To End a Journey

I started this blog preempting your curiosity. 33 posts later, I probably managed to give you a faint idea. Truth of the matter is that Sudan is truly a special place. The experience cannot be given justice in 33 posts. With every new country came a new experience. It's true that no two countries are the same. But Sudan stands appart. It's been unique from a professional as well as life point of view.



The most important things I take with me are the memories and friendships I've made while in Sudan (inside and outside the country). I've also developed an immunity to about half the exotic bacteria in the world. Besides that, it's the unrivaled power of the sandstorms and thunderstorms, the chicken flavoured French union soup, the special (excited) landmarks, and the relative logic that will distort my whole comfort zone to re shape my world. Besides, they make excellent stories to tell at parties.

The end of one journey is only the beginning of another. So the end of this blog is the beginning of another. I will keep you posted on my next journey. I doubt it will top this one, but the times I've said that...

Thanks to all who have kept me company throughout this journey by posting your comments and just visiting my blog.

So now, go out and do something for the first time. And then repeat every week.

More Deer Pets

We spent the Friday at my friends place last week. Very nice (HOT) day hanging around the pool with some cool people.

A couple of permanent residents next to the pool are Zeina and Walid. They are Shaker's deer pets. Zeina is cool and confitent. If she likes you she'll eat from your hand. Walid, on the other hand, is a sceptic. He doesn't like to get close to anyone.

However before Walid came along, there was another male in Zeina's life. He was wild (literally) and went a bit crazy, so much so that he commited suicide. He kept banging his head against the wall untill he bled to death. The experts explained the situation as similar to human behaviour. Females drive men wild, to the point of doing stupid things.

Walid was then brought in to keep Zeina company. This time Zeina was a little more forgiving and decided she didn't want to end up alone again. Walid happily living with Zeina now.

And this is what it looked like from Zeina's point of view!

My First Sandstorm

I'm at the gym lifting my metal. Put down the weights and look up only to have hazy vision, literally within seconds. So now I'm thinking, Oh shit, blood is rushing to my head or something and it's affecting my vision! What is happening to me?! Turns out that there was nothing wrong with me or my vision. The windows started bucking, and sand started shooting in from every single tiny opening in existance. Within one minute there was a clearly visible layer of brown sand on everything. I wiped my head with my white towel and it was instant brown. My white t-shirt became my brown t-shirt. I was smelling and breathing nice fresh sand.

So I finished off my workout and ventured out to my car - after some hesitation. It is a very strange situation having such stong winds with so much sand in it! I've never experience anything like this before. It did remind me a bit of the time I was in Miami during huricane Andrew - except that was much higher winds and water instead of sand. That's not to say the winds here were not strong! Getting to the car I could hardly open my eyes, or even breathe, from the amound of sand in the air. Once in the safety of the car, I quickly realized that visibility was about 10 meters at best.

This is what happens in this area of Sudan around this time of year. The winds are called Hubub (or Haboub) and usually preceed the rains. I caught the tail end of the rains when I arrived here 8 months ago - see my earlier post on the rains. Some friends caught some photos of the approaching winds, and I've also included some photos from my car ride home. Mind you, on a normal day at the time I drove home it would be twilight.

This table is blue. This is about 15 minutes after the storm hit.

P.S. I've posted some of these photos on Facebook. If you are on, look me up. If not, I recommend it - it's pretty cool and helps people stay in touch.

Birthday Surprise!

My department called me in for some weird emergency meeting yesterday, to which I was not enthusiastic. I was annoyed, thinking what now?

As I walked in, they were all sitting there smirking and suddenly started singing Happy Birthday! Totally caught me by surprise, and made my whole day, especially because it came a day early (today is off for Easter).

I got this really cool present - a carved wooden figure of an antelope, like the ones in my previous post.

Coolest Pets Give Birth

In one of my earlier posts I shared with you photos of the coolest pets ever. At our Agency's premises they have a couple of deer in the back yard, just haning out. They are so cool (and so scared). The female at the time was pregnant.

