Dressing up

Children wearing traditional clothes

There is a saying in Dutch which states that clothes 'make' the man. In English one would say 'fine feathers make fine birds' which basically means the same. I don't know the exact translation in Arabic, but I am sure there must be a similar saying or wisdom, since the traditional clothes here look very nice! On various occasions people have shown their costumes proudly to me, while convincing me that I have to ask my husband to buy me Sudanese clothes from now on. Whether I feel like it or not, women love to 'dress me up' in their traditional Sudanese tops. Yesterday, one of the cleaning ladies from the office came upstairs and I noticed the suppressed smile on her face while greeting me. Her hands were behind her back and as soon as she stood in front of me she showed the mysterious item she had been hiding. "You wear this and then photo for Mister Frank!!" she said while excitedly pointing at the Sudanese dress she was holding. I instantly had to stop what I was doing and surrender to the mannequin activities that followed. The other cleaning lady had also arrived and happily joined in. Only after they had agreed on the way the material had to be put around my shoulder, the photo shoot could begin. Since one of them clearly had some difficulties to aim the camera in the right direction, more shoots were taken from the furniture and floor of our house. But eventually the photo was taken and proudly shown to Frank as soon as he came upstairs. It was indeed a nice dressing-up intermezzo, to probably be continued: "After the weekend, I bring other colour to try for you!"

All for one and one for all

Everyone who would come and visit Kosti, would see straight away that the society here is far from individualised. There is a very strong feeling of connectedness when it comes to families, roots and communities. Especially the members within a family (-and mind you, I mean the extended family!-) have an important say in decision making. I have noticed that also the concept of 'visiting a friend' is something rather different here; his or her whole family will be happy to receive you and join in the conversations and jokes! Among the staff here in the office, I have observed that this feeling of belongingness goes a step further than only family level. Whenever someone from the team is ill, the others try to organize a home-visit with the whole group. One of them admitted that maybe the large amount of people is not always the type of medicine that the patient is looking for when he is seriously ill, but apparently it is a ritual that can't be broken. That is also the case when a baby is born; all the women from the team go there together to offer milk, sweets, money and clothes. It sometimes seems complicated to organize a group visit, because everyone has a different schedule and responsibilities at home. While discussing when to visit one of the colleague's wife (who has recently given birth) it seemed almost impossible to find a day when we would all be available. "Maybe we can go in different groups or shifts?" I suggested with a hint of my, perhaps Dutch, pragmatic approach. It became quiet all of a sudden and they looked at me like I had said something unbelievable. "Here in Sudan, that would be really be not respectful." one of the women assured me with a comforting touch on my shoulder. "Even if it takes some time to organise it", she continued, "it is important to go there together!". It is surely all for one, and one for all!

With milk, please!

For many people, the first thing they're longing for in the morning, is a nice cup of coffee. One of the male students who lives in the neighbouring student's hostel obviously has a similar habit. Yesterday morning we saw him walking outside, enjoying both the tranquil early-morning sunrise and...a nice cup of coffee. He looked around contently, breathing in some fresh air and holding on to his coffee like a dear friend. Since most animals here in Kosti walk around freely, some curious goats came closer while continuing eating the grass. Suddenly, the young man  seemed to have an inspiring moment! My coffee would taste even better with a little bit of fresh milk!, we heard him think. Without hesitating, he knelt down next to the goat, holding his cup right under the udder. Within a few seconds he had turned his black coffee into a rich creamy delicacy. He seemed to thank the goat kindly and continued his morning ritual like nothing ever happened, leaving us watching though the window  with a smile on our face.

Bookshop

"Where can we buy him a nice present?" I asked, when a few colleagues were talking about the upcoming birthday of one of the staff members. "In the Kosti bookshop!" answered one of the enthusiastic young women, with whom I straight away formed the buying-a-birthday-present-action-team. After work we proceeded to the bookshop in Kosti. I was quite curious about the shop and the books they would sell. The books would probably all be written in Arabic, but that would even make it more interesting!, I said to myself. While I wondered  about what kind of book would be suitable as best birthday present, we entered the shop. There were many interesting, colourful things to see, but after having 'scanned' the small shop thoroughly for three times, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't see a single book! To compensate the lack of books, there were pens, vases with glitters and plastic watches in abundance. After having accepted that this bookshop was not really a bookshop, I looked around for some (other) nice presents. We both decided that the business diary that was lying on the counter would be nice for him, but because of one specific reason (-it was a diary for the year 2008-) we had to find some alternatives. The men behind the counter we very friendly and really helped us in offering new ideas and inspiration. Eventually we chose to buy a pen, a leather bag and a small painting with a text from the Koran. After we had assisted the men behind the counter with wrapping the gifts in a bright red and purple paper with ribbons, we left the building. Just before writing this blog, we handed the gifts over to the birthday-man after having sung 'Happy birthday' out loud with the whole team. I am happy to tell you, he looked very pleased with his unexpected presents from the Kosti bookshop!

