Sudan Life Moments

As I prepare to go back down south via a short stop-over in Zanzibar, please enjoy some photos representative of my awesome life in Khartoum, courtesy of my Kiwi friend and her Aussie husband for whom I am house and dog sitting this weekend--because their internet is actually working, unlike the internet at my house/office… Fair dinkum!

But is this really necessary, Australians? Seriously. A vegemite plate? Come on. Also, note: no photos of the dog because he is still hiding under the bed terrified of me, even when I use my best Kiwi accent to try to convince him to come out. Maybe my actual Kiwi friend will have more luck when she comes to visit this arvo. Another note for Australians: that word is marked as misspelled by every computer, phone, tablet, etc. in the universe, but that never stopped you so why should it stop me?

Nile fish! Did I already post a photo of this last time I did a lazy photo post? Probably. This fish is good, but best of all is the peanut butter chili sauce in the middle. I mostly just ate that whole plateful by myself.

Khartoum is kind of hot, but no worries--you get sprayed with water while enjoying outdoor dining at most fine establishments. It is refreshing. It might not be so great for your makeup, but I don't wear makeup much, so I can't really say for sure.

Closeup is the most exciting toothpaste brand ever. I've tried chocolate, choco-mint, herbal, orange,  and now Fire-Freeze! I also bought coffee flavored toothpaste for my sisters for Christmas once, but they rejected my gift. Fire-Freeze has been slightly disappointing. Advertisements say that it should warm and cool your mouth, but unless my teeth are really not sensitive to heat or cold (which is a good thing, right? Who needs dentists!), then it does nothing but taste like tangy mint. I don't recommend it, but it came with a mini free deodorant, and I can't resist tiny free things.

We have been having a lot of power outages recently so when my electricity went out, I didn't think anything of it. Then I went out the door and noticed that only my floor was missing power. I went up to Leif's floor, but he still had power. We realized that someone had forgotten to pay the electric bill for the floor that I am staying on, and that could not be fixed until the next day. So Leif, who has lived in Africa for more than 30 years and has a creative brain, decided to rig up a small electrical system for me. Using a string of extension cords connected to an outlet on his floor, we brought in a strip of plugs for a lamp and charging my phone. He said, "Let's make your AC work because you have it and you are in Khartoum, so you need to enjoy it while you can." He then whipped out some extra electrical wire and some pliers and wire cutters and rigged up a nice dangerous plug. Then he plugged it in and blew up the power strip. Undeterred, he tried again with my fan (pictured below) and broke it. But still-he is impressive and it's not his fault that they didn't work. It's probably because we have really flimsy power cord extensions here.

Anyway, Leif is my Swedish Captain Roy. He's so cool. European men with beards who travel the world--they are fun to hang out with (though, yes, I know that people from the UK don't like to consider themselves European. Don't worry about it--embrace your continent, UK. At least neither you nor Sweden jumped on the Euro bandwagon). We had a nighttime rooftop picnic of pizza, brownies, and coconut ice cream, and Leif told me about dodging bullets in Somalia, cars being swept away while fording rivers in Kenya, and that one time when he was on a road trip in the Northwestern US, and they drove up to Canada where "those cowboys are guarding the border." Thanks for your commitment to border safety, Canadian Cowboys!

My friend's Beja mother-in-law making traditional coffee in a jabane, or however you transliterate that. I don't love coffee, but I did love her, and the cups are tiny, so bottoms up!

They stuff some hairs from a date palm (or some kind of tree, but I think she said date palm) in the spout of the jabane to strain out the coffee grounds.

Entrepreneurs in Khartoum make the most of prime retail opportunities. Have you ever been sitting in traffic wishing you had a fishing pole and a new rug for your house? These guys knew that, and they have filled that market niche.

Sitting in traffic, I noticed this sign. But what I found most intriguing is the sticker with the word "trust" on it, which is pasted over….WHAT? I don't think that this is aplace..you can trust.. if you don't even know what was originally written on that sign.

I went to Starbox! See the photos on my FB page. If I liked coffee, I would totally have gotten the Mocha Frappudno. Though I end up drinking coffee a lot here, often by accident. At a coffee shop near my house called "Chocolate House," a friend and I ordered hot chocolate--it was on the menu in Arabic and Amharic (it's an Ethiopian run establishment). When I ordered, the waitress said, "You mean the cappuccino?" I said, "No. I want the hot chocolate. I don't want coffee." 

