Tuesday, October 16, 2012
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!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sharing holiday stories

Sunday, October 14, 2012
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!”.
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