After the excitement of Christmas Day we spent Boxing day relaxing around the apartment venturing out after dark for some delicious ice cream at a very swanky ice cream and cake shop appropriately named "Luxury" on Africa Street. It is easy to forget you are in Sudan in this part of Khartoum, as you can go for ice cream or a meal and hear English being spoken all around you and all the waiters seem to understand English much better than my broken Arabic!
The next day we start out with a plan to go to Souk Omdurman, then on the way back stop at Souk Arabi and see Paul the SVP coordinator. However, it takes us a while to get going (as is often the case here in Sudan!) so we have a brief shop in Souk Arabi after something to eat, and go directly to the SVP flat. Whilst we are out and about, Brent, calls and invites us out for something to eat. Given the choice of Fuul, The Yemeni Restaurant (where we have eaten many times), Pizza or Indian - the Brit in me straight away opts for the Indian! The Tanoor Inn, Khartoum 2 does not disappoint! The food and service is fabulous and the price is reasonable too. So having had a Chinese in Goa, I have now had an Indian in Sudan - what next?
My holiday in Khartoum seems to default into lazing around for most of the day then eating with friends in the evening - quite the opposite to my daily life in El Obeid, where I tend to spend my days at the University and my evenings alone in my apartment recharging my batteries!
Jess went back to Wad Medani on the Thursday morning and Billie was working at Neelain University (
www.neelain.edu.sd/) , so I decided to go along for the ride and see what Neelain is like compared to University of Kordofan. It is situated in a very nice part of Khartoum near to the Nile confluence (hence the name!) The building is quite spectacular, beautiful architecture much more in keeping with the style of some of the more traditional buildings in England. The lecture halls are similarly equipped although they have white boards, instead of chalk boards and the head of department shouts out of the window to order tea as they do at University of Kordofan. The difference being that the tea lady is downstairs and across a busy street! However, she happily brings the tea, just the same! I guess it's good exercise!
That evening we joined Christine, Brent and Rebecca at Ozone, a well known cafe where anybody who is anyone in Khartoum hangs out! I'd driven past it many times, but hadn't previously sampled it's delights! Whilst we were there I got a call from my friends Jenny and Paul to tell me they had arrived safely in Khartoum and would arrange for a car to come and pick me up in the morning. Billie, Mary and their friends were going to Port Sudan for New Year, but were happy to let me stay in their apartment for the duration of my stay in Khartoum.
It seemed surreal seeing Jenny and Paul sitting in the back of a car in Khartoum! The last time I'd seen Jenny was enjoying a meal with our dear friend Julie, in the Butchers Arms, Greens Norton (
http://www.thebutchersarmsgreensnorton.co.uk/), shortly before I left for Sudan. It was a wet August evening and I remember vividly the view out of the window and across the street - a quintessential English village view - houses and cottages and the church spire. I remember thinking "I don't suppose I'll see a view like this again for a while!" And here they were in Riyahd!
We spent a very pleasant day being driven around in their air conditioned car past some of the sights of Khartoum. I don't think Jenny and I really noticed them, we were just happy to be having a good old girly catch up! After our sight seeing trip we went back to Hotel Assaha, where Jenny and Paul were staying, for tea before getting ready to go to one of Paul's Sudanese colleague's weddings. The wedding was beautiful, a lovely mixture of Sudanese and English style wedding (Mohammed was bought up in Solihull!) Jess joined us at the wedding as she'd arrived back in Khartoum to celebrate New Year with Martha and Christine, so after the wedding Mustafa (the driver) kindly dropped us back at Billie's apartment.
On New Year's Eve morning I packed an overnight bag, as Jenny and Paul had kindly booked me into their hotel for the night (only one of the best hotels in town!) They arrived to pick me up with Mohammed, who is a business contact of Paul's, and we headed off to the Camel Market which is some way out of Khartoum. I had been to the local El Obeid Camel Market, but this one was much bigger and far more spread out. We were allowed into an enclosure with half a dozen camels, but we weren't allowed to take photos - presumably because these were top secret racing camels or something??!! After a bit of a wander round we went and had a very delicious breakfast of lamb and camel meat, with lashings of "Leban Up" to wash it down with. "Leban Up" is yoghurt mixed with 7 Up, and is not only very nice, it is said to aid digestion of the meat! I vow to start making my own at home!
When we get back to the hotel I go to register and check in - only to find that as I have Sudanese residency they do not need to hold on to my passport or fill in any forms! I take my belongings and the case of "swag" that Paul and Jenny have bought me over from the UK to my room and unpack. It's a good job that I've bought a large bag with me to take everything back to Billie's! The ever thoughtful Jenny has included some extra presents - body shop pink grapefruit body butter and emergency chocolates from non other than Hotel Chocolat, which I will try and keep as a treat for my birthday! The Hotel Assaha is famous locally for it's Lebanese Restaurant, and they had program of entertainment planned so they suggested that we didn't come down too late for dinner.
We had a relaxing drink together before going down for dinner. During which time we kept a watchful eye on the restaurant below, to ensure we managed to get a table! The food was excellent and as we were eating the restaurant filled up to full capacity and the entertainment began. There was music and Sudanese dancing. I had been pre-warned that New Year is not such a big deal here in Sudan, so was not surprised at the lack of countdown or cheering!
