I arrived at the airport on Saturday morning, the Taxi Driver dropped me off at Heathrow Terminal 2, and I was bags in hand and off to sort out the nightmare of the ticket situation. I was hoping that Lufthansa had been able to keep up with 3 ticket changes which had occurred since the original booking and approached the delightful Maria at the Lufthansa ticket desk, she was very accommodating and followed the paper chain back, and I explained that I had an e-ticket for the flight to Frankfurt and a paper ticket for the remainder of the journey and hoped this didn’t create any confusion. She nodded and continued to tap away at the console she was working on, after 5 minutes she looked up and said, I’m afraid I can only find one of your flights here from Frankfurt to Khartoum, you will have to buy another ticket, I just thought of great another thing to sort out, then Maria said, hold on, you have an e-ticket, why didn’t you say so, I could only sigh… but it was all good, she felt it would be good to take me over to the desk for check in and did so, fast tracked to the 1st class check in while everyone else was queuing muhahaha… no free upgrade though… very disappointed.
So fast forwarding to the second flight (nothing much to report on the first, all was good, nothing to talk about) I ended up being sat with a guy called Markus (travels to Khartoum ever couple of months or so on business), he sold paper for a living and apparently corrugated card board boxes are a good seller in Khartoum… and by chance a real member of the UNHCR (Claas) who would be travelling with me in the UNHCR jeep that would pick us up at the airport… It was a pretty fun flight, lots of laughs and stories about paper, politics and previous UN missions that Claas had been on (interesting contrast). One of my favourites was when he went to X and was invited to tiffin (afternoon tea), everyone was dressed up to the nine’s and tea had been laid out in the middle of a field… hmmm when I say field I mean a mine field that had just been cleared and it was thought it would be “cool” to do this. I just sat there like a slack jawed yokel saying “oh my god” far too many times for me to look cool, I was just in awe of his experiences… the flight to Khartoum was quite full but that was reassuring that people were travelling to the Sudan although not perhaps as a popular holiday destination it was deemed safe to travel to, then I was told by Markus that we stopped in Cairo and the plane would clear to maybe 20 people, and boy was he right, we touched down and in the section that we were in (over the wing) it went from full capacity to 5 people, same for the 1st / Business class sections and the section in the rear… so the ship of fools set off again to its final destination…
We arrived in Khartoum 30 minutes ahead of schedule, we taxied to the disembarkation point and as we taxied the runway was filled with a mix of Hercules, UN and light aircraft, not many commercial aircraft at all. We moved through to immigration to get our visa’s validated, given the hassle that I had had trying to get the Visa I broke into a bit of a sweat wondering if all would be ok and sure enough it was. Looking at all of the people in front of me they were a mix of western nationalities, all brandishing a variety of Authorisation letters and passes from the UNHCR, Help the Children, International Red Cross and so on… It finally came to my turn at the desk and to my pleasure the entry into the country passed without event, I was finally here and approved entry… wow! Touch down had happened, not so much Black Hawk Down as Fat English Bloke standing out like a sore thumb, but all was cool. Claas obviously knew the drill and I followed him through to the exit where Walid was waiting for us, quite a proud moment, he was stood there with the UNHCR Logo on a sheet of paper with my name on there… he told us to wait and proceeded to go get the jeep that would take us to our final destination. Again the jeep had the UNHCR logo planted on the door with a 6 foot satcom mast at the front of the jeep, it looked exactly like the ones from the news that I had seen a million times and Claas explained that the UN had a really good deal with Toyota to provide these jeeps at a highly discounted price… J Looking around the exterior of the airport you could see people laying down on the benches that surrounded the exterior of the airport and groups of eager taxi drivers wanting to take people to their destinations, I was glad that I was being met at the airport as I would have felt very uncomfortable about being there on my lonesome… Jumped into the jeep and proceeded on the magical mystery tour around Khartoum to my hotel and to Claas’s accommodation.
