Well, I'm actually here. I'd all but given up hope of actually coming out to Juba, having spent at least a year talking about it. For those of you that don't know, I came out here as a medical student in 2008, and have always wanted to come back and be a little bit more useful than I was then. In the last 5 years, a lot has changed - the most striking thing is that in July 2011, Southern Sudan became the world's newest country: South Sudan. Juba has changed hugely since 2005, when the second civil war ended, with a lot of foreign aid being pumped in to try and build up infrastructure. Since I was last here, buildings have sprung up everywhere, and many of the rutted, red-mud roads have been paved. There is a lot to say about Juba and South Sudan, and I'm sure I'll write about it in future.
I will be working at the Juba Medical Complex, a large private clinic in Juba. It is just across the road from Juba Teaching Hospital where I went last time I was here. I had originally planned to go back to JTH, but it became evident that I couldn't arrange anything with them - apparently it is quite chaotic there currently. I will go and visit and see for myself, and hopefully be able to do a little work there too. JMC is a rapidly growing unit, it currently has pretty good lab services, plain Xray, Ultrasound, Endoscopy, and there are currently building another building which now contains a CT scanner (it isn't operational yet) and will hopefully have an MRI scanner and high-care ward. The plan is, after a week or so of cramming tropical medicine into my head and shadowing some of the doctors, to join the rota as a medical officer - which is an SHO equivalent, as far as I can work out.
At the moment there isn't too much more to say, as I've only been here for 2 days. I'm sure there will be plenty to tell you in due course though.
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