New Home

"Oh Jubaaaaaa!"

Finally, I'm here. This will be my new home for at least a year to come, hopefully shorter. Juba is the capital of South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, after separating from Sudan and gaining independence in July last year. Currently there is a massive influx of people rushing into the city, the oil business people, the UN people, the NGO people, the returning from abroad South Sudanese people, the neighboring countries people and yes, the Chinese people.

As prominent as poverty, there are construction and development everywhere in the city. Digging a ditch, constructing offices, building roads and the like. All these activities with the human influx are setting the city abuzz and kicking up a storm, literally, a dust storm.

Living in this young capital is challenging and humbling at the same time. The living condition is no walk in the park. A lot of the things may be there but they do not come by easy and they certainly do not come cheap. The are a lot of people but they lack the required skills to work. There's electricity but there are frequent black outs. There's running water but there are insufficient water pressure. There's mobile phone lines but the reception is crappy. There are big cars on the road but there're a lot of crazy drivers and no traffic order. These's internet but the speed is frustratingly slow.

And then when you think you have had enough and you want to get out of here, there are flights out of here but there are a lot of delays and cancellations!

Alas there are a lot of beers but... Oh there's no but here.

It'd be exciting to witness the tremendous growth, in speed and size of of Juba in the very few coming years. Better things to come, better things to look forward to.

Oh boy, is this going to be a fun and adventurous year or what!