Getting our goat

Poni has started up a goat meat shack near where she lives, which seems to be doing a roaring trade. She has a guy from the Nuba Mountains frying up the goat on a large BBQ, a waitress called Susie who attracts regular complaints because of her slovenly nature (which Poni told me about in earshot of Susie) and her Ugandan friend Irene who works at a nearby bar and helps by serving Poni's customers with shisha.

Poni's previous BBQ pork meat emporium didn't survive the economic crisis.

She invited Sebit and I to stop by after we'd finished the day's tasks. These involved the usual Juba fare: convoluted government processes for NGOs, stocking up on printer cartridges and phone credit and lobbying to donors about the value of our project. The best part of the day was taking Sudanese style tea on the roadside as we waited for our vehicle logbook renewals to be laminated. Judging by the friendly side smirk on the lady making the tea, kharwajas are a rare occurrence at her stall. She has a small pot of mixed spices that she infuses the tea with expertly, something she concocts herself from individual flavours bought at the market. Tea and coffee sellers I've encountered in some of the world's most random outposts would be champion baristas.

Eating some goat intestines sounds fairly innocuous but it was a bold public move compared to how we're advised to act in Juba. Becoming more comfortable operating in the streets doesn't equate to being cavalier with safety; it is just realistic to want to experience a small slice of life beyond the walls of various compounds.

Inside the bar at our neighbouring compound, where I go to use the internet, I already feel some cabin fever. Drunken characters corner you to chat, ignore subtle social cues that you are busy and state repeatedly that even though we may put ourselves in dangerous locations, it makes not a jot of difference as everybody's lifeline is pre-defined, 'and there is no point even disputing that.'

Unplanned interruptions by people with alcohol dependencies aren't great for ploughing through the to-do list before communications get decidedly harder for a couple of weeks.