80,000

Juba. this place is a little bit crazy.

i think it is my third week into the job. still not very excited bout it. For the past two weeks I have been driving around this town in a small pickup without any A/C. I have a serious case of farmers tan on one side of my body. My back hurts from bouncing around all day.

we load up the truck in the morning with our product then move from shop to shop trying to find folks to buy it from us. Some take it and tell us to come back in a few days for money. then we go back and they tell us to come back a few days later, still no money.

beer smells. especially when it is sealed up in a hot container. i come home every day smelling like a drunk. good thing the traffic police don’t come out at night. but then things like drinking & driving, seat belts and other issues of driving and safety are not addressed by the police here. Or for that matter, even the law. I saw a man driving this morning drinking something called “95”. Not sure of the exact brand, but is a beer that is 9.5% by volume.

last week I was pulled over for not having a seat belt, but the ticket I was given had something to do with the registration of my vehicle. In reality they pulled me over cause I was a foreigner driving a truck that normally only the locals drive and they figured they could get some cash out of my pocket. which they did.

today a good friend of mine had $80,000 stolen from his company by someone he had given a lot of trust. it is crushing him right now. He went to report the crime to the police and they were about to put my friend in Jail. They accused him of being in cohorts with the man who took the money because my friend and the thief are both from Kenya. It took him a while to explain to the police that the money was his to begin with and he had no reason to steal it.

Im looking for a room to rent. finding the people to talk to takes lots of time. Getting the person to name a price takes even longer. My wife tells me of house she could get for about $300. All the places I have found, just for one room without much of any facility, run around $750 to $1000. My wife says she doesn’t want to take me to this house because they neighbor some relatives she doesn’t like. In a few days I think I am going to be living in a grass hut.