribe all of the interviews of last week, and I am already starting to see some interesting patterns in regards to work practices or the reasoning behind those practices.

The downs have mostly been the issues I’ve already written about in my previous blog. Being kept waiting, hearing that it would be better to come back another day and having to put people off that get the crazy idea I might be suitable wedding material or that I might have feelings for them. Yvonne told me that in Africa it is almost impossible to form a normal friendship with a guy without him getting ideas and I am starting to believe her. But the most negative thing is that my camera has been stolen. It happened yesterday morning, at Customs, during the hustle of getting inside a matatu. I very briefly let go of my bag, and before I knew it one of the street boys that prey around at the bus parks trying to rob people managed to open my bag and grab my camera. I suppose I am lucky my mobile phone wasn’t stolen as well. Nevertheless, I feel quite terrible about it, one moment of paying less attention than usual and this is the result. And worst of all, it was a present from my parents.

Consequently, I spend most of my day yesterday in different police offices. I went to the local office near Customs, where the police is quite familiar with the street boys that operate at the bus park, so the police there knows now what to look out for. The officer I’ve spoken with assured me he and his men would thoroughly investigate and interrogate their potential suspects. Honestly, I think it’s a futile effort. I’ve also went the central police office in Hai Malakal, to officially report the theft and the officers in charge were nice enough to invite me to join them for lunch. After that, I went to the local court in order to interview the chairman of the court and two local chiefs, but typically, they were too busy. During moments like these, I do miss the Netherlands and home.

Fortunately, there are enough things here to cheer me up. Like going to Queen of Sheba. At Queen of Sheba I had a really great time yesterday evening. There were drinks, dancing, loud music, new people to meet and a fantastic group of dancers that made me feel like an amateur, with the way these ladies move real fluid like and manage to sort-of shake everything. Best thing about Queen of Sheba is that they also invite the guests to dance along with the dancers, and of course I was one of the lucky people that got invited on stage. Apparently, my dancing skills are not that bad, because I’ve gotten quite a few compliments from the dancers and guests alike. And I really needed it after that horrible Friday. By the way, the dress I am wearing is a gift from Jamal, our housekeeper. He’s been spoiling me ever since I got here.

And between interviewing and transcribing, I luckily still have some spare time to explore the city of Juba. The pictures I have included with this blog post are taken last weekend, when I went exploring together with Malish, one of the guards of the ICCO compound and generally a great guy to hang around with. We went exploring mostly by foot. We visited the Nyakuron Cultural Centre – a very posh place between the University of Juba and Customs where there are live performances every weekend and even a casino that we visited. The place looks nice, though a bit dull during the day. Nyakuron also has a theatre and a cinema, and I also plan to watch a play sometime if there is one on stage, probably in the period leading up to independence.

After Nyakuron, we went to the riverbank to explore the harbour of Juba and some of the hotels located there. The harbour of Juba is a temporarily one, set up for the export products arriving from Uganda, Kenya and the north of Sudan. The products range from fruits and vegetables to drinks to fish to motorbikes to cars and other products the south of Sudan does not produce for itself (yet). Besides that, it is the home for many Ugandan or Kenyan traders who can’t afford or don’t want to live in the hotels or small lodgments in the Konyo Konyo area. It’s also a place where returning refugees and Internally Displaced Persons enter Juba. It is a smelly place, and the people living there have no regard for hygiene whatsoever. There are plans to build a new, modern harbour a bit further down.

We also went to Bros & Company and the famous Juba Bridge Hotel. Bros is a small hotel, which is currently undergoing a modernization process. It is quite famous for its rowdy music nights, from Wednesday until Saturday. I only went there during the day, to grab some lunch, but I think I will be visiting the place on a Thursday or Friday evening, because the concept ‘rowdy music night’ sounds interesting. Currently, Bros does have the potential to become a really great place, but now it’s still rather plain if you go there for lunch in the afternoon. While the river is of course a pretty sight, there are other, better-developed hotels one can enjoy the river sight. Like Nile Bridge Hotel. That is a place I will be visiting more often during the weekend when I just want to relax, enjoy a freshly made pineapple or mango juice and the sight of the Nile. The place is green and colourful, and the terrace directly located at the river itself gave me a true feeling of relaxation. And the pizza’s there are pretty cheap, so I know where I’ll be taking my lunch occasionally.

After visiting the riverbank, we went to the Nile bridge itself. The Nile bridge is the only bridge in the South that connects the different parts of the country across the river. Naturally, I took the opportunity to cross the bridge, marking this as the first time I’ve ever crossed the Nile ^^. I am afraid there no pictures of that, because when we took pictures, the military intervened and we were forced to delete all of the pictures we had taken. Malish and I had been kind of hoping that his presence would have been enough to sway the military, but alas. But to be honest, the bridge is not very impressive. Cars and trucks are only allowed to cross it with a speed of 25 kilometers an hour, and the bridge itself looks like it could use a good renovation. Which it probably really does, because the bridge probably won’t last for another ten years.

Besides exploring the riverbank, bars and restaurants I’ve also been exploring the two main markets of Juba, Konyo Konyo market and Jebel market (also known as ‘new Customs’). Konyo Konyo is the market where I do my grocery shopping, but it is a market where one can buy just about everything. Products range from food to clothing to mobile phones to household items to furniture to televisions to cosmetics etcetera. It also has a huge restaurant area, and the smell of spices and roasted meat or fish is pervasive, but not unpleasant. It’s a crowded and colourful place, with narrow streets which are difficult to manoeuvre through because of the masses of people shopping there. Most people go to Konyo Konyo because Jebel market, the second market of Juba is located at the outskirts of the city near Jebel Kujur, which is quite a distance. At Jebel market one can buy the same things as in Konyo Konyo. The market is relatively new. It’s previous place used to be at Customs, but the market was moved when the area was given to the University of Juba by the government. Jebel market differs from Konyo Konyo in the sense it is far more spacious. At Jebel, I’ve been wondering around for quite some time, without ever needing to squeeze myself through the masses. Jebel is also a lot cleaner than Konyo Konyo, but that’s mainly because there garbage is collected by cars and in Konyo Konyo that is done by the masses of cleaners that have been hired to clean up the city before independence. Both markets are mostly run by Ugandans, Ethiopians and Kenyans. I like Jebel market the best, and I’ll make sure I will go back there on occasion to see whether I can score some nice custom made summer dresses :).

I would have posted some other pictures of places I went to this week, like Green Rokon, one of the hotels with an impressive disco in Hai Malakal (and they serve a good pasta there) or Markos, the place to go to for ice cream, cakes, tarts etcetera, but well.

Next week I will go to Rajaf payam, just outside the city across the Nile. I already went there to introduce myself last Thursday. The staff of the payam were quite enthusiastic about my research, so hopefully I’ll be able to conduct some interesting interviews there as well.

Love,

Anika