The Beels in The Sudan: A Glimpse of Village Life

A painted gate is the only adornment form the outside of the houses

Rami one of the co-ordinators at SVP invited the new arrivals to stay in his village and visit the pyramids at Meroe (pronounced merrow-ay). Naturally we were very excited about this and said “YES PLEASE!” and so we set off in a minibus for the 3 hour journey north of Khartoum to the town of Shendi which is the main town near to Rami’s village. Rami had ordered in advance for a fish to be set aside for us for lunch. It was a huge fish and it was prepared and freshly cooked for us at a little café and was absolutely delicious! We washed it down with a pint of some kind of date juice drink which had a distinct undertone of sherry and we were informed that if this was left for 3 days mmmmmmm. I guess this would be pretty potent by then!

It was very hot by then and so we had the choice to go and see the pyramids now or go to his village and to rest for a while. We opted for the rest as we were suffering enough with the heat and the last thing we wanted was to be fried in the open air, pyramids or no pyramids.

Another 40 minute drive and we arrived at the village (whose name escapes me) and Rami shook hands and hugged every person we saw! The thing with these villages is that they look like they have emerged from the earth itself. The houses are made from the same material as the earth and are not painted on the outside. In fact the only adornment is a painted gate to the compound.

We first visited Rami’s Grandfather of whom we had heard stories about and was a bit in awe of him. He was certainly feared by Rami. When he was a boy, he had arranged to meet his Grandfather at a certain place to go to the market with him, but he got distracted and forgot about him and went another route and stayed all day at the market. When he came back, he found his Grandfather still waiting for him in the same place, for the past 10 hours. He asked him why he didn’t make his way on his own and the Grandfather said that he had promised to meet him and therefore he would wait until he met his promise. Rami said that this taught him never to break a promise. Another story was when his Grandfather caught a thief and instead of reporting him to the police he put a padlock though the thief’s nose. The thief thought he had got off lightly and went off but came back a week later snivelling and asked for the key.

We were all welcomed into the Grandfather’s house, a single story mud-clad building with a flat roof. What a surprise when we went in! Ceiling fans, TV and very comfortable and also very spacious! Very deceptive from the outside! We just stayed long enough for him to pay his respects and then went onto his Aunt’s place. When we arrived, we drove through the gate and were met by a maze of buildings and courtyards. The compound is divided into a women’s area and a men’s area but luckily for us we were given a room of our own as we are a couple. The house was well equipped, with TV, ceiling fans, cooker, fridge-freezer and another freezer for the water.

An outside wall within the compound

Another Courtyard

Inside view of a bedroom with a very droopy Martin suffering with the heat

One of the outside courtyards. At night the TV is brought out and everyone lays in the open air on the beds

Martin and Rebecca resting

Kitchen with all mod cons

Nice little storage jars

The village is on the banks of the Nile and is quite spread out. There is virtually no noise - something which was particularly noticeable as the city of Khartoum is incredibly noisy! The village is built up using local materials and this gives the impression that it has just emerged form the earth. The land is very flat and sandy and it has a look of a beach full of sandcastles when the children have gone home.

The rest of the village consists of similar houses.

Here are some pictures.