The drive through the streets was an interesting one, rather than having signs for “Raised Iron Works” to show when there is a man hole cover that is higher than the level of the road it would have been easier to mark the streets that didn’t have them. The streets are mainly unlit and the rule of driving on a specific side of the road doesn’t seem to apply on the whole, it’s a case of making your own lane and taking whatever opportunities that come. There were some cars like the ones in India, little 3 wheeled vehicles that are brightly decorated and obviously a form of taxi, they are a law unto themselves, even at that time of night there were a lot of them milling across our path and generally making a nuisance of themselves. During the journey to the hotel Claas continued to tell stories of the places he had been and the amazing sights he had seen on his travels, whilst also discussing with Walid what the current UN Security status Khartoum was running at, reassuringly it was at the lowest level so there was no apparent threat, I could stop holding my breath on that one. Claas is going to be staying in Khartoum for a while and then heading up to Dalfur for sometime assessing the situation there, that is something I would have loved to have done just for the life experience although I think that would be a far separation from the “cosmopolitan” lifestyle of Khartoum.
We dropped Claas off at the place he was staying at which was almost like an impound with a dilapidated high rise at the centre of it, as we approached the entrance gates these were locked and there was a man sleeping on the floor on the other side of the gates, he arose from his slumber, unlocked and let us in, locked the gate and went back to his bed (the floor)… Claas departed for the high rise and was soon inside, we then departed for the hotel “Al Faisel” where I would be staying, I couldn’t wait to seem my luxurious accommodation… when Rob Breen the project lead had emailed me previously in the week stating that I should ensure that I had a good pint, a nice meal and consider bringing my own sheets and towels I knew the place would be just the best… J We continued through the streets, they seemed to get darker as we travelled, more and more derelict buildings around us, Walid was slowing to read the building names, obviously he hadn’t been to this hotel before and I hoped this wouldn’t really turn into a true magical mystery tour, but all was good, we turned the corner and sure enough there was the hotel in all its splendour… The gentleman on reception was very hospitable and explained that this was a 3 star hotel (amazing how much the Star system varies between countries) and described all of the facilities in the hotel, this took about 10 seconds, the foyer looked like it was in the middle of refurbishment, wires running down walls, junction boxes hanging off them, the lift’s in the atrium of the building didn’t look too safe but I was reassured that they were in good working order… but I took the stairs anyway… up to the room where I was to stay, the room had a muggy feeling to it, the bathroom is about 5×4 feet (compact and bijou I think is how it would be described). I turned on the air conditioning to try and clear the damp feeling in the room and I can only describe the noise produced as perhaps a light aircraft starting… I figured I’d give it time to settle down, but no it continued at 7000rpm and provided a nice accompaniment for the rest of the evening while I sat and wrote this and unpacked my essentials (toilet roll, various chocolate bars and crisps)
One thing I have to say is “itchy”, wow how itchy can I be, very, very, very I’m not sure whether it’s the thought of the mosquito’s feasting on me in the night or what it is exactly, but man I feel itchy… I guess that will settle down as I continue to get used to the environment. Oh and I forgot my damn tooth brush, damn it, that sucks, I had a shower, all nice and fresh, but I have a furry tongue and teeth, I am hoping that I will be able to acquire one tomorrow, more information to follow on this subject… J
Tomorrow I start work with the UN guys to get ProGres (the software package) up and running in Khartoum to assist with refugee registration and placement. I hope I will be able to get the camera out tomorrow sometime, today I was just too tired, but don’t want to miss out on the opportunity of capturing some of the city…
On a serious note, I know the above is written with a lighter heart, but the whole experience of arriving and just travelling to the hotel has been a very humbling experience, so many things which we all take for granted as “normal life” aren’t there for everyone in the world. The city is a far stretch from the standards and quality of life that I think we are all accustomed to, but again this a far stretch from the area’s of the country that are war torn and are largely populated by refugee’s, where food and water are becoming sparse, this is where the majority of the “good” aid work is being done and to a degree I feel like I am cheating this experience by being in the city and staying in a hotel, well we do what we can I guess, I still feel like in some way I am helping a good cause and I suppose that is the important thing… anyway, enough of my whining, I’m going to bed, g’night all…