Embassy Halloween Party

Oh, what a night!

I worked the jack-o-lantern outfit for another night, while Emily busted out the big guns.
Em was a 'fuul sudani', which is Arabic for peanut. In other words, she was a Sudanese fuul. ha!
Below is our buddy Chuck- in full Sudanese military costume. She won second place in the costume contest- second only to our friend David who came as a rickshaw. (See above) Em and David both had their costumes fall apart before the competition. David was smart enough to bring tape, so we just had to hold it together while he wrapped it all up again. Emily, on the other hand, hadn't anticipated repairs. I found her off in the grass, alone- SEWING the paper of her costume back together with grass! (See below) Double stitched!

Halloween One

This is home costume-creating at its finest-
I made my jack-o-lantern out of a long, flowy skirt of Emily's. Not bad, eh?

Night driving

Apparently the challenge of 'Night Driving in Khartoum' was getting too easy, as people are now trying their hardest to make it more difficult.
More and more, ALL cars in Khartoum have been keeping their brights on- all the time. This is just stupid, as it makes all those really bright people walking down the middle of the street, wearing black, in the dark, even harder to see. And the giant holes in the roads? Those are tougher to see too.
I think it's definitely a good thing that our car doesn't have a 'black box' that would record all the words that come out of our mouths on these all-too-frequent occasions. They are not meant to be repeated or remembered.

Safe Driving you all!

Oil filters and brake fluid

We love being car owners, even if we really have no idea what we're doing- this being our first car and all. Yesterday we took our car in for an oil change because, well, it seemed like time.
(The nice guys at the shop confirmed our decision.)

They really are nice there, and they let us stick our heads under the hood alongside them while they explain what's up in Arabic. I don't think we're learning much from the explanations, but certainly from sniffing around and watching them work.

This is probably something that I would never have time to do in the States. Ha- well, you all know we have time here! In fact, going to the mechanic was the excitement of yesterday! We are just trying to take advantage- learning a bit as we go.

a side view

The stage- with all the kids that participated in the Parade of Nations.

Yumm!

It's that time of year again- the International Potluck Dinner! Again, I helped organize the Parade of Nations- about 60 kids dressed up in their national dress and pranced through the stage, stopping to say a few words about their home country.
Pretty awesome night. It was also less stressful than last year. 1, because I had done it before. And 2, because we had the kids involved in fewer performances. The second half of the night we enjoyed a performance by a Sudanese group.

Again, the food was delicious. All the families brought different dishes, and it was spread out over 20 picnic tables, organized by continent. Excellent!

Old Hat

My girls beat KICS again- this time 25-12!
Now if only we can keep them from getting too confident...
(3-0-1 can really go to a 12 year old's head!)

Sudanese weekend

We have some new Sudanese friends, opening up all kinds of new and different activities to us! This weekend we hung out with them twice.

On Thursday night we went to a DJ party for charity. They are involved in starting a charity, helping orphans. For 30 sdg, we went up some rickety stairs and into a large hall with balloons and a dj. People danced, balloons were popped, groups of men took microphones and rapped songs- including one with the catchy lyrics "Sudan is the best... Sudan is the best." Entertaining, if not terribly exciting.

We caught up with them Friday night as well. We met them in front of a well-known hotel.... following them down the alley, and up some really sketchy stairs, and into what looked like someone's house. (Don't worry. We make smart decisions. ha ha.)

It wasn't someone's house at all, but an unmarked, underground Ethiopian restaurant. We walked between the old men watching soccer and the projected screen on the wall. There! Off in the side room- more friends of ours! It was really a restaurant! We spent the night sharing some sheesha, good conversation and traditional Ethiopian coffee. (It was practically the full on ceremony- including incense and popcorn!) It was a place we would never have found on our own- but definitely cool to go to with local friends!

About the weather...

So there is this new fancy gadget to the right of this post- weatherbug.
It has the potential to be really awesome.
Just one problem: it doesn't save the city setting, and is thus always set to NYC.
But don't be discouraged- its super easy to click on the little EDIT button and type Khartoum, Sudan. Or any city, really... should, for some unfathomable reason, you be interested in some other city's weather.

Lookin' FIERCE!

Another game today- my girls were scared, as they had heard that today's competition was THE team to beat. Yeah, maybe. Until today. Now WE'RE the team to beat, because we totally spanked those guys! Awesome! My girls were drivin', passin' and shootin' like I have NEVER seen them do before. Final score 20-15. We are now 2-0-1 in our league. Seeing how there are only four teams, we're at the top.
Above is an unofficial team photograph, taken before the game. As you can tell, we were R-E-A-D-Y.

Video worth watching

Click HERE for a not-so-amazingly-well-done-but-super-interesting video that discusses US-Sudan ties and also shows off Khartoum. Also interviews a friend of ours, Laura.

Parent-teacher conferences

These tend to be pretty fascinating because we have such a diverse student body.

Just one highlight-
a father told me that he thought his daughter was definitely smarter than he is because...(wait for it).... he made sure she ate lots of chicken brain and fish brain.

uhhh....

WAPI

WAPI is an initiative supported by the British Council, giving underground artists and talent a place to shine. Its proven successful in other parts of Africa, and they are now bringing it here.
Last night, we went to see what this "WAPI" is all about. And it seems its all about goodness! They had henna, a photo exhibit, art, an open mic, and other performers- break-dancing, singing... Awesome! We formed our own little dance party in the back with some Sudanese friends. Live music, dancing! Too good to be true!

