A taste of the river Nile

Living next to a river gives an extra dimension to life here in Sudan; the water determines the daily schedule of the households and provides for the necessary facilities (like cooking, washing clothes, bathing and feeding the cattle). Last night we went for a walk along the banks of the Nile here in Kosti and we clearly felt and saw the importance of this particular river to the local communities around. While we walked around admiring the bird life we saw the local people going through their daily routine. One man was standing near the water, busy with washing both his clothes and himself. A bit further down the 'path', a young man was seated under a tree, watching the river and wooden boats passing by, while listening to some music. A couple of goats were grazing the green grass and being looked after by two boys. Their grandpa was keeping an eye on them from a distance, while seated in the grass on the riverbanks. Out of one of the simple huts came a man carrying a bucket full of self-made juice and he insisted us on tasting it before continuing our walk. We simply couldn't refuse this and (though a bit hesitant) we both took a sip or two. We thanked him and he waved us good bye with a big smile. Although we really appreciated his gesture and kindness we both somehow prefer to look at the Nile rather than to taste it..

A goat's signature

Goats enjoying the grass in Kosti

During the last couple of days, a lot of work has been done in de garden area of the new office. One particular challenging piece of work was the establishment of a concrete floor. After three days of efforts, the result looked really nice and everyone was very excited about it. But,...here in Sudan, there is always this unexpected 'surprise factor' that you have to take into account. When Frank and I came downstairs in the evening to get a bit of fresh air and of course to look at the wonderful new floor, we saw the night guard on his knees bending over the concrete floor. When we looked closer we saw that he was putting some cement in the plentiful (!) small holes in the still wet floor. "What happened?", we asked him. "Some goats came in", he answered while lifting his shoulders and trying to recover the floor injuries. If someone would have asked me beforehand what could go 'wrong' with the concrete floor, I think I would have never taken this goat scenario into account. Let's just assume that they wanted to leave their signature of this special floor of fame. And they surely did!

Making deals

Going to the market is a very common daily activity for most people here in Kosti. The market is relatively small (compared to the souqs in Khartoum) and in a way also systematically organized. You can buy your fruit at the fruit stalls, your vegetables at a vegetable stall, your clothes at the clothes market and your household articles in another market department. What makes it extra interesting is the fact that there are no fixed prices, so you can imagine it is all about making the right deal together. While I was strolling over the market with one of Frank's colleagues (who-by the way- is a star in bargaining!) I tried to explain how 'our' supermarkets and shopping malls are organized. I told her that almost everything is available in one big shop and all products have fixed prices. After I had finished my explanation, without even mentioning the phenomenon of internet shopping, she shook her head and smiled. "But what is the fun of shopping when everything is made so easy?". I guess she has a point..

Togetherness in the village

Last night we were invited in one of the village communities where our organization offers support with building schools and providing educational materials and training. The community members insisted to do something in return, so they prepared a special Ramadan meal for our team members. From his previous experiences Frank already knew how welcoming the people in the community were. But what we experienced last night went beyond all expectations! Frank and his male colleagues were the honoured guests during the special meal outside on the colourful mats on the ground. The approximately 50 women of the community were seated in front of one of the small houses and obviously couldn't wait to finally meet 'Mister Frank's wife'. The moment I stepped on the compound they really made me feel at home and all of them gave me a big Sudanese hug to welcome me in their village. I was offered traditional food and juices before they asked me all kinds of questions about my experiences and ideas of Sudan. At some point the women even dressed me in one of their traditional clothes (which of course needed to be shown to Frank in front of a very excited audience!). At the end of the evening the men and women sat together to close the special celebration by thanking everyone for his/her contribution. We were very happy with the guidance of some of the men, women and children on our muddy way back to the car in complete darkness. Because of the rains, the village area was not accessible by car, so it was parked further ahead. Once back in the vehicle we all agreed that the people in this community truly know how to create a feeling of togetherness!

Aging accidents

At some point, while driving from Khartoum to Kosti, I saw a bus lying on its side in de sand next to the road. I was a bit shocked to see such obvious results of a traffic accident and I asked our driver what had happened. He said that the bus had hit another car, which I saw lying on its side a bit further alongside the road. “Some of the people who died in that accident”, he continued, “were buried straight away”. He pointed at a couple of small sandy hills close to the bus. A bit overwhelmed by the feeling that this deadly accident had probably recently happened on the same road we were driving on, I asked our driver when the accident took place exactly. His answer was short and rather unexpected:  “Two years ago”.

House birds

Our new house in Kosti provides accommodation to a few special guests; two bird couples have decided to build their nest in a hole in the ceiling of our living room. After having worked hard to establish their new homes, they have now finally become the happy parents of a handful of baby birds. But the quiet times are over, both for the parents and for us; the little ones are very good in making clear that they are longing for nice juicy worms or insects.  Don’t think this is only the case during office-hours; sometimes they are even begging for a tasty snack in the middle of the night! Although it gives some inconveniences (our living room is naturally also used as their toilet space) our special Sudanese guests are more than welcome to stay with us for some time.

Washing colours

The two cleaning ladies in the Kosti office can really keep me busy; they provide me with my daily amount of Arabic teaching and they love to chat, sing and dance with me. This morning I asked one of them to show me how the washing machine works, because it looked a bit complicated with the signs and different buttons (and I have learned that a lot of local devices here have their own specific ‘guidelines’). She was very happy to show me how to operate this washing machine, and besides that she was very eager to show me how she always organizes the clothes to be washed. To make life easier, I had already divided the light colours from the dark colours, so I thought it would be a piece of cake to first wash all the light clothes and after that the dark ones. But, to my great amazement, my new ‘washing teacher’ had a whole different method. Instead of looking at the colours, she said it is important to put all the similar kind of clothes together (so all trousers together; all t-shirts together; all skirts together etc..). It didn’t seem to matter whether they were bright pink, white, black or blue.  “Same!” she said while pointing at the different colourful trousers disappearing in the machine that slowly filled with the muddy water coming straight from the river Nile. I have to say, I have never been so curious to see the results of a washing activity. ;)

After-dinner-dance

What do you mostly do after you have eaten a delicious dinner? Well, to be quite honest, I often just feel like staying passive while my stomach does the hard work. The local team members here have a completely different idea about that, I found out last night! We had all come together to share the Ramadan evening meal; everybody had brought some traditional dishes to eat and home-made juices to drink. Soon after we all had finished eating, one of the team members stood up and walked out the room. Not long after that he came back with an empty jerry can. You might not have noticed before, but a jerry-can produces a lovely sound or should I say ‘beat’.  As soon as he started playing the first ‘beat’ on this jerry-can, the rest of the people joined in singing; from modern Sudanese to traditional Sudanese and back. “This definitely gives some new energy!” said one of the men while jumping from one leg to the other while flexibly moving his shoulders and clicking his fingers. “It also keeps the mosquitoes away” he added while he started moving his arms from side to side. Of course we were happily asked to join in and we did. Who could ever resist a refreshing Sudanese after-dinner-dance?!