How to celebrate your birthday
in Sudan? Out of the dozen options Frank chose to invite all his colleagues in
Khartoum for a nice and tasty Sudanese BBQ. The venue was a cosy open-air restaurant with
a lovely green garden with exotic plants and flowers. This beautiful place was
one of those ‘hidden treasures’ that even none of the local staff members knew
about, while it is literally just around the corner from the office. Everyone, including the children of the staff
members, really seemed to enjoy the spacious garden, the freshly made juices, grilled
meat and the salads. As a traditional closure of the party gathering , a few of
us moved to the special ‘coffee corner’ of the garden: a characteristic
umbrella-covered space with low leather ‘chairs’, bright red small tables and (last
but not least) our very own Ethiopian coffee lady! She showed us how this
famous typical coffee is being made, using the traditional colourful coffee pots
and charcoal. Frank and I never drink coffee, but the smile of the coffee lady,
the tempting smell of the spiced coffee and the fact that it after all was Frank’s birthday, made us taste it.
It turned out to be a delicious mile stone to celebrate the beginning of the new
life (after 40…). Happy birthday, Frank!
