Yesterday I was invited to join a Sudanese friend of mine to visit the International Trade Fair in Khartoum. Before we would head off to the fair grounds we would 'quickly' stop by her house. As expected, the smell of freshly prepared food already reached me before I had even entered the house; there was a large plate of food waiting for us to be finished first! After this lovely meal my friend said she was going to wash herself and prepare for prayers.
"In the meantime you can join my mother and sister in the other room", she said.
"Do you like soap?". For a moment I thought I was about to get a washing treatment or scrub, but as soon as we entered the room and I saw her mother looking at the small box which had been placed in the corner of the room, I knew she meant soap programmes on TV! I sat down on one of the local beds in the room where her friendly mum and sister had also situated themselves comfortably, and watched the soap with them. Although I couldn't understand a word, I noticed instantly that the themes of the programme where more or less universal. Likewise the reactions of the viewers; sometimes my friend's mum would lift her hand or make gestures to show that she agreed or disagreed with what happened in the soap world on TV. At some point she put her fingers to her mouth and shook her head at the same time, as explaining that one of the actresses was wearing far too much red lipstick, according to her. It took some time before my friend and her two sisters, who also wanted to join us to the International Fair, were ready with their perfume rituals. And cousin Mohamed, who had the male task to guide us around and take care of us during our evening out, took even longer with choosing the best shirt to wear. But too be quite honest, I really enjoyed myself in the meantime with the soap in the small TV room; and even more with looking at the soap watchers!
