The Joys of Juba
Just before the thatched roof bar in our hotel is a small bridge that leads over a little stream that gushes down to the Nile. When it rains, the little flow becomes a torrent to carry Juba’s rain fall down stream. Over this bridge, as you walk out of the hotel and into the rest of Juba, the roads run red with mud and small boys, whose play was interrupted by the rain, shelter beneath thin grass roofs. For a moment the bustle of motorbikes and Land Cruisers stands still, too timid to face the torrent.
Yet the people of this city over time have seen everything from seasons of being besieged during the civil war to bursting with development as it is now. Juba has the chaotic haze of any bustling city. The educated and aspiring, the entrepreneur and the nephew all descend on Juba. Life comes and goes here….
Again and again and again the University of Juba did not open. It was meant to open in April, then August and then October. The students returned but the lectures never started. And with no lectures and no funding, the students now sit in the university accommodation without a means of getting food or the money to return home. The promise is that the university will open in December but students are not confident. The University of Juba was initially founded in 1975 to support the education of Southern Sudanese, yet during the war the university was moved to Khartoum. While some of the university’s departments reopened in Juba after the peace agreement of 2005, since the Southern government took over this year they have found it hard to find teachers and funds to get the university open.
The same is the case in Wau and Malakal. Further East, there are increasing whispers of possible attacks between Unity State and Warrap State. Rebel leaders just over the border from our county seem to want to advance towards us to make a political statement. The rebels are also claiming that many soldiers already in Warrap State will defect to their cause. At the moment it is far from a reality, but it is a season of rumours of wars. The rain laden swamps will hopefully act as a natural barrier for peace at least for now.
In other news, having thought things were coming together, there are small complications with the details of my PhD due to new regulations at the university that had not filtered down to the department. I am also seeking funding and would appreciate your prayers for provision. I know my struggles are nothing compared to those at the universities in South Sudan but it has still upset me. With the growing threats of conflict in Warrap, I hope the work of my PhD will serve well the communities of this land.
