My that's a big bag you have?

Do you really need that much stuff for one week?

I have heard this a lot in Juba. I went down for a week with my 70L backpack. Admittedly it was a bit too big of a bag coming down. But it was only 1/3 full. I'd brought it with a purpose. To bring back food. 

I'd made the fatale flaw of not booking extra cargo for food when I first moved up. (NB: I don't actually mean "food". I mean chocolate, cookies, nuts, gum, cheese etc.) I went to the grocery store, took note of what I needed to get and then figured I’d have people bring stuff up to me, or I could stock up later.

Wrong.

When I went back to find this.

Instead I got this.

Clearly I hadn’t learned from the Great Iraqi Diet Coke Shortage of 2008. Where foreign workers would drive to the borders of Turkey, Syria and Iran if they heard so much as a rumour that a shop owner had a spare flat of the silver bullet.

The rule is: If you see something you think could be a rare commodity… like Special K  - or in my case McVities Digestives – YOU BUY ALL OF THEM BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN IT WILL COME BACK.

So I went to the store and bought everything. 

And that is why my bag is so big.