I’m soooooooo tired this morning, skipped breakfast and just headed downstairs, it was already 8:15am. Rob was sat in reception, I just nodded my hello (Rob isn’t much for talking in the mornings), was feeling half asleep, I knew that would be cured by a good dose of Turkish Coffee without a doubt. We headed of in a Taxi and I didn’t even have the energy to remove the camera from the bag, so could do with an extra hour in bed, but that’s what happens if you spend all night writing a blog.
We got into the office and today was focused again on working on the stats reports for resettlements. These reports are used to track which people have been resettled in which countries around the world and the numbers remaining and awaiting resettlement. Spent the entire morning on this report, the figures had to be correct, these are used (as in any organisation) to justify the budget for the following year.
Carlo and I set off for lunch at around 2:30, we had both been focused on different things but were equally busy. He is still working on transferring more of the 50 databases into the migration database. We did our usual walk to the junction, the “commit” keyword being used at regular intervals to navigate the roads. We travelled further than we had before as we both needed the fresh air, although I have to say, the sun was steadily sapping me and I was very low on energy. Today we stopped at a “Pizza place”, through pigeon Arabic and slow English we were able to come to the agreement of a tuna pizza and a bottle of Pepsi each. As we sat down in the shade outside, we saw the chef giving orders to the waiter, he handed him some money and then the waiter, money in hand, went running across the road to the super market. Carlo and I looked at each other and continued our conversation about the migration. 5 minutes later the man came out of the supermarket with a bag, came back across the road and went into the shop. 10 seconds later he came out with a tray with Pepsi on it and we could hear the chef chopping away in the background. Carlo and I laughed, at least we knew everything was as fresh as the supermarkets stock, as it had just been bought. We sat and ate our meals, whilst doing this we saw a small hatchback pull up outside and the waiter ran to the car, the boot opened and it was filled with flour, vegetables and canned goods. It appeared that we had arrived before the daily delivery of food.
The afternoon continued as the morning had and by 7:00pm we had finished for the day. Abdulla had invited us to his house that evening for a BBQ (the weekend begins tonight, Friday-Saturday) with some friends and family that were coming over. The agreement was that we would meet a friend of Abdulla’s in the reception of the hotel at 8:00 and he would drive us to his house. Carlo, Rob and I again agreed to meet in reception at around 8:30, to our surprise Abdulla’s friend was early and arrived at 8:45, not the customer 1 hour later…
Abdulla’s friend had also brought a friend, they were in the front, and Carlo, Rob and I sat in the back, we were now going to pick up Navine. Hmmm hold on this is a VW Polo (the only one I had seen in the city), How are we going to fit 6 people in there? Well I guess we would find out. We managed it and we actually got four of us in the back, it was a miracle of “Sardinery” (a new word I just made up). We travelled to a part of the city where I hadn’t travelled before, we were going across one of the two bridges that cross the Blue Nile. When we were on the bridge it was a quite a good vantage point for a view of the city. Again because the city is so poorly lit and there aren’t many tall buildings there, it was difficult to get any idea of how it was laid out.