Open-air play

Drama and music performances here in Kosti don’t take place in fancy theatres or venues with spectacular lights and costumes. The artists here act with minimum resources; in the sand, under the open sky in the local communities. Besides the elderly women on plastic chairs, the audience is seated in the sand and generally very eager to see and hear everything. We were invited by one of the communities to visit them and watch a local drama group perform. Because of the language barrier, it was a matter of observing the body language of the players and the audience to understand the storyline. It was truly entertaining to see the faces of the children, men and women who seemed to change their facial expressions instantly. One of the plays was about street children and had an educational awareness-raising undertone, which clearly had the intended affect on the audience. The last play was a comedy about a man who claimed that someone had stolen his chicken. Especially the children really enjoyed the funny story and comic interaction of the players with the audience. After the short but powerful 45-minute performance, all people went back to their homes with a satisfied feeling and smiles on their faces. It obviously doesn’t take much to provide an entertaining evening here in Kosti!

Caught in the act

Frank and his Dutch colleague, who had come over from Khartoum for a few days, decided to enjoy the fresh air and the rich bird life after a long working day. By now, Frank can find his favourite place on the banks of the Nile with his eyes closed, so they jumped in the car and drove straight to the beloved green spot. Once they had arrived, the cameras and binoculars came straight out of the bag; there was just too much to see! While admiring the different species and enjoying the 'cool' evening breeze they walked a bit further down the path than usual. Without realizing where they were heading to exactly, they eagerly continued taking photos. At some point they noticed something coming towards them through the water. This was definitely not a bird! It was a green-uniformed man who made his appearance in a very natural but unusual way; wading through the water, grass and cane.  While Frank and his colleague looked slightly flabbergasted, still holding on to their cameras, the man climbed out of the water and stood in front of them with his dripping clothes. The conversation that followed can't really be called a conversation, since Frank doesn't speak Arabic and this man clearly didn't understand English. Frank decided to call his 'help-line' Mohamed; a very willing local colleague who is always there to offer some language assistance. But, in the meantime, this green uniformed man thought it was better if the two Dutch men came with him to a nearby post. So, eventually they ended up sitting on a small 'suing bank' outside of the nearby post, while Mohamed arrived and simply explained about the bird watching and photography hobby of the two foreigners. Some other local colleagues had arrived (-news travels fast in Kosti!) and they started smiling when they heard of the misunderstanding. It apparently is common sense here that it is forbidden to take photos of the nearby army base area near the banks of the river Nile. Once the man in the green uniform realized that these two men were innocent and had just been watching birds, he changed his mood. He even offered Frank a guided tour to other beautiful nature reserves in the White Nile area. This unexpected ‘caught in the act’ has provided some new opportunities after all!

Long time, no see!

It is always a pleasure to watch Sudanese people greeting each other. This special 'ritual' with the gestures and the words seems to be so deeply rooted that it looks like a natural automatism. As I stated before, Kosti is not a very large town and in many ways it feels like a small village where one of the main activities is to greet people on the street. Yesterday, I went to the small market in the centre of town (-where it all happens-) with a friend of mine. We first went to the fruit stall where, after having done the greeting ritual, I received the question where I had been all this time! The man behind the vegetables stall, which is situated right next to the fruit stall, intervened by telling me that they were worried that I had gone back to Holland. While they were expressing their worried and slightly blaming thoughts, I started counting the days I had not been to the market. Sometimes the Sudanese heat can give you a different perception of time, but I was sure that it had only been 5 days since I had last visited the market! A few minutes later I realized that 5 days in the Kosti- context is actually quite long. While my friend and I continued walking on the street, a car stopped in front of us. A man came from behind the wheel and started smiling, handshaking and greeting my friend very warmly. It felt like they hadn't seen each other for ages and accidentally bumped into each other. But, once again, the opposite was true: "That was my uncle. He lives in the same neighbourhood, but I hadn't seen him for a long time!"- Oh nice that you had the change to finally speak to him again. When was the last time you saw him?"- "Three full days ago!"