South Sudan officially joins UN – one more reason

Thursday was an exciting day for Southern Sudan. Less than a week after the Republic of South Sudan became an independent state, it was welcomed into the UN and officially acclaimed the 193rd member state of the United Nations. Here’s the official UN news release. Hopefully, despite the fact that it is still undoubtedly a troubled region, independence for South Sudan will mean the start of a more peaceful era for the people in this part of East Africa.

So, good news. Less war, more peace, hard to argue with that. And yes, to answer your next question, I’d love to visit South Sudan, but our next trip is already planned so it might be a little while. Besides, our friend Vanessa is there now, so there’s no rush to be the first person we know to go.

However, it does leave me with a bit of a conundrum, what to do about the name of this blog? Sure, shortly after the excitement of having actually thought of something that wasn’t overly stupid passed, I realized that the name implied an expiration date, but I didn’t realize just how short sighted it was.

Given how few people actually read this, it’s amazing how many people have already asked if I’m going to rename it. The answer is no. While the arrival of South Sudan does mean one more reason to keep exploring, the name was never meant to be taken literally. After all, there are a lot more than 192, or 193 reasons, to travel. For instance, there’s the excitement of landing in a new city for the first time, trying new foods, meeting new people, and crying babies on planes… no, wait, not that last one. Anyway, those are just the obvious things. Let me know what your favourite things are in the comments below.

Of course, I could be wrong. What do you think?