I woke up with a number of things to do on Sunday, many of which required power.  In order to get power I had to find petrol.  In order to find petrol I had to walk. 

Now I could have walked a short distance to the near market and bought a liter of petrol in a bottle at almost twice the asking price at the stations.  I wanted 5 liters so I opted to take a long walk to save a few pounds and get some exercise.

I walked far.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  Not good for Kawaja skin.  I jumped on a mini-bus and went to one of the main stations on the roadside.  They were out of petrol in the pump and only had it in the bottles.  Same excessive price.

I jumped on another bus, took another little walk and ended up at another station almost on the other side of town.  With joy in my heart thinking about my soon to be accomplishment of finding cheap petrol I quickly walked up to the attendent.

“Benzine fi?” (Is there petrol?)

“Mafi Benzine” (There is no petrol)

I felt slightly defeated.  Getting to the stations by the airport would require motorcycle transport and would make the whole journey pointless because I would still end up spending lots of money I was trying to save.

I walked again. Back towards my place.  No buses to jump in this direction.  I was tired and hungry, so I stopped and ate some food.  Spent too much money.

Along the way I found a young boy selling petrol in bottles.  I paid him the money I didn’t want to pay in the first place.  At least I had my petrol.

It was a good idea to start with.  Just didn’t quite turn out the way I had expected.  In total, between the transport, food and petrol I bought, I ended up spending about 3 times what I had intended for the day. 

Cheap can definately be expensive.

“What country does this flag belong too?!!”

I give him a blank stare.  Shrug my shoulders.  Wasn’t sure if it was a trick question.

“You can not have two flags on the license plate!  I’m sure in the US you don’t have two flags.  And they can’t be upside down!  And you no longer can have that number on the plate.  The government of Sudan doesn’t want any CE any more!”

“I didn’t put the flag there.  It came with the plate.  The vehicle doesn’t belong to me.  I’ll tell the owner.”

“You should fix it!  This is not right.  You are breaking the law.  I am arresting this vehicle.  It is not going anywhere.  Give me the keys to this vehicle!”

“No, I’m not going to give you the keys”.

“No??!  Ok, then you will see my friend.  I’ll be back!”

“Ok”

segway

I took these pics for Intelligensia.  A glimpse of Juba.  I used the camera on my phone, so not very good quality and I took them from the hip cause I didn’t want people to see me taking photos.

Skinning a blog is alot easier than skinning a goat.  Not as messy too.

Still working out some bugs and trying to figure out how to fix my wordpress uploader for photos.  But that is all for another day.

otherwise, think have leveled out for the moment.  Not too happy, not too sad.  Still sick of the beer.

sometimes i wonder if i am manic or bi polar.

yesterday i was in a great mood and it pushed through the whole day.  all the worries, frustrations and problems that I face were of no concern.  I felt content, felt happy and knew that somehow, someway things would find their way right side up.

today i woke up and told myself it was going to be a good day.  told myself but really didn’t believe it.  i told myself I was going to stay in a good mood and be happy.  I am really trying.  It isn’t working very well.

I think I am just tired. Tired of doing things that don’t really work.  Tired of Juba.  Tired of this F@#$ing beer.

only if it was still yesterday.  I love having days like that.

Transportation is a pain.  I shouldn’t be complaining though.  Someone did loan me a vehicle that I have parked and am declining to use at the moment.  Mostly because it is one of the most expensive vehicles I have ever driven and I don’t want to be the one responsible for destroying it.  Not that that would happen…

I drove it around on Saturday.  I felt important.  People were looking at me and looking at the vehicle.  If I was the type of person that wanted to reflect  wealth and stature with the vehicle that I drive, I might want to purchase something like that.  Only if I had wealth or stature.  I’m still coming off of the ego trip.

This morning I took Matatu.  Lets just say that is a few steps down from my previous ride.

Two young ladies on their way to school were seated next to me.  Talking very good english.  One was telling the story of her Aunt who cursed her uncle’s mother.  Or something to that extent.  I only l really caught the last few bits of their conversation before they were off the bus:

girl #1: “my mother told me that if I ever go to that ladies house that I shouldn’t drink or eat anything they offered to me.  If I want to drink water, then buy water from the shop.  I want to drink juice, then buy juice from the shop.”
girl #2: “those people…”
girl #1: “they don’t have god.”
girl #2: “those tribes are bad”
girl #1: “you think they are believers? haha”
girl #1 & #2 laughing as they get out of vehicle.

It was a better ride than I had expected.  Normally I can’t understand a word anyone says around me.

In Suk Juba I passed through a shoe seller to get some prices.  The first price he gave me was 40 and that one quickly turned into 50. I’m not exactly sure how.  I asked for “last price”.  He said 55.