From a week ago

Photos from last week's hash run/walk by the Nile- taken by my friend Malou. (I'm the chick behind the girl in the hat in that second pic. fyi)

a lovely surprise

I received this photo (expertly photo shopped) in an email last night. It seems a Malaysian student of mine took the photo last year at the pool party and just got around to fixin' it up and sending it. A little silly, a little sweet and only a tad bit creepy.

Limitations

Our mantra for the year has become "nothing exciting happens at home". This is meant to encourage us to get out and do things.
We were really buying it, too, until the rains came, making transportation difficult.
Our lives have been significantly shrinked by the rains and their aftermath.

You can find a poorly-written but mildly-interesting article about the flood devastation in the city HERE.

More water (getting it while we can)

A student of mine, made giddy by rain yesterday.

It rained for four hours that morning. The kids were crazy and water was everywhere! Friends say that was the longest daytime rain they had seen here in several years.

As you can tell, there is nothing in place to help with drainage. The water just creates rivers and lakes in fields and roads and everywhere until evaporated by the sun- which takes much longer than you would think despite the Sudanese sun and heat.

I've included a few more photos of the school day. I know that you all see rain often. Lucky you.
We are enjoying it while it lasts!

Adventures in Waterworld

After our hash runs, everyone hops in their cars and goes to someone's house for the after-'party'. We knew the house, and made our way there- though not uneventfully.

There were still rivers of water in many of the streets! We were in a friend's 4WD, and didn't have any problem, but our other friends weren't so lucky! Their poor little car (already with a fitting name- Rascal) got stuck- both before the party and again after. Both times we had to jump in and push the car a fair distance to dry land, comforted by the numerous other drivers doing the same thing we were- shoving and sloshing their rides to safety!

It was pretty surreal- the lights reflecting on the water, darkness falling... everyone laughing, frustrated, trying to help each other out. Definitely a bonding experience for the lot of us involved.

before getting stucklocal boys eager to help!

the final push. (I'm the muscle in bright blue.)

By the Nile

A water pump used to water the fields along the banks of the Nile.
(thank you, Hash run, for opportunities
to take pictures in random places)

The floods!

A few photos from campus, the morning after the crazy rains.
These 'lakes' were once garden and soccer fields. ha!

apropos

A friend recently passed this on-
written by Ewert S. Gorgan, the first Westerner to cross the Sudan in 1875.

"In the course of a chequered career, I have seen many unwholesome spots; but for God forsaken, dry-blown, fly-blown wilderness, consign me to the Upper Nile. A desolation of desolations, an infernal region, a howling waste of weed, mosquitoes, flies and fever, backed by a groaning waste of thorns and stones - waterless and waterlogged. Now that I have passed through it, I have no fear of the hereafter."

Its raining!

Ok, so that's not actually the subject of my writings- but its pretty exciting to hear the wind whipping against the windows and feel the cool, humid air sneaking in under doors.
Its the first rain we've seen since we've returned! (and the first one we've seen in Khartoum since last October!)

In other news, Ramadan started this past weekend. Today was the first day of school with the kids fasting. They were hungry and thirsty already at 7:30 am. And it only went downhill from there! Today was also the first day of the U14 girls basketball team 'practice'.
Considering their condition at 7:30 am, we took it easy. (See below photo) We watched a little bit of ball and made some team goals- all in the comforts of aircon!
And they think I work them hard!

the goings-on

A few notes on life here:

1. Our internet at our building is getting slower by the day. This is very depressing, as the school acts like there is nothing that they can do about it. (This may or may not be true.)

2. The excellent 'invite-only' happy hour at one of the embassies is now going to start charging a 20SDG cover to get in. I spent much of my time at the last FREE!! one convincing every embassy employee I knew (and met) just how classist of an idea this is. The poor teachers of the community bring a lot of life to that party! In the end, most agreed.
Though I still might have to start looking for sponsors for my occasional night out.
That's $9 just to get in!
Below is a lovely photo taken at the last *sigh* free happy hour.3. We are very much back in the swing of things. That means that most days, life really just isn't very exciting. We're working hard to change that!

HAWAH

Car excitement continues...
Yesterday we went and put air in our tires!
(see how excitement is defined here?)

There are shacks around town with a large air red air compressor out front. Apparently, you just pull up, and ask for 'hawah'. For about 40 cents they check all your tires and fill 'em up. They even have a gauge!

I tried to snap a picture as we pulled away, but the 6 gentlemen inside the shack were all still staring at us- the two lovely foreign girls with not-quite-long-enough skirts on. I think we made their day!

Vehicular Bliss

Our car is making us a little crazy. We've only been back to work for two weeks, and she hasn't started TWO times- after, of course, we had loaded all of our stuff and were the last car to leave our building.

