Our home town - Wad Medani

View from a Rakshar in Medani

We have been hanging around for what seems like forever and so we were very excited to be travelling to our final destination (not that final!)  The journey itself was fairly seamless and we arrived in Wad Medani after a 2 ½ hour air-conditioned coach ride and were picked up immediately and taken to our temporary accommodation by people from the Ministry of Education.

The accommodation is quite plush, with ceramic floor tiles, air conditioning in all rooms, double glazing and comfortable furniture.  We were told that we would be here for 2 or 3 days and we also guess that our permanent accommodation will not be as salubrious as this so we are making the most of it.   Take-away lunch is brought for us all and we sit around and chat for a while with the Ministry people for a while.  They leave and tell us that they will ring at 6 to make sure we have everything we need for our evening meal and that is that.

The apartment is on the 3^rd floor and some poor lad had carried our 6 bags up the stairs and so we asked Rami how much we should give as a tip and he said 3 or 4 pounds. We gave Rami 5 and asked him to give it to him on his way out but Rami couldn’t find him and so instead put the money on my phone.

At 6 this same boy turns up and asks us about food and so assuming he had been sent by the Ministry we gave him our order for food.  He spoke only very little English but he explained that his brother has a market stall and would we like some oranges or bananas?  So he went and bought us a kilo of each. We also took the opportunity of giving him the tip for carrying up the bags.  He came back again later, asking us whether we wanted some meat.  There followed a long conversation about meat and we said no we didn’t want any.  Then he came back with a frozen chicken and a couple of packs of meat.  We said no again.   He was hard to get rid of.  We were suspecting that he wasn’t from the Ministry at all but acting under his own initiative and we were feeling really put out by his persistence.  Echoes of Ethiopia.

The next day he was back again.  Banging on the door asking if we wanted food.  We told him no but he kept on.  Martin went down to buy something from the shops but the guy was behind him harassing him and so he came back up without buying anything.  The next day as we were walking out he stops us and tells us that the money we gave him wasn’t enough for carrying so many bags – it was “Little money”.  He asked us the same thing next time.

It got to the point that we stopped answering the door and it was only after persistent banging last night that we opened the door and he had brought us up a visitor who we had met the day before who didn’t have my number but knew where we lived.

She told us that he was Ethiopian.  Well that explained everything as this was our experience in Ethiopia and were beginning to think it was going to be a Sudanese approach as well.  What a relief.

Ethiopians are not liked here.  I don’t think it is for any particular reason other than the fact that they are immigrants.  During famine times, many Ethiopians crossed the border to The Sudan and have stayed and many go looking for work here as it certainly appears to be more prosperous that what we saw in Ethiopia.  From what I can see, all countries do this when they have groups of immigrants coming into their country, no different to us or the US in this respect.

We are Here!

Sunrise over Cairo

Our flight to Khartoum left at 4:30 in the morning which meant that we needed to be at the airport at around 1:30.  It was a 3 hour drive to Addis from Nazret and so it felt like we had been travelling all day.  We had an 8 hour layover at Cairo and looked into doing a quick tour to the Pyramids at Giza while we waiting.  However, we had a problem with both our debit cards and could not get any money out at Cairo airport and so were technically potless.  However, we had internet and the time passed quickly enough.  Luckily we had stocked up on custard cream variants (banana and strawberry) and with the disappointing airline food stave off any emergent hunger pains.

Coming into Land in Khartoum

We arrived at Khartoum at 18:30 and were met by Rami and taken by taxi to the SVP flat not too far from the airport.  It was still very hot and we had to carry up the bags to the third floor – no lifts – which was a killer.  We have been separated too which is a killer!  There are only 2 bedrooms and for convenience and modesty have been designated a boys and a girls room.  Since our marriage we have spent only 2 or 3 nights at most and hate it!  The “girls” as we are being gallantly called are myself and Rebecca who is 5 days younger than me and the “boys” are Martin and a young man called Raj.

We were invited straight away to a wedding which I badly wanted to accept but after a shower I realised that I was actually too exhausted to do anything else!

We spent the next day sorting out our stuff which meant repacking so that we could have to hand what we might need for our time in the flat.  We were in desperate need of money as we had no cash at all and Sudan does not use VISA.  I had to ring home and ask Neal to go to a Western Union office and wire us money! 

It is really, really hot.  So hot you don’t want to go out.  So hot you want to just keep getting in the shower and drying off under the ceiling fans.  The covering up is an issue.  I wrapped a scarf over my chest, shoulders and arms which is socially acceptable but means that I am trussed up and worried about falling apart when I walk!  My solution is to tuck various ends under my bra straps and this is doing the trick!

Last night I got up in the early hours of the morning and showered; then switched on the ceiling fan in the bedroom and lay there lovely and cool.  I have felt faint a couple of times with the combination of heat and exertion.  It shouldn’t take too long to acclimatise (I hope)

There is a lot more choice of food to eat here than when we were in Nazret.  There are several good café style restaurants that we have seen and have had some delicious food.  Barbequed chicken is a dish that is commonly seen on street corners and is delicious.  We haven’t eaten a bi g piece of meat and virtually no chicken for 2 months so it is a big thrill! 

The charity has to apply for travel visas for us and we also have to have an HIV test.  The we will all be shipped off to our respective posts.

We are in Wad Medani (3 hours bus ride), Raj is going to be based in Khartoum, teaching at University, and Rebecca is going to be based north of Khartoum in Ed Dammer (5 hours bus ride).  She will be very close to Meroe where there are pyramids. Apparently, there are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt and with virtually no tourists as well.  This is something that I am particularly looking forward to doing!