The other day, I was visiting the agency and went back to see how the deer were doing. sure enough there was mom and pop, and the new baby deer. Mom and pop were extra alert!

Nubian Pyramids

Today we drove over to the Nubian Pyramids, build in the 3rd century BC. That's before the Egyptian pyramids were built. They are about 2 hours drive North of Khartoum, along the Nile. It was such a cool trip; here are some pics:

We took one of our 4X4's to get there. Can't get there without one.

On the way there we came across some "mountains" of black rocks that looked like they were put on top of each other. Really cool.

A typical house in the Sudanese country side. This one has been abandoned, but is still in decent shape. The middle coloumns hold up a roof, usually made of palm leaves. It is totally opened in the front, and that is where they sleep. For some reason, the chosen color for the doors is a beautiful baby blue. The house is actually built of dried mud from the ground underneath it. With heavy rain, it may melt back into the ground, depending on how well it's built. But they never last through a complete rainy season, so they have to be rebuild every year. Nothing to loose but time (which is abundant in this part of the world). Even the land it is built on doesn't really belong to anyone. Here is how it works: you find a land you like. Spill water on it so you make mud to build your home. Live in it for a year. Repeat. So while the US have their trailer homes, the Sudanese have their "Just add water" homes.

And this is how the back yard looks. Pretty spacious, hey. Plenty of room for the kids to play.

This is a pyramid next to me. If you look closely (at the pyramid) you will see the pharoah like drawing. Really cool!

This is one of my favourites. Asfar the camel was my transportation. He was a grumpy old bastard, but we got along fine. We had conversations and all. He's cool.

And of course, the pyramids. There are about 50 of them, all various sizes and all with their entrance facing West.

Will I go again? Sure! Especially to see Asfar again.

The Landmark

This is a true story about a very reliable donkey. In a land where reliability is a little more than a distant dream you learn to appreciate consistency and reliability. While taking directions to a colleague's home, he instructed me to take Road 60 (see my post about that) heading South, past the big Mosque, then past the new electircal posts. And I am to take a left hand turn on the dirt road where the white donkey is! My laughs were met with serious looks, across the board. They were dead serious. When I get to the white donkey, I am to take that left. Second building to the right.

I didn't know where to begin my redicule, but my colleague's experience taught him to preempt my reaction, and told me "Look, just do as I say. When you see the white donkey turn left."

That was one for the laughs, I thought. This place hasn't failed to amuse me in the past. Why should it stop now? So off I went on Street 60, South past the Mosque, past the new electrical posts. And sure enough! There he was! The white donkey, patiently standing there on the side of the road. That was amusing. But what's better; I've been to Ziad's house many time now (his helper cooks VERY well), and every time, without fail, there is the white donkey. Patiently standing there, making sure everyone know's where Ziad's house is. Sometimes the donkey has an erection, and sometimes he doesn't. I still haven't figured out what excites him.

Cairo Shoot

Something about Cairo that I love. Don't know what it is. In fact, rationally I should dislike it, since it contains many of the characteristics I like to stay away from. Maybe it's because I'm just a tourist there.

My last trip to Cairo was about a TV commercial shoot. We shot 4 commercials in 2 days. That meant shooting for about 15 hours a day! And that was with a super efficient team - hats off to all of them!

Needless to say, that didn't leave me much time to go around town much. Back from the shoot at 3am, the bed looks better than a red Ferrari F50 with the keys in the ignition and my initials embossed on the leather seats. Ok, not THAT good, but almost that good. I'll just let the picures do the talking on this one.

The National Republican Museum

Today I went to the museum. Just happened to be walking along the Blue Nile, and on the grounds of the Presidential Palace was a little entrance in the back, with a small sign that read National Republican Museum. We walked in, and saw a few old cars, and a beautiful church. Inside the Church was the actual museum. Well, by name it's a museum. As far as I know, museums have old stuff in it. Here, there were banners. Just many pop-up banners with a historical recount taking you through the independance of Sudan. Oh, there were a few chairs. Old ones. But the Church is nice.