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| The banks of the Nile in Khartoum |
"Nothing beats a nice, fresh cup of tea while sitting on the banks of the Nile", said one of our friends, while we enjoyed our cinnamon tea, overlooking the tranquil Nile water. The tea and coffee ladies with their simple stalls and colourful plastic chairs give the area a cosy feel, without it being really fancy. Just at the moment that we thought nothing could ever take away our relaxed feeling, we heard a funny noise. One man approached us, carrying some kind of machine that came across as a hover. It was quite big, so the man had to carry it over his shoulder in order to hold it. The funny noise clearly came from a small shiny, lightening thing that was attached to this machine. He shouted something in Arabic, which I couldn't understand. When we looked closer we saw that the machine that the man was holding were weighing scales. At first I was amazed, because I thought this man wanted to sell it
. But it turned out that this man actually wanted to lend it to people so they can weigh themselves on the spot.
"He says these scales are really special",said one of our friends,
"if you stand on them, and they think you are too heavy, it will make a funny noise!" We could hardly hide our smiles because of his unexpected offer. I wonder who would ever stand on these scales in front of all friends and family while relaxing on the banks of the river. And especially with that funny noise in case of overweight! ;) But thinking about the amounts of sugar that people here take in their tea and coffee, I guess it is not such a bad idea to make the people a bit more aware of their weight. We anyway drank our next tea sugar free!
