Whew, today was crazy. Began travels in the early morning Friday, leaving Southwestern Virginia (thanks for getting up at 3 a.m., Mom and Dad!) for D.C. While at Dulles, ran into a surprise -- after meeting up with Stefani at the gate for our next flight to Addis Ababa, ran into a few other Dukies (Cheyenne and Connor) who were also on our flight. Those guys were off to Togo to work on developing rural health insurance schemes and build a sustainably-powered computer cluster, respectively -- check out Connor's blog here: http://hipstersintogo.tumblr.com/
The first leg of the trip was fun -- unfortunately, did not get to try any Ethiopian food during the in-flight cuisine (that's what you get for picking the vegetarian meal). Did get a chance to finish "The Art of Fielding" -- thanks for those of you that recommended I check it out, it was good! Had a few hours of a lay-over in Addis (my first ever steps on the continent), and then we were off to Juba.
After touching down, we gathered our luggage and approached the airplane exit only to find..... a wave of heat. That's literally my first memory. Can't even really describe the feeling -- of getting all excited to take that the first step into this "mysterious" land, building it up and dramatizing it in your head like a Hollywood script, and then just getting smacked in the face by this heavy wall of 90-degree humid air. Cleared the sinuses, for sure. No worries! With senses dazed, walked straight off the tarmac into a one-room building to collect our luggage -- and here's where it got fun.
As we entered, we found ourselves joining a mob that somehow, someway used chaos to create order. Our entire flight of about 100 folks pushed and pulled their way to their respective destinations -- the line for buying visas, the line for having your bags searched, the line for standing around and waiting idly. It was sorta surreal watching soldiers clothed in black and grey camo overlook the whole process calmly. We also found Aduei, an awesome family friend of Stefani's who met us at the airport to help guide us along.
Then, the bags came. Within minutes, the crowd that was dispersed throughout the small room was pushed back to form an irregular semi-circle -- and luggage started being dished out from a window outside to the small area of floor space just created. Stefani quickly found her bag hiding in a little pile near the crowd -- a good sign! My bag, on the other hand, took a little while longer. After a few loads came and went, there was still no sign -- and because a large portion of the crowd also remained in a similar quest to find their treasured possessions, chaos ensued. I (as always) had no idea what I was doing -- so Aduei decided to come to the rescue! She talked to a man working at the airport, and eventually, we were able to match luggage tags with the correct bag -- and I suddenly realized why we couldn't find my bag: I couldn't even recognize it!
Just some normal wear-and-tear. It's cool, letting the world see your underwear and stuff. No big deal, right? After taking my bag to get searched, an exchange with a soldier perhaps summed up everything about this moment perfectly:
Soldier: ".....Hadha min Amreeka?!" (....this is from America?")
Me: *blank stare, nodding my head in ambiguous directions*
Aduei: ....Yes!
Soldier: ...Vat? How???
Aduei: It didn't come like that!
Me: Yeah! It didn't come like that!
....Several sentences later between Aduei and Soldier in Arabic, which I probably should understand by now but can't....
Soldier: Hah, okay. Nice string. *chuckle, chuckle, chuckle*
I mean, at the end of the day, string got the job done. Some solid string. Afterwards, we booked it through "customs" (I flipped my passport open, someone nodded, I just kept walking) and took off for Aduei's car, where we were greeted by her friend -- a graduate student at UF spending time here this summer studying international development. Thankfully, I didn't lose too much on the way -- my luggage leaked out some toothpaste, some clothes, and a shoe, but it was no big deal! After driving about 1 km, we arrived at our hotel (nice!) and -- after taking notice of the pictures of the Obama Family and White House in the reception area -- settled into our room.
The facilities are very nice (as evidenced by the fact that I can submit this blog post), and are most definitely on the upper-end of accommodations in this area. The lodgings seemed geared toward the ex-pat/NGO/UN community (Japan even has a liason office within the compound). As foreigners, it's strange and a bit uncomfortable having access to all these Western amenities when it's clear that 95% of folks just outside the gated walls don't. Made the realization resonate even further that we can't aimlessly spend our time in this hotel -- have to be very deliberate in pushing ourselves to reach out, and explore the area as safely and responsibly as we can, for it'll be tempting just to chill. I'm excited to have arrived. I'm excited to learn, to experience. So thankful to all who have helped us along our journey. We're here.