However there was a nice atmosphere, the music was good and we had sparklers!The biggest advantage was that you could send texts around midnight without any problem! In fact Karen rang me on the stroke of midnight, bless her, if she was hoping to hear a rowdy countdown and raucous celebrations, she would have been surely disappointed! At least we were able to have a decent conversation! Things quietened down further around 1am so we headed up to Paul and Jenny's room to stay up for New Year UK.
In the morning I treated myself to a bath, my first in over 4 months! Then I sat around in the fluffy bathrobe for a bit before getting ready to meet Jenny and Paul for breakfast. We decide to start the New Year with a walk and ventured out of the hotel to walk to the Blue Nile Sailing Club - another one of Khartoum's haunts that I have driven past many times but never been into. It turned out to be quite a long walk, so we are glad of a relaxing, well deserved Shay by the Nile, when we got there. We had hoped to find a boat trip to take us up to the confluence, but no such luck. Seemingly most of down town Khartoum was shut, it was a public holiday after all! The walk back seemed quicker, after which we treated ourselves to a drink at Ozone, where I bumped into a chap from the French Embassy whom I'd met in El Obeid - small world isn't it!
Later we went for dinner at Tanoor Inn (Paul and Jenny asked for my recommendation, it was good and I figured it'd be a while before I got the chance of another Indian!) Once again it did not disappoint! After the meal Mustafa dropped me back at Billie's apartment, where not only did I have the embarrassment of having the security guard insist on struggling up the stairs with my extremely heavy bag, I then had the shock of seeing a light under the door of the apartment! Luckily it was Mary and her parents back from Port Sudan and not burglars!
The next morning Mary kindly offered to come and help me get my bus ticket! Thank goodness! Her Arabic is excellent, so I could rest assured that I would be on the right bus, at the right time and the right day! Mustafa and Jenny came to pick us up and Mary explained in her brilliant Arabic where we needed to go. Once we got there he was a man on a mission, finding the same bus company that I'd travelled from El Obeid with and he and Mary sorted out my ticket, before we dropped Mary back home. Jenny and I met Paul for a spot of lunch at Ozone, where this time I bumped into Paul Fean! I find it so strange that I'm bumping into people I know all the time in Sudan, but back in Milton Keynes I can go all over the place without seeing a single familiar soul! After lunch we went back to Assaha where Paul and Jenny packed before going to the Airport. I have to admit I felt pretty emotional when we dropped them off - realising that they were going home to England which I wouldn't be doing for nearly six months yet!
When I got back to the apartment, Mary was busily cooking. We'd invited people round to spend my last night in Kharotum with us. Billie was back from Port Sudan too. My last night in Khartoum was spent eating all Mary's delicious cooking, chatting and smoking sheesha with Mary, Billie, Bob and Omar! A perfect end to a brilliant holiday!
Again I was up before Dawn Prayers the next morning - I'd booked an amjad to take me to the bus station at 6:30am for my epic journey back south! By the time I'd got on the bus I was looking forward to getting back to El Obeid, and it's slow pace of life! Kharotum is far too busy and expensive for me! I'd got barely any money left - Though it was worth every Sudanese pound to spend such a great time with fantastic friends old and new! I know I will always remember how I saw in 2012!
Later that day I went to the main campus of the University to meet Hassan as Mohammed had told him I had returned from Khartoum "bankrupt"! They were staging a celebration to mark the Independence of Sudan from Britain in 1956. A group of students sang a number of traditional Sudanese songs, to which there was much dancing and cheering from the crowd of Staff and Students that had assembled to watch the proceedings. As usual I had found myself in prime position in the front row. Amongst the singing, speeches and poetry there was a lively drama, which was very entertaining, despite not understanding the dialogue! The portrayal of an English Gentleman Soldier was hilarious, complete with the clipped upper class accent. Little did I know at the time that I was yet to enjoy this celebration a further two times - at Khawr Teggat on the Sunday and again at the Faculty of Education on the following Tuesday! Although each subsequent occasion had it's surprises - at Khawr Teggat, Hassan joined the students on stage and sang with them, which was great to see! And at the faculty of Education Mrs Helen was led up in front of the stage to dance in front of the crowd - to much cheering and clapping! If only they knew - in England several units of alcohol would had to have been consumed for me to make a public spectacle of myself like that! It was just lovely to share in the joy and celebration with my colleagues and students. One of whom gave me the best accolade "You are the best English/Sudanese dancer we have seen!"
On the Friday of my first week back in El Obeid, I went to a "circumcision celebration" for two adorable little boys - who's feet you can see in the picture! Like all family gatherings and celebrations, the ladies and men were separate for the occasion, and of course food was involved too! After a sumptuous breakfast, the boys were prepared for their celebration. Beautifully dressed in their jallabias, with their feet hennaed, they then had red ribbons tied round their heads, with a gold medallion at the front and sticks around the sides which gave them the appearance of crowns. Then an orange paste was applied to firstly their heads and then to everyone else's (including me!) The little boys obliged by punching the air in celebration to the delight of everyone there. There was lots of singing and trilling and at last - I have learned how to do it! So I can now trill with the best of them at all future celebrations! I just wish learning Arabic was that simple!
