It's now 6:12pm, dusk is starting to fall. You can hear the sounds of the children outside are playing, but the music and movies of the evening have not yet started. I'm squeaky clean for the moment - haven't started sweating yet since I got out of the shower about 15 minutes ago :)
Our time in Juba is off to a roaring start! I had the best sleep that I've ever had in Juba, I think. Ceiling boards and the fan make all the difference in the world. I didn't wake up to the sounds of Templeton skittering around either on the floor OR in the ceilings! And we didn't wake up with our mossy nets full of crap that the creatures had pushed out of the ceiling while we slept. It was a little warm, yes, but not hot. My new pajamas were perfect for the weather, though I certainly didn't need a sheet on top of me. I didn't feel much breeze at all last night, so Grace and I moved our beds around this morning so I'd get more of the breeze from the windows when I sleep. We've also hung some calendars and pictures on the walls, so I'll have to get Grace's photos of our redecoration and post them later on.
This morning, after a little breakfast, Grace and I jumped into the truck and cruised on down the airport to pick up Elizabeth and Pam. We hung out in the airport and successfully found our friends, who came in just minutes apart from two different cities! We also went to register ourselves with Immigration. I tried to register yesterday, but the guy there didn't want to register us, so he told me that I needed some photocopies of the stamp in my passport... of course, today, there was a very friendly chap sitting behind the desk. I smiled pretty, and he thought I would make a pretty good wife, since I'm tall, so he registered all of us with no problem whatsoever. He didn't want a single photocopy of anything. I told him that he would have to discuss with my father the whole marriage thing...
Anyways, we drove back home. Then Grace and I jumped BACK into the truck and off we went to the bank to get our money changed. Too bad the line was so short, though, since it was SO nice and cool in there. We went to the Kenyan bank, since we got a better exchange rate there than at the bank that we used to go to. Before heading back to the compound, we stopped in the wholesale shop and blew all of the money that we had just changed on a case of Coke.
On the way back, we had a bit of excitement! Driving down the only paved road in town, we came upon a large mob of people marching down the street. Uh oh. Nothing like seeing a huge crowd of people coming towards us to make you do a quick three point turn! I did feel like I'm starting to know this city, though, as I knew a shortcut through the neighborhood to get us back home again, safe and sound.
After our adventure out in town, we did some more unpacking and email checking and eating. Later in the day, Pam, Grace and I drove over to the bus station to buy some bus tickets for Pam and Elizabeth for their trip on Satruday. I thought I was being so smart and taking a short cut, but I ended up taking a wrong turn and going down a dead end. So I had to back out of this tiny little ally with people and shops and goats and broken down trucks. And I don't like backing up at the best of times. Then, to top it all off, a drunk guy came and wanted to chat with us! So Pam "chatted" with the drunk guy, while Grace helped me navigate the backing up. I ended up finding the right place to go and we made it safely to the bus station! We also wandered through the market a little bit - Grace and I got matching flip flops (of course!), and I got a new sweat rag to mop the sweat from my brow. We also got some fruits and veggies. So nice and fresh. We found local tomatoes and limes, but our pineapple came from Uganda, of course.
So this is probably more than enough for tonight. I promise the blogs will be getting shorter once all the novelty of being back here wears off!
1 comment:
I like the long blogs :)
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