We arrived at our destination and parked with the right hand wheels up on a sandy bank, so the car was leaning to the left. I promptly opened the door and as expected, without the door to hold the sardines in, I almost fell flat on my face on the floor. Abdulla’s apartment was very nice with a large balcony at the front. This is where we were to have the BBQ, it was a good evening with meeting lots of people doing a variety of jobs in Khartoum, but it was apparent from the people there and Abdulla’s house that he was very much in a sort of “middle class” of Khartoum society and so are the friends he invited. We were introduced to everyone who was already there. But I did notice one person in the kitchen that wasn’t even acknowledged, this person as it turned out was his house lady and she was doing all of the cooking and preparation for the evening, that felt a little weird, but as I learnt in Dubai, that is very much part of societies in the middle east, if you have the money you get a house lady. Not something which I feel personally comfortable with, but I guess you could argue that it gave her a steady job. A completely All his friends and family were very nice people with lots to talk about, a number of them worked for NGO’s (UNHCR, IMO, UN Security Council) and there was also a civil engineer there. It was wonderful talking to all these people and understanding how the different organisations worked, comparing an contrasting. I learnt some interesting things about the situation in Darfur from the guy who worked in one of the groups within the UN Security Council, but I’m not going to go blah, blah on this as I don’t want to be responsible for the destabilisation of the peace talks and the peace treaty that is being discussed…
I got talking to Mohammed who was a civil engineer who had studied at Oxford University, worked in Dubai on a number of buildings in Dubai including the “Twin Towers”. I asked why he had moved back to Sudan and he explained that he was working on the largest building project in Khartoum a 25 floor building which will house offices, a sports centre, a shopping mall and restaurants. This seemed a little bizarre to me, from the people I have seen in the majority of the city there doesn’t seem to be a need for any of those things other than to satisfy the needs of the middle/upper classes which are a very small proportion of the populous or perhaps for tourists and this isn’t exactly a holiday destination. I guess that when a country is trying to change its image and rebuild itself it has to start somewhere, but for me I would have guessed that actually doing something to improve the overall quality of life in the country would be a better investment of money that the pile of money that this private company is spending on creating the towering structure. Anyway, Mohammed said that if I was interested I could come down to the construction site (now up to the 20th floor) and I could go up in the 300ft crane to take pictures of the city, well all I can say is that is an opportunity I am not going to pass up.
As we continued through the evening a conversation around Shuwak came up and Abdulla started to tell a story about a UN Vehicle Engineer was out in Shuwak and had been bitten by a snake. He had anti-venom for the bite, but after 3 years of “not feeling right” he just died?!? Sorry? Then Nasreldin, followed on with, “yeah and the scorpions and those big black beetles they really scare me, I’m glad I am not going there”. Now, I’m not sure whether these were the best poker faces I have ever seen, but at the end they didn’t say “Only Kidding”, they didn’t say “Ha ha gotcha”, they then just started talking about “other stuff”. My internal voice said “oh dear, what else did I expect” But the one thing I am going to do before I go is get some elastic bands before I go an will be attaching them to my trouser legs to that they are firmly connected to my walking boots, there ain’t nothing going up my trouser leg!
Around 1:00am we headed back to the car and this time Abdulla was taking Navine and I back so we didn’t all have to fit into the one car. As we drove back I saw a sight that I hadn’t seen before, we were stopped 3 times on the way through Khartoum and asked to show ID to military police at various check points throughout the city. As Abdulla explained 2 months prior to my arrival there was a suspicion within the government of a military koo. Checkpoints were running constantly with full car and body searches occurring, it had been returned to normality recently with the continued checking of ID on late night travel. In the years before there had been a permanent 11:00pm curfew in the city, but this had eventually moved back to the check points and free travel throughout the night.
We arrived back at the hotel and Abdulla told me that tomorrow night we would be going to a Sufi, not sure what it is exactly, but I hear that there will be Whirling Dervish’s, should make good photo material.
Thought for the day.
The whole experience is a fantastic one, but I have to say not what I expected. Because the UNHCR and other NGO staff are comparatively well paid this puts them into a different area of society in Khartoum. I’m enjoying my stay here, it is an amazing experience without a doubt, but to a degree feel detached from what is happening in the country because of the group that I “hanging out” with. I don’t know whether I came expecting to save the country in some way and what I am doing seem so small, not affecting the populous around us. But I guess that is the responsibility of the government and with the right assistance/pressure from the UN and other governments these changes will take place to make life better for all. Looking at Dubai, it is a prosperous place, more money than you can shake a stick at, but 30 years ago it was literally a Bedouin settlement on a creek. Will the same thing happen in Sudan, what will Khartoum look like in 10 years time?
Anyway, bed time calls, again, up all night blogging, we are working over the weekend, but I get to have a lay in, so this posting will be late, but I guess you won’t see that until its late, so you know that already.
G’night