Dear Pralangga.org readers, I would like to share my first impression about a small town in Upper Nile State Southern Sudan called Malakal, the ‘muddiest’ place in Sudan (I guess). I have just been transferred into this town early of October after 8 months based in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.

First useful advice if you want to visit me in Malakal is you must be ready with your boots!!! As I said, Malakal is (probably) the muddiest place in the entire Sudan. I’m not trying to scare you but please see my pictures.

Ok, here is my impression about Malakal…
I think Malakal is not as bad as people told me. Despite from muddy problem I think Malakal is greener than Juba especially during rainy season. I was admiring the view from the airport on the way to the camp yesterday afternoon because everywhere was green & cows were everywhere!!! It was like milk commercial on TV, it was indeed beautiful!!!

Then I went to the market downtown yesterday evening & I was so impressed because basically the town was busier than Juba even though Malakal is only a small town but we could see local people were still ‘alive’ & on the street during evening, it’s unlike Juba. And it was not only the people but also their donkeys, goats, horses, cows, everything… All of them were just walking around in the middle of the road & it seemed they were not afraid that car was going to hit them because I bet they know that (according to Sudan tradition) they will be very expensive once they are crushed!

Well of course I’m gonna need to adjust myself since the nature of my work here is going to be a little bit different than Juba but if the work environment is going to be much better than Juba then I would say that I have nothing to complain about Malakal!

Cheers, Imelda