In Limbo

Fitara - This is delicious! pasta like bread stuff with mince, carrot and yoghurt

Many people who read my Georgia blog believed that I wasn’t enjoying my time there because all I did was complain and say how hard it was.  I didn’t see it like that at all.  It was really hard and grim (a well-worn phrase for Georgia of mine) but also a delight.  Maybe I focussed on what made for more entertaining reading and therefore presented a bit of a lop-sided view of our life there.  I fear that I am going to do the same for our time in the Sudan!  So I beg of you to make allowances for my tone and realise that it is probably a lot better than my blog implies!  Already, in my facebook messages I have said stuff like “On a scale of 0 to 10, when 10 is fab and 0 is really shit, today is 2.5”. My friends anxiously offer us jobs in England and offers of homes because they care for my state of mind.  All I can say that it is quite unpleasant for a number of reasons as it was in Georgia and Ethiopia until we settled into our routines.

Gadding about isn’t as easy as it looks.  We have been living out of a suitcase since June 15^th now which is a bit irritating in itself and in that time we have stayed in England for 2 ½ weeks, 2 weeks traveling around Ethiopia, then  4 weeks in one hotel, 2 weeks in another, 1 ½ weeks in 1 flat in Khartoum and now 1 ½ weeks in another flat in Khartoum.  Our gypsy feet need a rest and are in serious danger of getting bunions.  Next week however, will see us in our own little place with roses growing around the door and birds tweeting in our little garden.  I don’t think so!  But I am looking forward to our first Sudanese home in the 2^nd city of Sudan called Wad Medani.

I am getting excited about what we might need; a bucket (which colour shall I choose?  Will I need more than one? A new broom and what about saucepans?  What indeed as we have no clue as to the type of place we will be living in other than it will be an apartment that hopefully wont be too many flights up.  I have been letting my imagination wander.  It started with thinking how nice it wold be to have our portable hot tub on the balcony, then to well it would have t be a cold tub, with ice, and then to possibilities of building a small swimming pool the size of the balcony.  I went into a lot of detail on this one, how would we sort out drainage, temperature control (a whole freezer dedicated to creating large blocks of ice) and drainage (stuff a plastic bag into the balcony overflow).  Of course, being in a country where the only bits of flesh it is acceptable to show are lower arms, ankles and face would prove to be a bit of a problem, but the solution was found.  Strips of fabric wrapped round poles to make sun / privacy protection and yeah! Free to run around naked and not upset the neighbours!  I haven’t found a solution to the weight of the water which is likely to bring down the balcony, naked Jen and all.  I can dream eh?!

There are three things that I have found difficult so far apart from the being in limbo issue;

1) The heat

2) The no alcohol and

3) Covering up.

See later posts.