Hands, hugs or kisses

The other day, one of the male colleagues had his final working day at the main office in Khartoum. After he'd packed everything he took his time to elaborately say goodbye to everyone. Instead of the formal 'handshake' which is used very commonly here, I noticed that now it was time for the 'big hugs', since he started hugging his other male colleagues as dear old friends. I am sure you have all had a greeting experience where you weren't really sure what the right cultural code was. Now it was my time; I took the chance and gave him a big hug too (which clearly seemed to be suitable). When someone asked me how people greet each other in my country, I said that there are different ways: handshakes, hugs and/or three kisses on the cheeks. This last option made the men burst into laughter. "Oh no", said one of them, "my wife would kill you!"

Where there is smoke...

Mosquito's are one of the aspects of living in Africa that I am not very fond of.  Although, so far, the mosquito's here in Khartoum haven't bothered me at all! This morning I found out why.. I was still half asleep when I heard a rather hard noise coming from the street. I very carefully peeped through my curtains (as a woman you should always be properly dressed, so I took that into account) and I noticed something interesting. A couple of overalls-wearing men walked around the street carrying some kind of equipment that created a lot of smoke. They sprayed the whole street, the gardens, the outside toilets and even the wholes in the pavement. They somehow reminded me of the Ghostbusters, in their suits and with their smoky machines. I think I don't want to know what kind of products they are using, but it surely works. Sorry mosquito's, you're busted!

Destiny

While feeding the skinny cat, that walks around on the office premises, I was talking to the security guards about the weather. "I hope rain will come soon", said one of them. "Inshallah", answered both of them, meaning 'if God wishes'. The driver came and said he was sorry that the Dutch football team lost yesterday. It's always good to see things from the positive side, so I convinced him that there is still a small change that they could go through to the next round. The driver smiled and replied: "Inshallah". I went upstairs to inform about my travel permit to Kosti. The person responsible looked at me and said it will probably be arranged before the weekend. We both nodded: "Inshallah".

Oranges and football

There is a thin line between fruit and football. At least, that seems to be the case here in Khartoum. Yesterday I walked along the side of the road and passed several fruit stalls and their salesmen. The oranges looked extremely juicy and, with the afternoon sun still shining brightly and happily, I decided to buy some of these nicely looking fruits to ease my thirst. The salesman put a couple of oranges in a plastic bag and asked me where I was from. I expected, the next step was to talk about the price of the oranges, but as soon as he heard which country I was from, he started smiling and naming all the Dutch football players he knew. “But best one is the man with little hair!” he said determinedly. He said he couldn’t recall his name, so I guessed it could be ‘Robben’. This apparently was the right guess because he started smiling. After I had paid, he put an extra orange in my bag and winked his eye: “I hope your orange team will win the Germans tomorrow!”

Ginger tea

It's good to spend your time wisely while you are waiting.. So while we were waiting for my registration, we were invited for a nice Sudanese cup of coffee outside with a few friendly locals. Since both of us are pure 'theeleuten' (as we say in Dutch), we asked if it would be possible to have tea instead of the traditional Sudenese glass of coffee. The men around started to smile, since it wasn't considered tea time yet. Besides that we asked if it would be possible to have ginger in our tea to give it a nice flavour. "Are you sure?"asked the man who'd invited us, "we only put ginger in our coffee and never in our tea!". We assured him that we knew what we were asking for. When we finally said that we didn't need any sugar in our tea, the men couldn't hide their smiles any longer: ginger tea without sugar? Those foreign people do have strange customs!

No brakes on Tuti Island

Tutti Island in the Nile

To celebrate the weekend, which is Friday and Saturday here in Sudan, we planned a visit to 'Tuti Island', a small island in the Nile, situated between de cities of Khartoum, Bahri and Ohmdurman. An acquaintance, who is also a driver, fortunately had some time to take us there in his 'hghias' (small bus). We had a nice time along the waterside; watching birds and a few young men in their kayaks on the Nile. Sometimes a boat would pass which made the men in the kayaks struggle with the waves (to great amusement of the locals sitting on the waterside!). After some time we decided to go back and we stepped back into the vehicle. We heard some interesting sounds and soon after, the driver said the brakes were not working properly. But he told us really not to worry; he would bring us home safely. He kept his word, he brought us home safely. Unfortunately he probably needed to use the rest of his weekend to repair the damage.

Welcome to Sudan!

"Welcome to Sudan! I hope it won't be too hot for you", said the friendly driver who picked us up from the airport in Khartoum. To be quite honest, the first step out of the air-conditioned KLM plane did feel like stepping into a well overheated sauna, but besides that the first impression was good. About five people had already wished us "Welcome to Sudan", before we even reached the car, so it would have been difficult not to feel welcome! We were planning to go to our apartment straight away but near the ice-cream shop, Mohamed, the driver, lowered his speed. He stopped the car and told us to wait for our welcome gift. A few minutes later he came back with two big cones of ice-cream: "Welcome to Sudan!"