Suddenly it feels like home

Technology is a wonderful thing!  Without it you wouldn't be reading this now and I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with all my friends and family back home.  I can't describe how much speaking to my children and friends on skype lifts my spirits if I am feeling a little homesick.  One of the most crazy things about this amazing country is that in all my time here I have yet to be without a good mobile signal, so I have always been able to keep in touch with everyone.

After my spell of homesickness I realise how lucky I am.  My landlord can't do enough to make my apartment as comfortable as possible for me - bless him, he has now installed a water tank on the roof just for me and is sorting out some air conditioning too.  Although as I am acclimatising and the weather is cooling down for winter (it's now only a mere 35 degrees!) I am managing comfortably without it - in fact one night I had to get up and turn off the fan as I was cold!

Some of my colleagues have no running water at all in their homes, they live a happy and simple life in the houses that they were brought up in - taking water from the well in the yard and living without many things that we in the west would consider necessities.  

Every morning you see boys with donkey carts delivering water to people's homes, you can hear them making their way through the streets as they bang the plastic containers with their sticks!

 A Donkey Water Tanker!

One day the Dean takes me to the University along the old road, where we see all the donkey carts filling up.  "This place is called Donkey!"  he tells me, much to my amusement!
The old road (well I use the term road loosely!) is very scenic, it is mostly a track across the countryside to the University Campus.  We pass settlements, greenery and an abattoir along the way.  It actually takes less time this route than on the newer road, but it is impassable during the hot summer months due to the depth and fineness of the sand.  I have still to master the knack of walking on the sand - usually when walking on a hot sandy beach I elect to walk alongside the water on the wet sand - but this is not an option here!  There is sand, and lots of it everywhere!  Along the street and especially around the University Campus.  I marvel at how the Sudanese manage to keep their feet so clean, and feel very conscious of my own grubby sand ingrained ones!

I've settled into life at the University.  It is so comfortably relaxed I feel that I hardly justify the living allowance that they pay me.  My students take me for breakfast most days, giving me the opportunity to try all the local foods on offer.

Breakfast of "bush" with the students

One of the favourites is "bush", a mixture of traditional "Fuul" and bread.  Apparently it gets its name from George Bush, when he sent food aid during the 1980's famine!  Another student takes me to a restaurant near my home for a traditional meal of "Agashir" which is chicken cooked over coals, served with onions and limes - Laziiz! (Delicious!)

Everyone here is constantly going out of their way to make sure I am happy and have everything I need - I feel thoroughly spoilt!

When I venture to the market or into town I often bump into people I know or here someone calling my name down the street.  People here always have time to stop and chat.  I smile to myself thinking "I may have only been here a month but this is my town!"

 My front gate