Wrestling fans

It's no news that wrestling has been a popular traditional sport in many parts of Sudan. In Omdurman near Khartoum for example, a weekly open-air wrestling competition is greatly visited by locals. Over the past few months we have found out that the passion for wrestling here in Sudan sometimes appears when you least expect it. One day, we were invited by one of the colleagues to visit her home, which meant her senior parents, sisters and brother. Typically Sudanese, we were welcomed very warmly and offered drinks and sweets before we even had the change to sit down. The TV was playing in the small room which was right next to the room where we were seated. At some point the 'American Wrestling TV Show' was being announced on the background, and, to be quite honest, we expected the senior parents to switch the TV off or at least change the channel. Somehow the fancy put-in-scene glittery American wrestling shows didn't seem to match the extremely modest and traditionally dressed residents of the house. But,..surprisingly, they all jumped up and couldn't wait to gather in front of the TV in order to get the best view. Especially the senior man and woman were extremely well informed in terms of the nicknames of the wrestlers (like 'big tarzan'), introduction themes and different moves and techniques. While Frank and I observed the competitive public seated in front of the small TV we realized that wrestling, in whatever form, is apparently more deeply rooted than we expected!

Sharing holiday stories

After we had come back from our holiday break in Zambia, the local staff back in Sudan were very eager to hear our stories and adventures. While we chatted away about our amazing canoe trails on the Lower Zambezi river, the faces of our 'listeners' slowly seemed to turn like stone. "You did what?" they said unbelievingly. "Peddling in a small canoe on a big African river full of hippo's, crocodiles and elephants?!" One of the younger colleagues asked if we had prayed before we departed, because she could not believe we survived this extremely dangerous trip. According to her it was a lot safer to stay in Sudan! Despite our attempts to explain that this was an organized tour with experienced guides there seemed to be an overall feeling of unbelief and scary scenario's. One of the other colleagues commented that he was very happy to see me with my heart in the right place: "I don't know where your heart went to when you were faced with the elephant, but I am happy it has found its way back!" I have to admit, I am also happy it did!

Try again next year!

Even in this part of Sudan, were the people are generally not as tall as in Holland, the shelves in the shops are very highly placed. So, it happened that today I was standing in the small shop close to our office in Khartoum and couldn’t reach the products on the top shelf. After some attempts of standing on the tips of my toes while stretching out my arms as far as I can, I gave up and had to admit that my height was not sufficient enough. After having asked the shop keeper to give me a hand, he willingly came my way, climbed on the first shelf and grabbed the toilet paper I wanted. After I had thanked him he smiled and said: “See you next year!”. I told him that I was planning to come and visit him sooner than that. He started laughing when he saw the probable question-mark on my face and explained that they use this typical Sudanese saying when people are too short. “Come back next year; you might have grown a bit taller by then!”.