X-mas in Juba…

The Christmas of 2010 will be remembered in many different ways by those who celebrated it in Juba, Southern Sudan.

Some parents working with the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) will remember how they had to tell their families that their salaries have not been remitted to the banks; and that the banks will not be opened until after the 28th.

Others will recall having to cancel trips to spend x-mas outside the country because there were no US dollars to be found anywhere in town even in the blackest of markets.

Young men, and especially young girls will recall the experience quiet differently…

Some weeks back, over five thousand police officers where graduated from a training facility some kilometers from Juba. In what looked like a continuation of their training, most of them were deployed in roads, markets and other public places in town.

Just before x-mas, I thought those deployed to ‘regulate’ traffic were the worst of there kind (I get back to that later…)

From x-mas eve up til yesterday, these bunch of new recruits started enforcing some ‘law and order’ that got everyone asking where they got them orders from.

Young girls dressed in pants have been caned and others threatened with unheard of sentences. On the 27th some girls were still locked up for indecent dressing….

Some rastafari friends of my have told of arrests and intimidation to have their years of hard-grown dreads cut off in public….

One wonders what is really happening! GOSS officials have of course denied that this had anything to do with their policies.

merry x-mas y’all… I am just waiting for the 9th to celebrate…

Quit or continue blogging…

Some already believed the Sudanese Returnee quit blogging long time ago or retired to the digital archives of the electronic world.

The simple truth is I ran out of steam!

The returnee in me settled and adapted, and then began to see nothing strange or interesting about the life in Juba, Southern Sudan.

But of late, while browsing the web visiting some of my favorite blogs and reading comments posted on my blog years ago, I felt a need to continue.

“We stand tall because we rise every time we fall!”

There is a lot to blog about! People will love to read about the referendum, an (upcoming) independent South Sudan State, Post Referendum issues and so on, right?

I must confess though that during my many months of hibernation, I missed the lovely sense-of-belonging that could only be felt in the company of (Sudanese/African) bloggers. I particularly miss my dear friends Kizzie, Ms Dalu (where are they?) plus the other blog comrades.

Unlike the Sudanese Thinker who had to reboot, I am just fine with a refresh or F5.