Not just Another Day in South Sudan.

It was my birthday!

I am writing this in the restaurant next to my daughter’s house so I can use the Internet. For the astronomical price of 100 S. pounds (about $33) I get 12 hours of time. The Internet isn’t working in my daughter’s house and even she has to come here if she needs to check her mail when not in the office.

Or when the power in the office is off and she has to work in the restaurant. Electricity in Juba goes out regularly for several hours. They have generators, but the office generator ran out of gas yesterday. Problems problems.

It’s nice, though, sitting here in the bar. The staff are so friendly. Everyone seems to like my daughter and was quite excited to hear that I am her mother. They said they didn’t believe it, but I’m sure they were being nice. There’s a difference also, I guess, between me and a woman of my age who has worked in the fields in the hot sun every day and lived in a mud hut and had 12 children.

The street pictures were taken as I stood at the gate to my daughter’s house. Not exactly the leafy suburb of colonial dreams.

We went to Da Vinci’s, a restaurant on the Nile, last night for my birthday with some of Caroline’s friends. As we arrived the wind came up – what they call a black storm. And what a wind. We dodged mangos falling from trees on the run from the car. The wind blew and waiters were running after napkins and bringing in cushions. Caroline had planned on us having a table on a raft on the river. That plan was quickly shelved but we had a lovely table inside – inside meaning a thatch roof overhead, there are no walls. We’d sat down, taken a few pictures, when the wind and the rain were over. Five minutes later – calm and peaceful. I had grilled Nile perch and it was very good. Two small desserts were presented to the table with a candle in each and Happy Birthday Vicki written in something pink on the plate. I blew out the candles, and up they popped again. Trick candles.

The Nile is very brown and muddy here and very fast moving. On Sunday I’m going – Kayaking! On the Nile! That will be an experience.

Vicki