Juba

The capital of South Sudan, and everything Harry films in the country. He moves with a bodyguard and a local contact, and holds $600 of city filming permits — which does not stop him being challenged repeatedly.

His first impressions: extremely hot, very humid, and everyone is tall. The fixer’s explanation is that height is tribal and that he himself comes from a state where people aren’t.

Obs: filming is illegal here without a permit. Harry believes he may be the first person to document the market on camera, which is why the prices below exist at all.

Prices, as filmed

• Water: 200 a container, carried on the head. He buys one, tries to carry it on his own head, and can’t.
• A local clay fridge: 25,000 — pour water in and it keeps things cold with no electricity.
• A street shave: 2,000.
• A football: 8,500, about $5. He buys one in every country.
• A tuk-tuk: $4,000, shipped two months from India.
• Money: change on the black market rate, and expect a brick of notes — the largest denomination is 1,000.

The market

• The water stall is run by two women, one widowed and one whose husband left. They are 18 and 28. Buying from one seller immediately produces a queue of others.
• The phone market sells mostly used handsets. A 6’5” trader tells him life is hard and expensive and that he is hustling; asked what his dream is, he says he wants to be successful.
• The barbers. Seven men working one pitch with a comb, scissors and half a mirror between them, doing around ten shaves a day each. Harry’s shave is the first he has had where the blade is used freehand, with no razor holder.
• Earnings, as given to him: maybe 10,000 to 20,000 on a good day, shared among the group, against $50 at roughly 75,000 (from video – unverified — the numbers are garbled).

Filming here

• He is stopped and told off, permits and all, because of the particular area he was in.
• A driver winds down a tinted window specifically to tell him he can’t film, while he is filming himself.
• Convoys, UN vehicles and army personnel are everywhere and entirely off limits.

Harry’s tips

• Budget for the permits before anything else — $600 for the city, $400 to film with a tribe.
• Use the black market rate, and bring a bag for the notes.
• Expect the permit not to settle it. Having paid does not stop people objecting, and his response is to stop filming rather than argue.
• Overpay the water sellers. He does, deliberately, and explains on camera why he can afford to: the sponsor and membership money he gives away isn’t really his.

Source

• Nobody Visits this Country - Find Out Why 🇸🇸 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsTJ7XYw0g0