Writeup of first day in Sudan

Sudan trip writeup
So it appears I may have time to write up my Sudan journal while I’m doing archiving as I get a couple of minutes inbetween each scan free. Ooh, well I might be able to get some done! The amusing bit it that I look at my first page where i’ve written brief notes to help me remember what I wanted to write about, and I can’t remember the stories behind them!
Monday 26th Oct
Dave & I met Matt outside the institute at 7am where we loaded all the luggage and equipment into the back of the landrover and then I braced myself at the back for the journey to the airport, picking up Matua and Kameo on the way. And then we arrived at Kenya airport, where myself and the other Uganda trip people spent many long hours waiting for flights to and from Uganda earlier on this year. This time I only had 15 minutes to spare to go and buy some water and find a cheap pair of sunglasses to take with me ($5 – bargain).
Getting off the plane in Juba was like stepping into a sauna. It was so unbelievably hot. We met Michael at the Airport, and perhaps I should let you know who people are before going any further. Matua and Kameo work at the BIEA. Matua, well, I’m not sure what his job here is really, I think he’s the general will fix anything man and loves engines, but he’s great and really good at spotting pottery while ‘field’ walking. Kameo is the GIS and general surveying enthusiast. Mike, who met us at the airport, is our contact with Smec who were doing the environmental impact assessment for a dam that the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) want to build. The likelihood of this construction ever taking place was looking very unlikely by the end of the trip, as Hakim (also with Smec) who used to be a member of the SPLA (http://www.splamilitary.net/) was told by an SPLA friend shortly before we left that he should start getting work stuff wrapped up as things are going to probably kick off quite soon.
Anyway, I digress. I think I’m going to have to keep this very brief unless something very exciting happened as it could get a bit long!
The arrival hall at Juba airport was very interesting. We scrambled to the front of a crowd around a desk to show passport, visa & vaccination card, write our name on a list (basically signing in to S.Sudan) and get our passports stamped. Then our luggage got chucked through a hole in the wall next to a desk where we had to open it up to let some guy stick his hand in and feel around...because obviously the bombs and guns would be at the top of the bag where he would find them straight away.
After the airport fun we drove to our hotel. There seems to be about one tarmac road in Juba, and the dirt road leading to the Oasis camp (hotel) was horrendous, but just a hint of the bad roads to come. Our rooms were $125 metal boxes. We were in prefab structures, divided into two by a thin wall to make two rooms they could charge $125 a night for. The larger ones were the whole box with no partition wall, and they were $180 or thereabouts. Crazy. We did have AC, a mosquito net, a tv, and a cold shower from which the water smelled like sulphur. Lurvely.
So in the afternoon it rained, and then we went for a drive to a supermarket, where we bought biscuits, sweets and squash, then drove to a more local shop where Matt bought two crates of the cheapest possible beer. Then back to the hotel where we relaxed for a while and then met up in the bar by the Nile. Some really nice views. Met with Michael who told us some stories. One about a Guinea worm which is a parasite that enters your body and grows into a worm. Apparently you get a blister which it comes out of, but you can’t pull it out as it’s grown to over a metre so you have to wind it round a pencil a little bit more every day until it comes out. Sounds like laugh riot.
He also told us something about him being arrested at some point, but I didn’t write the whole thing down so I can’t remember what happened. And about a driver involved in a fatal accident involving the SPLA, but I’ll talk about that more later. After dinner (included in room price!) we all went our separate ways to while away the rest of the evening in front of a tv. I watched so much National Geographic channel (it was that or sport).