A Midnight Welcome in South Sudan
It must have been way past mid-night. I was woken up by excruciatingly loud screams. These were intermittently preceded by what sounded like someone trying to crack a human skull with a blunt object. Sometimes it sounded like soft thuds made by the pounding of raw flesh. Like someone making mince meat. It was my first night in Juba, South Sudan. Convinced that murder was taking place right below my window at LandmarkHotel, I opened my curtains a crack to witness the horror. Curiosity and self protection warred for the control of my impulses. While I wanted to know what was happening, I was in mortal fear for my life. I had consumed horror stories of foreigners caught up in the war in South Sudan, some of them losing their lives. Had the war come to town? I was not going to be caught off guard. I kept the curtains open just a tad. Did I really want to be witness to murder? What if I was dragged into a South Sudanese court to tes...