Starting from scratch in South Sudan

Greetings from Juba and South Sudan!

I arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Saturday, October 3, and will stay here for seven days.

Since March 2009, I'm working on South Sudan Executive Leadership Program at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We are helping train and educate government and military officials from South Sudan to become future leaders of the region and very likely a new independent country in 2011.

More about the program at www.sselp.org.

Living in Africa for some time now and studying and researching Sudanese conflicts for years, I thought I would have an idea what to expect in Juba. Well, nothing could really prepare me for this. South Sudan, after more than two decades of war and economic, social, and political marginalization since the colonial times, is starting from scratch in literal and every other sense of the term.

Juba is currently the fastest growing city in the world; there is so much development but also so much poverty. Hopefully, the Government of South Sudan will be able to use the profits from the sale of oil wisely and improve the living conditions for the people.

Even though the conditions in Juba are not perfect, I'm really enjoying my time here. Juba is so green; the White Nile is amazing; food is delicious; people are great; there are so many people from around the world here that I feel like I'm visiting the UN headquarters.

Click on the link below to see some of my photos from Juba. I'll keep adding new photos every few days.

http://www.gather.com/viewAlbum.action?albumId=20415