"
Van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd worden" is a Dutch proverb which basically means that you are being send from one place to the other. Yesterday, it struck me that his particular proverb could have well been invented here in Sudan. An intended quick visit to the local take- away restaurant across the street always turns out to be more complicated than expected. First of all you need to get your order-receipt at the special order-receipt-counter. With your receipts you have to go to the different inside counters for 1) burgers 2) fish 3) samosa or 4) crispy chicken. If you want to have pizza, juice or ice-cream you have to go to one of the counters outside the building. And for your information, the self-service salad bar is found inside next to the order-receipt-counter. You can imagine that you have to plan your schedule for ordering well in advance, depending on the amount of people waiting for each counter. And take into account that you have to get a new receipt if you want or have to change your order at some point in the process. It maybe sounds like a frustrating process, but the opposite is true! Because of the amount of walking around you have to do, you really have the opportunity to meet and talk to people. They even ask you where you have been, if you haven't shown your face there for a day or two. A friendly way to arrange social control, I would say. Apparently this back-and-forth running has multiple purposes after all!
