Christmas is a time for giving not for coups

As some of you have seen there was an attempted coup in South Sudan beginning last Sunday in Juba. As luck would have it, I was in Juba attending a World Food Program workshop. I was planning on returning to Torit on Monday morning until I received word that there had been sporadic gunfire in the city overnight and the US embassy and the UN were on lockdown. 

I did not think much of the situation until I went to breakfast on Monday and began to hear explosions which I learned were from the tanks shelling buildings near our hotel. Then around 9am we started to hear automatic gun fire but it was still fairly far away.  I was in the hotel with some of our US based staff and we were able to discuss the situation. 

The vivacell (cell phone company) lines were cut by the government to limit rebel movement but my MTN phone and internet still worked all day. Since I had some means of communication I called home and let them know that I was fine and would keep them informed.

Around 5pm President Kiir made a statement regarding the situation and said that the former Vice President and his followers had tried to take over the government but President Kiir was in control of the government.

The shootings continued through the night and when I woke on Tuesday the fighting was closer then on Monday. After breakfast the shooting was so close I thought the fighting was on the next street.  My co-worker took this picture from his hotel window.

On Tuesday night President Kiir once again made a statement explaining the situation. He said that the military had been arresting former ministers who were behind the coup and that the airport would be open on Wednesday.

I had thought that since the airport would be re-opening on Wednesday that I would just take my scheduled Friday flight but that changed. On Wednesday morning I found out that the US embassy had suggested that all non-essential Americans leave South Sudan. Due to this announcement my company decided to evacuate all expats from the country.

I had a choice of taking the plane that the US embassy was arranging for any interested Americans or take the flight that my company was arranging. I chose to take the flight my company was arranging for numerous reasons.

My flight was arranged for Thursday morning.  We arrived at the airport at 8am, our charter plane landed at 9:30am, we finally cleared immigration and security at noon.

 When we went out to walk to our plane another plane was landing. When it landed one of the front tires blew then as it continued to move forward the landing gear on the nose collapsed and fell.

The plane was about 3/4 of the way down the runway so we were hoping that our small plane would still be able to take off. Our pilot went and determined how much room was left on the runway and determined that there was enough room. We got lucky and were able to take off.

After we loaded our bags and boarded the plane I began to feel like the end of a long experience maybe near. Once the plane left the ground the whole plane cheered.

We landed in Uganda an 1.5 hours later and left the airport for a few hours. At 11:30pm I took off for Amsterdam. That began the next leg of my trip home. I made it home on Friday night at 10pm. In total I travelled for about 48 hours and was very happy to be home.

My thoughts and prayers go out to my friends and co-workers in South Sudan. During times of conflict it seems as if the innocent are the ones who are harmed the most. My wish for the New Year is for peace and forgiveness in the country.