(Edit: Hope to post more of my own photos soon. Government officials and SPLA soldiers apparently aren't the biggest fans of people taking pictures of them, so you have to be pretty sneaky with your camera. Check this blog's description of Juba International Airport for more info on what today was like! http://wizzley.com/juba-south-sudan-tourism/)
The first leg of the trip was fun -- unfortunately, did not get to try any Ethiopian food during the in-flight cuisine (that's what you get for picking the vegetarian meal). Did get a chance to finish "The Art of Fielding" -- thanks for those of you that recommended I check it out, it was good! Had a few hours of a lay-over in Addis (my first ever steps on the continent), and then we were off to Juba.
After touching down, we gathered our luggage and approached the airplane exit only to find..... a wave of heat. That's literally my first memory. Can't even really describe the feeling -- of getting all excited to take that the first step into this "mysterious" land, building it up and dramatizing it in your head like a Hollywood script, and then just getting smacked in the face by this heavy wall of 90-degree humid air. Cleared the sinuses, for sure. No worries! With senses dazed, walked straight off the tarmac into a one-room building to collect our luggage -- and here's where it got fun.
As we entered, we found ourselves joining a mob that somehow, someway used chaos to create order. Our entire flight of about 100 folks pushed and pulled their way to their respective destinations -- the line for buying visas, the line for having your bags searched, the line for standing around and waiting idly. It was sorta surreal watching soldiers clothed in black and grey camo overlook the whole process calmly. We also found Aduei, an awesome family friend of Stefani's who met us at the airport to help guide us along.
Then, the bags came. Within minutes, the crowd that was dispersed throughout the small room was pushed back to form an irregular semi-circle -- and luggage started being dished out from a window outside to the small area of floor space just created. Stefani quickly found her bag hiding in a little pile near the crowd -- a good sign! My bag, on the other hand, took a little while longer. After a few loads came and went, there was still no sign -- and because a large portion of the crowd also remained in a similar quest to find their treasured possessions, chaos ensued. I (as always) had no idea what I was doing -- so Aduei decided to come to the rescue! She talked to a man working at the airport, and eventually, we were able to match luggage tags with the correct bag -- and I suddenly realized why we couldn't find my bag: I couldn't even recognize it!
Just some normal wear-and-tear. It's cool, letting the world see your underwear and stuff. No big deal, right? After taking my bag to get searched, an exchange with a soldier perhaps summed up everything about this moment perfectly:
Soldier: ".....Hadha min Amreeka?!" (....this is from America?")
Me: *blank stare, nodding my head in ambiguous directions*
Aduei: ....Yes!
Soldier: ...Vat? How???
Aduei: It didn't come like that!
Me: Yeah! It didn't come like that!
....Several sentences later between Aduei and Soldier in Arabic, which I probably should understand by now but can't....
Soldier: Hah, okay. Nice string. *chuckle, chuckle, chuckle*
I mean, at the end of the day, string got the job done. Some solid string. Afterwards, we booked it through "customs" (I flipped my passport open, someone nodded, I just kept walking) and took off for Aduei's car, where we were greeted by her friend -- a graduate student at UF spending time here this summer studying international development. Thankfully, I didn't lose too much on the way -- my luggage leaked out some toothpaste, some clothes, and a shoe, but it was no big deal! After driving about 1 km, we arrived at our hotel (nice!) and -- after taking notice of the pictures of the Obama Family and White House in the reception area -- settled into our room.
The facilities are very nice (as evidenced by the fact that I can submit this blog post), and are most definitely on the upper-end of accommodations in this area. The lodgings seemed geared toward the ex-pat/NGO/UN community (Japan even has a liason office within the compound). As foreigners, it's strange and a bit uncomfortable having access to all these Western amenities when it's clear that 95% of folks just outside the gated walls don't. Made the realization resonate even further that we can't aimlessly spend our time in this hotel -- have to be very deliberate in pushing ourselves to reach out, and explore the area as safely and responsibly as we can, for it'll be tempting just to chill. I'm excited to have arrived. I'm excited to learn, to experience. So thankful to all who have helped us along our journey. We're here.
(Edit: Hope to post more of my own photos soon. Government officials and SPLA soldiers apparently aren't the biggest fans of people taking pictures of them, so you have to be pretty sneaky with your camera. Check this blog's description of Juba International Airport for more info on what today was like! http://wizzley.com/juba-south-sudan-tourism/)
Glad to hear that you and Stef are safe and sound! Keep writing! And yes pictures please.
ReplyDelete