She took a trip to "Mrs. Lee's garage" today, and we left $35 dollars lighter- with new spark plugs and a fuel injector. Is that a good deal? We've never owned a car before- what do we know!?

We took a drive to the vegetable market to celebrate.
Below is an advertisement for beer. Nonalcoholic, of course. They love that stuff here. Every time I see Bavaria or any of the other 15 brands of 'beer' I tend to double take. Sometimes I even check the can, hoping those amazing Germans have managed to sneak some into the shop.
Never.

Fall Vacation!

It most definitely works this way here- as soon as you arrive from you last holiday, you begin planning your next one!

We've only been in school three days, but are already brainstorming destinations and pricing tickets. Oddly enough, most people from school are not traveling this break due to visa issues or money. There's just a handful of us that aren't paying a mortgage or other insane bills that would keep us from enjoying this corner of the world.

We are definitely traveling- we just don't know where! Possibilities-
Lebanon, Rwanda, India... thoughts?

The true fun of teaching

Our introduction to students on the first day of school.
Yes, we spent two hours making it the day before. And no, none of us really had the time to spend. But we did. And we had a darn good time doing it!

Something worth reading...

Blogger is still not working right...
But hopefully you can all access this website.
It's an interesting conversation if you haven't much discussed Muslim women choosing to cover their hair. Of course, here in Sudan, most women cover their hair either with hijab, niqab or toab. As non-Muslims and Westerners, we aren't expected to, and thus rarely do.


http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/08/12/generation.islam.hijab/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

(this should be a link. but with blogger acting messy, i can't make that happen. copy and paste!)

Cooling off

Em brought these fabulous 'make your own popsicle' contraptions to Sudan. But we aren't the only ones excited about them! It seems Toab, who doesn't like juice, LOVES a good popsicle. And who can blame him?

Hotties

Well, thanks to Emily for snapping this fabulous shot. Look at me and my team performing our cheer!
Too bad you can't tell by looking at the picture that our team name was the HOTTIES. That was the best part.

First Day of School, without photos

I am all set to post a few silly pictures from our first day of school, but Blogger isn't working so well. I'll try again tomorrow.

But know that the school year has officially kicked off! The middle school sweet things were delighted to spend their first afternoon in groups making videos! (Yes. The teachers made one too. Waiting to get my hands on it to post. It's a real treat!)

Video-making and a school-wide field day made for a SUPER long day. Ay! And we have to go back tomorrow!

Photos, soon. I promise!

Sufis- LIVE!

I just wish it would make me TIRED...

You know what's great for 4 am jet-lag?
Wii Fit!

The Sufis in Omdurman

Last night we went to see the Sufis in Omdurman. They are often called "whirling dervishes". though they are very different from those that whirl in other corners of the world. Yes, they twirl a little bit- but it is very informal, more a large circle with singing, drumming and the dancing.

A friend compared the experience to a Pentacostal Christian service.
Amazingly enough, it is also the one place in Sudan where people welcome photography! I had one father come up to me and introduce me to his baby- and then ask me to take a picture of her to take to show Obama! (Obama, if you're reading this- send me a sign!)

Betty, Duncan and the like

The goods!

We were very excited to pack more food this year, with the following reasoning:

Vegetables and locally produced foods are cheap, however, those little treats that remind us of home and make cooking easier and faster tend to be really expensive. So, we tried to bring more little treats and spices and delicious quick meals with us. Hopefully, it will allow us to cook more diverse foods. And to spend less money on fancy, offensively priced groceries here.

Our kitchen is beautifully organized! The only problem is that at this point, its so amazing to see all these treats in rows that we don't want to start eating any of it! (We'll get over that soon enough- don't you worry!)

Just the two of us

It's 4:37 am. And I'm watching Sweet Home Alabama on Dubai One.
Just me and Reese Witherspoon, spending these early morning hours together.
Fascinating life, isn't it?

Aaaaaand we're back!

We have arrived- trauma-free, with all of our 7 bags and bins!
This is all a very, very bizarre feeling- a crazy combination of relief to be home and disbelief that a place this insane could ever feel like home.

The school had arranged transportation, so we arrived to our apartment without hassle. Thinking ahead, we had made arrangements for our maid to come in before we arrived and sweep out and dust up the 2 and a half months of dust that had settled over all of our things.

And, we were 'home'. It hardly looked like ours, as we had packed up all of our decorations and everything. (See the candle to the left? He was tucked away in a drawer for the summer. Clearly on its side!) So, we aren't just unpacking our suitcases, but also every drawer in the house- some very methodically packed, others slammed full with papers, towels and whatever else was left at the last minute!

We picked up our car and ran some errands today, our only free day before going to work tomorrow! So, so, so thankful we have a car!

We now have groceries, leftover pizza in the fridge, and our cat- its as homey as ever!