Studying on the volleyball court |
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Where to study?
Friday, November 30, 2012
Living with your grandmother
'If you save something, you have something' is one of the Dutch sayings that illustrates the thrifty, economical mindset some of the people in Holland (used to) have. Here in Kosti, whenever a special item or product is needed, many people seem to come to our door because they know that we tend to collect things instead of throwing them away. Especially Frank always seems to magically come up with all different handy, unexpected items from his bag, drawer or cabinet. Yesterday, Mohamed, one of the staff members came upstairs while we were having lunch and he asked if Frank perhaps had an air-valve for the football pump. Frank disappeared for a minute and came back with a perfectly fitted valve for the hand pump. Mohamed started smiling and said: "You always have everything!" while happily connecting the pump to the ball. "In Sudan we have a special statement for people who tend to save things very well in their houses", he continued. We had become curious what this could be so we asked him what it was."Frank, in Sudan we believe that people like you live with their grandmothers; they must have taught you how to save so well!"
Thursday, November 29, 2012
No water, no trees
Fetching water with donkey carts |
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Luxury salad
As I explained in my earlier blog messages, the options to go out for dinner in a restaurant in our 'home town' Kosti are very limited. So you can imagine our eagerness for a nice night out during our weekend in Khartoum. We were lucky to be in town for the European Film Festival and we gathered some of Franks colleagues to join us to see the Dutch film 'Kauwboy'. After this really impressive and moving film we proceeded to one of the restaurants that was supposed to be very good and tasty. The menu did look impressive; both meat and vegetarian options were plentiful. My eye fell on the 'luxury salad' which was even printed in capital letters with an added 'recommendation!' sign. Me and one of the colleagues decided to share one of these highly recommended luxury salads, since the menu stated that it would be a combination of 5 different salads. Frank ordered a chicken dish, but we somehow were so focused and looking forward to this luxury salad, that this chicken dish sounded so 'basic' and dull. Not long after we had ordered, the friendly waiter came back with a plate of some (-as we thought-) appetizers and sauces. We dipped our bread into the sauces, but we very careful not to eat to much in order to keep space for our luxury salad. Frank, in the meanwhile, had been served his chicken meal which really smelled delicious! While we were patiently waiting for our luxury salad to come I stared at the plate of sauces in front of us and suddenly realized something; maybe our highly recommended luxury salad was already standing in front of us? To our great surprise the friendly waiter confirmed this, when we asked him about our desired luxury salad. We looked at each other and started smiling. Somehow we both really had a different image of our selected special dish! Frank couldn't hide his amusement, really enjoying his lovely chicken dish. We learnt our lesson: always ask for some clarification of a luxury menu beforehand! ;)
Monday, November 26, 2012
Graduation celebrations
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Living means sharing
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