Two Louis (Pronounced Lou eee): Welcome to South Sudan

I’m here. Made it to Sudan; well South Sudan.

From Wikipedia, here’s a brief description of South Sudan: Southern Sudan is a region of Sudan, comprising ten of that country's states. The Sudanese government agreed to give autonomy to the region in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) [1] signed on January 9, 2005 in Naivasha, Kenya, tentatively bringing an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War 1983-2005. A referendum is scheduled for 2011 on whether to remain in the greater Sudan or to become an independent nation. Southern Sudan borders Ethiopia to the east, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, and the Central African Republic to the west. To the north lies the predominantly Arab and Muslim region directly under the control of the central government, with its capital at Khartoum.
Southern Sudan, also known as New Sudan, has nearly all of its administrative offices in Juba, the capital, and the city with the largest population.

My visa actually says South Sudan, but the stamp in my passport says “New Sudan”. I am in Juba for now; we have plans to travel to two other states in the next couple weeks. The flight was almost 90 minutes from Nairobi; luckily it was uneventful - almost pleasant. We got served little sandwhiches and an apple - take that Southwest!

The experience going through customs was actually not the worst I have experienced. Nor in fact was boarding the plane. So far I’ve found the process to be rather civilized; people form a line. Unlike a lot of what I experienced at say the post office in Moldova where using your elbows as a show of force was the only way to get up to the front of the mob – I mean “line”.

So far my impression of Juba is that it is dusty. And there really isn’t a waste management system so the sides of the roads are strewn with litter and garbage. Below are some pics from the flight. Since it is the rainy season it is quite green. And as you can see there is a variety of traditional stick and mud huts and newer construction with concrete. All those big buildings are the Ministries, which line one of two paved roads here. And the river is the White Nile.