Open-air play

Drama and music performances here in Kosti don’t take place in fancy theatres or venues with spectacular lights and costumes. The artists here act with minimum resources; in the sand, under the open sky in the local communities. Besides the elderly women on plastic chairs, the audience is seated in the sand and generally very eager to see and hear everything. We were invited by one of the communities to visit them and watch a local drama group perform. Because of the language barrier, it was a matter of observing the body language of the players and the audience to understand the storyline. It was truly entertaining to see the faces of the children, men and women who seemed to change their facial expressions instantly. One of the plays was about street children and had an educational awareness-raising undertone, which clearly had the intended affect on the audience. The last play was a comedy about a man who claimed that someone had stolen his chicken. Especially the children really enjoyed the funny story and comic interaction of the players with the audience. After the short but powerful 45-minute performance, all people went back to their homes with a satisfied feeling and smiles on their faces. It obviously doesn’t take much to provide an entertaining evening here in Kosti!

Caught in the act

Frank and his Dutch colleague, who had come over from Khartoum for a few days, decided to enjoy the fresh air and the rich bird life after a long working day. By now, Frank can find his favourite place on the banks of the Nile with his eyes closed, so they jumped in the car and drove straight to the beloved green spot. Once they had arrived, the cameras and binoculars came straight out of the bag; there was just too much to see! While admiring the different species and enjoying the 'cool' evening breeze they walked a bit further down the path than usual. Without realizing where they were heading to exactly, they eagerly continued taking photos. At some point they noticed something coming towards them through the water. This was definitely not a bird! It was a green-uniformed man who made his appearance in a very natural but unusual way; wading through the water, grass and cane.  While Frank and his colleague looked slightly flabbergasted, still holding on to their cameras, the man climbed out of the water and stood in front of them with his dripping clothes. The conversation that followed can't really be called a conversation, since Frank doesn't speak Arabic and this man clearly didn't understand English. Frank decided to call his 'help-line' Mohamed; a very willing local colleague who is always there to offer some language assistance. But, in the meantime, this green uniformed man thought it was better if the two Dutch men came with him to a nearby post. So, eventually they ended up sitting on a small 'suing bank' outside of the nearby post, while Mohamed arrived and simply explained about the bird watching and photography hobby of the two foreigners. Some other local colleagues had arrived (-news travels fast in Kosti!) and they started smiling when they heard of the misunderstanding. It apparently is common sense here that it is forbidden to take photos of the nearby army base area near the banks of the river Nile. Once the man in the green uniform realized that these two men were innocent and had just been watching birds, he changed his mood. He even offered Frank a guided tour to other beautiful nature reserves in the White Nile area. This unexpected ‘caught in the act’ has provided some new opportunities after all!

Long time, no see!

It is always a pleasure to watch Sudanese people greeting each other. This special 'ritual' with the gestures and the words seems to be so deeply rooted that it looks like a natural automatism. As I stated before, Kosti is not a very large town and in many ways it feels like a small village where one of the main activities is to greet people on the street. Yesterday, I went to the small market in the centre of town (-where it all happens-) with a friend of mine. We first went to the fruit stall where, after having done the greeting ritual, I received the question where I had been all this time! The man behind the vegetables stall, which is situated right next to the fruit stall, intervened by telling me that they were worried that I had gone back to Holland. While they were expressing their worried and slightly blaming thoughts, I started counting the days I had not been to the market. Sometimes the Sudanese heat can give you a different perception of time, but I was sure that it had only been 5 days since I had last visited the market! A few minutes later I realized that 5 days in the Kosti- context is actually quite long. While my friend and I continued walking on the street, a car stopped in front of us. A man came from behind the wheel and started smiling, handshaking and greeting my friend very warmly. It felt like they hadn't seen each other for ages and accidentally bumped into each other. But, once again, the opposite was true: "That was my uncle. He lives in the same neighbourhood, but I hadn't seen him for a long time!"- Oh nice that you had the change to finally speak to him again. When was the last time you saw him?"- "Three full days ago!"

Nomadic life

There are various nomadic tribes in Sudan. Their way of life exists of herding the cattle from one place to another, following the path where the natural resources take them. Many of these nomadic tribes face difficulties in the current situation of the country. (see: ‘Changing Sudan threatens nomadic tribe’). The other day, I spoke to a girl whose father descends from a nomadic tribe here in the White Nile District. He was born and raised as a nomad; with the cattle as the main focus in life. At some point, when he was growing up, he decided that he wanted to live in a ‘normal’ house instead of travelling around for the rest of his life. He took the big step, even if it meant acting clearly against the will of the tribe elders and his parents. This girl spoke very proudly of her father and assured me that it hasn’t been easy for him. Fortunately, in the end, his parents accepted his new step in life and his new home gradually became a base for travelling family members who were ill and needed some extra attention and rest. Although she was very happy and proud that her father had taken this big step (-which gave her the opportunity to go to University now-), the girl spoke very positively about the nomadic lifestyle. “Just imagine…such a nice, simple, natural life! Sleeping under the stars, fresh milk everyday and the only thing you have to think about is your cattle!” It surely is, in many ways, very different from the student life she is leading now; homework, exams, meeting friends, busy schedules and living on a campus. She said that she couldn’t wait to visit her family members again and stay with them for a few days. While she was picturing herself on the field watching over the cows and camels, we both concluded that the presence of nomadic blood should clearly not be underestimated.

A sprinkling suprise

Our garden project, which I wrote to you about in one of my earlier blog messages, is in full progress! The formerly dry open space in front of the office has turned into a lush fertile green area, with different kinds of flowers, plants and trees. This garden seems to be the daily topic of discussion, especially during the breaks. Last week I heard two of the female staff members asking each other about the ‘most beautiful flower in the garden’, while standing in the shade and observing the garden professionally. The guards here seem to have the weakest spot for the new garden. Sometimes I could see one of the guards cutting the grass so carefully, that it looked like he was giving them a special, fashionable hair-cut. And everyday someone would come up and show his concern about the growth of the flowers, plants and grass: “Mister Frank, more water for plants?” It was quite a challenge to make sure all the grass and plants would get an even amount of water at the end of the day. To make life a bit more easy, Frank ordered a small, simple garden sprinkler. This kind of equipment is really not common here in Kosti and you can imagine the faces of the guards when they saw Frank turning it on for the first time! When we came downstairs after some time, we saw one of the guards sitting on the side of the garden. With his feet up and a nice cup of tea in his hand he sat down in a comfortable chair. With a dreamy, content gaze in his eyes he kept staring at the new water sprinkler, like he was watching a touching film. “Really very, very beautiful, Mister Frank!”, he said with a pleased voice. It shows again that the little things in life can definitely make a big difference!