March 15th
So it’s been 6 weeks since I landed in Juba, South Sudan. We landed at Juba airport, which is not much larger than the airport in a city like Burlington, New Hampshire; it’s very small. As we flew into the town, I saw the tops of huts lined in rows and a few scattered building in the town of Juba. I thought maybe these were the suburbs of Juba, but this is actually Juba town. About 80% live in mud huts. As we landed, I saw the UN helicopters that are usually used to transport tankers and large quantities of food and an old burnt out artillery fire arm. And the reality that this country has been in war for 20 years hit me. It was an emotional landing. I was so sad to see that so many people had suffered and were still suffering. But this may just be my western concept of suffering. Whatever the case, it is still a struggle for many southern Sudanese.
Customs was a quick process. Our bags came in through the side carrier on trucks which we had to pick up. Definition of carrier: a wooden half broken door with a concrete slab. Our entire luggages were visually examined and to my surprise, no bribe was asked for (bribes are a natural occurrence at the int’l airport in Nigeria). The first sight of juba is the red dry earth and the dust that is left behind the trucks that speed pass you. We had been prepared for the worst, so I didn’t expect to have many things. To my surprise, we were put in a guest house that was a concrete structure and there was running water, sometimes even hot water for a shower. The guest house is right next to the office, so there isn’t much separation between work and home. Space in Juba is very tight, so everyone is living over each other. Hotels that set up in Juba found that it wasn’t even necessary to spend money building structures; they could charge an arm and a leg for those large army tents. They just build an adjoining structure for the bathroom and added the tent next to it. The charge is only $200 per night. That’s supply and demand at its finest. So getting any type of solid structure is a step up, especially in 100 degree weather. We even had air conditioners in our rooms, which was even more of a surprise. As you can tell, I was prepared to rough it.
So we settled into our routine. There are four of us being sent to Southern Sudan for this round. Ryan; frat boy / entrepreneur from buffalo, Marty; former army interrogations specialist / HR guy (he is a bit strange at first, but actually he is the sweetest guy ever. Not sure how he got into the army), Michelle; VP from Goldman sacs (Korean American, 5ft small cute, but don’t’ get on her bad side type of girl) and yours truly. So we both hung around for 4 week in Juba with our one of the other MBA volunteers who has been in Southern Sudan (another town called Wau) for 6 months. He showed us the ropes and did a bit of the orientation. Khary is from little rock Arkansas and is the only brother (black westerner) for miles. So we have all lived in the guest house for that time. It felt a bit like the “MTV real world” for a bit. But we seemed to all get along really well. The 2 guys left to their posted cities of Yei, where they will be for the rest of the 14 months. And michelle and I, after 2 weeks of sleeping of the jet lag and a bad case of cough, finally started got into work.
We have a few small business clients assigned to us. We asses where the business is and where they need to go in order to make their business work. The businesses that come to us are usually very small businesses and sometimes we get medium sized ones. Because of the war, there are so many people who have lost their age old skills like welding, carpentry, businesses mindset in general. This cannot even be classified as an emerging market right now (pre pre emerging). Most of what we do is just help them understand the concept of marketing their business; most believe they build and customers will come, diversify products; so they are not dependent on the swings of just one product, and force (yes I said forcing cos they take this part kicking and screaming) them to think about whether they are profitable or not. For the latter, most people only think of gross revenue as their indicator for making money. They take money in and put it into the right pocket and when they pay, they pay from the left pocket. And I am really serious; this is how most people who do it. So just a glimpse of what we do here.
There are tons of expats in Southern sudan. Many many ngo’s and private enterprises also. We also have the de-miners (take out the mines) in south sudan. They have done quite a bit of work and all the major roads have been demined and major towns also. But they are the toughest looking people here. The UN has a mini town close to the airport. And we go there to run around the track. There are SUV trucks all over the place. As Juba has only one paved road, the need for trucks are paramount. I seem to go out more here in Juba than I do in DC, well some may argue with me, but there is more activity than I anticipated. Most people hang out at the hotel bars (remember most hotels don’t have tall structures), so they are actually nice to be in. There are quite a few hotels by the water front. It’s amazing because I was told that 3 years ago there were almost no expats in Juba. It’s almost like the gold rush here.
I am supposed to work in the ministry of agriculture, but that has not happened yet. I hear that working there is a riot. But that will be for another blog day. But as part of my involvement in agriculture, I was able to do some research on wood in southern sudan. Apparently Southen sudan has an abundance of Tick and Mahogney which is rare around the world. This has caused a huge commotion in the open market and everyone has eyes on these natural resources. Before the peace agreement, timber was smuggled out in truck loads. Some of the local villages used to burn tick as fire wood; if you know anything about tick, you know that is one of the most expensive pieces of wood in the world, so it’s like taking gold and using is as fire wood. Well they didn’t know. However there aren’t any substitutes nor do they have factories that can make different grades of wood. So all the furniture is made of “pure solid mahogany” . So you know that if you every bought a piece of solid wood, talk less of mahogany, you’d pay and arm and a leg. Here they make beds and sell them at $100 - $300 a piece. And because they don’t have the good craftsmanship, they quality is so bad. It is so sad to see. But I do have hope that they will harness their resource of mahogany very soon. There are many consultants working with the govt. on this.
So I got assigned to work on a value chain study for a particular crop here in Sudan. This actually has been one of the most interesting things that I’ve done. We travelled to a city called Rumbeck and spoke with farmers, local govt officials etc. Most of the pictures below are from this trip. We had two people who had fought in the war, they would tell us all sorts of stories of ambushes and actual warfare that they participated in, in that town. It’s amazing that is was so close. We stayed at an NGO camp that has been around for 20 years in southern sudan; even through the war. So they know all the stories. This was real field work. My room had a few lizards that scurried out as I went in. And the pit toilets were even more fun!
We got to talk to farmers, one of whom had 9 wives. I couldn’t believe it. Every house had about 5-15 people; wives and children. However there was only one tent where the man slept. It is interested that they don’t build huts for the wives or kids. They all sleep under the storage unit. Well that is dinka culture. And the Dinka value cows more than anything. This is almost like money to them. They trade many things in cows, dowrey, crimes etc. if you kill a man, you have to pay 31 cows to the family. A bride downrey can be anything from 50-200 cows; cows cost about $200 a piece. No dinka ever wants to sell his cows. Many western thought that the cow herding was prime for a meat industry here, but culture dictated otherwise. They wouldn’t even use the ox to plow the land, because it was against their culture. But some have soon abandoned that when they saw how much extra money they could make with the oxplow. Anyway, if you hit a cow, be prepared for a war here.
PS dinka tribe is the largest in southern sudan and they are the most fierce; they are the ones that started the fight against the north and the whole liberation movement (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement SPLM) and the main leader was John Garang.
PPS I actually met john garang (for a brief second) when I worked at USAID one summer. He came to have some negotiations with USAID about working in Southern Sudan. A pity that he died just months after the peace agreement was signed (he lead the movement for 20 years).
Well I think this is it for now. Till next time.
Cheerio
