Arriving in Juba

Monday April 25

Arrived in Juba, from Addis, just after lunch. Quite heavy rain when we landed, the countryside land seemed quite water saturated from above. Very few homesteads or villages to be seen, no visible farms or farm land activity. Cattle growing southern Sudan, was our reaction, although we did not discern any cattle either..
Check in and passport control was flexible, the intention seemed to be to get everybody into the country with a minimum of red tape. They succeeded.
The red soil on and around the roads were more than saturated. Roads were of old Nairobi style, potholes dominated over straight lines and flat surfaces. Only 23 degrees Celsius when we landed which jumped to 30 in a few hours when the clouds gave way for the sun.
Human capacity!
The development challenge is enormous, -political, economical and social- but that we knew. What we had not fully realized was the depth of the lack of South Sudanese human capacity. Restaurants and hotels are not only owned by foreigners, they also run them: Eritreans, Ethiopians, Ugandans and Kenyans. The same story for taxis and shops; owned by Ugandans etc but also driven by them.
That theme will certainly be continued….
Jogging just before the sunset was a challenge, the cars were more interested in avoiding potholes than me.