Look Up Look Down for details

I’m back home now after a long but uneventful journey on 3 planes.

My pair of images this week are ones that I took in Juba, the up was in the workshop and the down in our housing compound.

One thing I immediately noticed is that many people in South Sudan are really tall.  Not just from my short view point, the ‘shorter person' in the middle is about 5’7”. So the up photo was trying to capture this height.

The down was from a wonderful riot of colour that appeared each morning but disappear once the sun was overhear – I guess the direct sun is too much for the flowers.  If you look close you can see a bee – top right quadrant – there were masses of them on the flowers.

Many of you commented on the fact you need a permit in order to take photos in South Sudan.  This is an old law from Sudan – as a newly separated country they kept all the Sudanese laws for now.  It was introduced for security reasons and as there are few tourists has never really been reassessed.  I’m told it was often ignored but over the last year in South Sudan it is becoming an issue as the number of outsiders increases, most of them accustomed to snapping with camera or phone.  Some have been fined by the police for taking photos of ‘sensitive items’ such as government buildings, the army and airport. In addition some locals keen to earn brownie points with the police will report any foreigners that they see taking photos – often the foreigners then bribe these people to not report them – and so it is being seen as a lucrative activity – and a problem for those of us wanting to take photos.  It was really frustrating to leave my camera in my bag as we drove around.