"So you want coffee instead?"

"No. I want chocolate. I don't like coffee. I don't want coffee. Please bring me the hot chocolate."

"OK, well cappuccino is what we call 'hot chocolate.' It's the same thing."

"Not technically. But your "cappuccino" is only chocolate? No coffee?"

"Our cappuccino is chocolate. It's not coffee. Unless you want coffee."

This conversation went a few more rounds, but ultimately, we convinced her that we wanted hot chocolate cappuccinos. She then brought us regular sugary coffee cappuccinos, which we drank anyway. Because--we paid for it. 

But at Starbox I had the Cookies and Cream Frappe, which was good. No coffee added.

Even in civilized Khartoum, sometimes one can be sick and need to lie around in bed all day. And honestly, I'd rather be sick in Khartoum than Mundri…and our internet was working that day so I had the following important conversation with my mother:

Look at my friends/colleagues' cute babies!

Malek wasn't smiley while trying to grab my phone, but when I put it away she pranced around grinning at everyone. Of course that way I couldn't get any photos of her...

Fares is a hilarious not-afraid-of-khawajas kid. He plays Angry Birds like a pro.

 I went to Souq Omdurman with Sally and Sahnon (parents of the above adorableness). Sahnon needed Sally to help him pick out acceptable cloth for his new Eid clothes. She did so with great depth of knowledge. I took photos of the men's side and the women's side of the cloth store. 

Clearly, women win everything. Our side is way better.

After shopping, we went to KFC! Finger-licking good, and check out the Sudanese version of the Colonel. He never looked better.

While in KFC, I noticed this young girl and her favorite toy. It is slightly disturbing to see a child carrying the decapitated head of a beloved doll with her into a fast food establishment, but truthfully, I think we would have been good friends had our childhoods coincided in time and place.

Now that I've started driving everywhere, autos are the bane of my existence. They zip in front of me and then putter along and speeds that make me downshift to second. I hate being in second. So when I see happy "no autos" signs, I'm totally OK with them. But of course, no one ever pays attention to signs. Just like giant trucks in America that are supposed to stay at 55mph while everyone else can go 65mph. Of course regular-sized cars are not expected to maintain such a paltry speed, but trucks should have to follow the rules! And autos should have to take alternative dirt roads or find a way to drive faster!

But don't do away with them all together because many of them are artistic masterpieces. Check out this one with the head of Minnie Mouse on a pike, bobbing along on top of the roof. It should be on display somewhere. 

This is my last auto photo. Check out the location of the windshield crack. Observe the placement of the bandage on the driver's head. What can we deduce from this photo?

I like coconut. I like almost everything about it. So I decided to make brownies with coconut oil that I found in a shop here. Yes, I bought the coconut oil in the beauty products section of the store, but it has nutrition facts on it too, so I assumed that it was edible. I made brownies. Yes, I ate them straight out of the pan with a fork--you have no right to judge me. But here is the point of this story: first, I noticed that the coconut oil smelt like a campfire. I don't think this is normal, but it was a bit concerning. But I thought, "Well, maybe it needs to be cooked." So I made the brownies. Then I ate them. I noticed that they now smelt like a chocolate campfire--not a horrible smell, but not one usually associated with brownies. I ate them anyway. The taste was not horrible, but after eating a few bites I noticed that my tongue felt a bit fuzzy and everything tasted like metal. But cocoa is expensive so I ate them all anyway. So--can coconut oil go bad? Is it a coincidence that a few days after the brownies I was having the above screenshotted iMessage conversation with my mom? So many mysteries...

 A few weeks ago I got a message from my mom: "Is it really 59 degrees over there now?"

My answer: "Of course not. It's 37 degrees."

We can have conversations in multiple measurement systems because I know she was in Farenheit and she knows I was in Celsius, but one thing we agree on is that Yahoo is a terrible place to get weather information. Not only did we not have 64F weather and thunderstorms throughout the city of Sudan the day I took this photo, but also--SUDAN IS NOT A CITY. The weather in Khartoum is not the same as Geneina or Kadugli or Port Sudan or El Obeid, and Yahoo--you are stupid.

But at least Yahoo doesn't discriminate because I also got this weather report last time I was in the city of the United States. Hope you enjoyed your 27F weather, Hawaii! Don't let the 'partly cloudy' keep you out of the water! Alaskans definitely won't.