There are no land lines in Sudan and so everyone has to have a mobile phone and a dongle for the internet.  Later tonight, Rami is coming over and taking us to buy a dongle each and to get our phones unlocked.  I will let you know my new number!  My old mobile number is now defunct.  I know many people change their numbers regularly but this was my first number and I have had it since 1997 – 15 years!  Is that a record I wonder?!

Scary mask from the Ethnographic Museum in Khartoum

Another one

The stuff of Nightmares

Practicalities

East Africa here we come! Ethiopia and then The Sudan!

There’s a lot of planning and organising to do especially as we have to sort out plans for Ethiopia and wind-down from Georgia and then there’s also things to sort out in England.  We haven’t enough money that’s a bit of a nuisance!

A lot of research went into the flights and different combinations were investigated but as prices were going up we had to buy them quickly.  A quick moving around of our finances allowed us to buy our flights but it means that we do not have any English money to draw on while we are in Georgia.  So flights are booked, and we leave England on Wednesday 4^th July for Ethiopia, and then from Ethiopia to Sudan on Saturday 25^th August.  Unfortunately we do this via Cairo with a 7 hour layover but the direct flights had gone by the time we could rustle up the cash to book.

Naturally we don’t really have a clue what we are letting ourselves in for in the Sudan and so it is always difficult to prepare!  We have learnt from Georgia that we need as much TV series and films downloaded onto our laptops as possible.  Not forgetting good speakers.

Also we have now acclimatised to the cost of living in Georgia.  When we arrived last year, everything seemed so cheap but that was comparing it with English prices.  I am glad that when we arrived we made trips to Armenia and the Svaneti region of Georgia as I don’t think we could justify spending that sort of cash 10 months on! (What? 100lari?!!! - £27)  We no longer have any English reserves in our bank accounts to soften the blow and so we are trying to buy what we can in Georgia to save us paying English prices.

We have to get meningitis jabs and 12 month boosters for Hep A and B (Martin) and Hep B (me).  There is not a lot of difference in price between Georgia and the UK for meningitis but Hep B for me is £76 in UK and only £23 in Georgia.  Martin’s Hep A and B are free for him.  We also have to get a medical form signed which confirms our inoculations and general health.  This was going to cost £110 each!!!!! However, I wrote a pleading letter to the Practice manager and they will only charge us £75.  Still a lot of money for us but a good result!  We also have to pay for a police check (£25) and 3 months of health insurance (£75).  The charity will pay for health insurance after that.   We receive a stipend to live on in the Sudan, but I can’t remember how much!  It will be enough to cover our expenses so probably similar to what we get in Georgia and accommodation is provided.  We need to buy medication as well to take for at least the first month or so, but will buy these in Georgia as it will be much cheaper.  We need malaria meds, high blood pressure meds for me, painkillers, diarrhoea meds and maybe some anti-biotics.  I expect meds will also be cheap in Sudan.  I still have to check out the prices of insect repellent as from what I hear they are evil little sods that will penetrate denim!

We need to take a deet-impregnated mosquito net for our bed.  It is likely that we will have two single beds pushed together and so the pop-up double net will not be suitable.  So we are going for a king-size version that we have to hang from the ceiling. We will have to take extra fittings in case it is difficult to put up.

Sudan is a Muslim country and as a woman I have to be very conservative in my dress.  However as a foreigner I won’t be stoned if I am seen in public in trousers but intend to abide by the rules when teaching.  This means long skirts or trousers with long tops; no cleavage showing and long sleeves.  I have been advised that cotton is the fabric of choice because it is so hot and it would be unbearable wearing man-made fabric.  Black is the colour of choice for women’s clothes in Georgia but I have found an orange paisley loose top and a lime green top with fake sapphires over the chest!  I am delighted and my friend said ”It is very you”  so make of that what you will!  I also bought a long black skirt which is light-weight and so this is the basis of my Sudanese wardrobe.  I thought I would check out the Indian stalls in Stratford or Whitechapel  as I am sure I will find something suitable there.

We are seriously down-sizing the stuff we have in Georgia.  There is no point in taking home any winter clothes as we will not use them for at least a year maybe longer and so I will give them to the teachers here.  There is probably a suitcase full of winter clothes which is not surprising given that we have just spent 6 months in freezing snow!  But we also have a colour printer, kitchen and bedding stuff and modems to get rid of.  I have found buyers for the expensive stuff but hoping that they actually pay the money when it comes to it as the stuff isn’t really available until just before we leave.

We are also trying to sort out the teaching resources we need.  We want to buy the pupil books for the MacMillan English World to take with us as we have copied the DVDs onto our laptop and we are scanning in the pupil work books.  It makes sense as we are familiar with the books and they are a good resource, but they are aimed at primary level children and as we will be teaching secondary school level they will not in themselves be directly useful.  But we can use them in Ethiopia and in the future.  Chalk, colouring pencils and other stationary is also cheaper here than in the UK so we will be looking to buy some resources here to take with us.

And then what resources to leave in Georgia?  Originally we thought we would leave the printer and laminators with the schools but now we realise that they will not use them!  But I will make a pack up of images and word cards, worksheets and tests that I think they might use and do the same for our school back in the village.

There is a lot of preparation and only 3 weeks left to sort it out.  Problem is that I have just got over a three week cold / chest infection and now moved onto the number 2 health Georgian health issue – stomach upset which has left me with no energy at all.

Will really be glad to leave Georgia!