Dance Sudani

We were invited to a Sudanese dance party on the Nile through a friend of a friend. We agreed to go, with no idea what we were getting ourselves into. They had told us to meet them at the dock at five. We arrived at 4:50. The large boat was waiting at the dock- empty. We followed the dirt stairs carved into the bank of the Nile. Our Sudani friend set up his sheesha as we relaxed on the cushions, waiting for more people to arrive.The boat eventually left at 6:50- a mere two hours after we were told it was going to leave. By then, there were probably 60 people on the boat- five of us foreigners. They started the music. Instantly the women had removed their scarves and robes. Short skirts and shoulders!

The music stopped. It seems the generator on the boat was busted. We cruised quietly for an hour, looking up at the starts and waiting for another boat to bring us another generator.

There was no alcohol. The vices of choice were dancing and music. It reminded us very much of a high school dance. Rap and pop songs, interspersed with the occasional slow song (Celine Dion). Just like Prom, everyone would pair up and dance closely.

They only had rented the boat for a few hours, so despite the delay of music, we were back at the dock by 10 pm. As we got close, they killed the music and everyone covered up. Amazing!

It was absolutely excellent to see the 'undercover' youth culture at work. It seems you can't stop people from dancing!

Muslims, where?

A new study shows that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world are Muslim. Fascinating!
Read the article HERE

Game Day

Yesterday my U14 girls had their first away game- at the 'fancy' school in town. They are known for their athletics (and facilities- air-conditioned gym!) My girls were scared.
But do you see that score board? "Guests". That's us. And that's the final score!

My girls

So I've been teaching a 'business and leadership' exploratory class. It is all of the 7th and 8th grade girls together, and because of that fact, has turned into a young ladies' support group disguised as a leadership class. They are going through this tough time where they are crazy and creative and smart and amazing- but quiet around the boys. And we're working on changing that.

Last week I had them create commercials for their businesses. They let me record them, on the condition that NO BOY at school (including teachers) would see them. They gave me permission to show my mom. ;) Here is the finest:

Thank God for generators

These are crazy times in the 'toum.
Yesterday, the entire city of Khartoum was without power-
for 8 hours!
You can read about the power outage HERE.
I was pretty happy to have our building generator... no break in the air-con for us! Yes, we are a bit spoiled.

Another goodbye

A friend is taking off this week, ending his 6 month tour of duty here in Khartoum. To celebrate, he hosted a bbq- drinks, pool, green grass and good food. What a way to go!
If I had that kind of event every weekend I would be a happy gal. Look at these smiles!

Killer Defense, ladies

First game of the season!
Last year, if you remember, my girls went 1-6, losing several games by a pretty hefty score.
NOT THIS YEAR! Last nights game ended after 3 overtimes, still tied 15-15! What a game!
By the end, the girls were hardly able to walk from one end of the court to another! The coaches made a command decision to call it a tie and send them all out of the sun. Let's not forget we play in 100*+ weather in the afternoon sunshine!

Good game, girls!
(I like the above photo because it was taken towards the end- 'hands on hips' was a stellar defensive move at that point.)

back to life here...

We made just a *few* purchases in India... a couple of which are shown in the photo above. With color coordination comes the feeling of it finally starting to feel like home! (Toab loves the new blanket almost as much as I do!)

Most Amazing Hotel Ever

We really couldn't help but have a photo shoot once we arrived to our final hotel and had a look at the room. Never, ever in my life have I stayed in anything even coming close to this one... I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. And besides, I'm still pretty speechless. Write it down, yo. Hotel Blue Bird. Mumbai.

lawn care

We saw this several times- people hunched over the ground, cutting grass with clippers, blade by blade. It gives new meaning to the term 'cheap labor'. It also looks pretty miserable. We got it good, ladies and gents...

Goa

Do we look sweaty in that last shot? We hiked up a mountain to an old Portuguese fort overlooking the coastline. It was hotter than warm. But worth it!

Oh, State Department

The headline, our first morning in India.
What can you do?

Elephanta caves

A few photos from inside the caves- a UNESCO heritage site. Pretty impressive carving, suspected to be created in the 7th or 8th century by the cult of Shiva.

Beaware of Monkeys

From Mumbai, we took a boat ride to Elephanta Island, where they have discovered amazing temples carved into the caves. More on that later.

When we started, we saw a sign saying "beaware of monkeys." We paid our entrance fee, bought a coke and started our hike. It was made enjoyable by people selling jewelry and scarves along the stone steps.

A large monkey landed on the rail, startling me. He then jumped in my path. Aggressive. Suddenly, the monkey jumped up and grabbed the coke out of my hand! He scurried away, climbing the nearest tree.

Em and I were both pretty shocked. As we took the next step to continue up the mountain, we heard it. Shhhhhhh. The monkey had OPENED the bottle of coke!!! We turned to see him tip it up and guzzle the bottle of soda. No way! We snapped a few pictures to prove it.
That is our soda. It was sealed when he took it. Unbelievable.

a small bit of Mumbai

Arriving in Mumbai, we spent a day there before continuing on to Goa. These are a few sights of the city- the large building behind the lights on the water is the Taj Hotel- the one that we all remember from the bombings last November. The palace is still not reopen, but construction is well-underway.

Bahrain layover

We just returned from a week in Mumbai and Goa- and what an awesome intro to India!
We had an absolutely fabulous time. More on that later.

Before showing you all what an amazing time we had in India- I would briefly like to touch on the joys of traveling through Bahrain. We were told it was a small airport, but I was completely delighted by what we found!

We enjoyed Caribou Coffee on the way there- and Chili's on the way back! (And what a delicious birthday breakfast it was!) While I have never been the type to enjoy home establishments while traveling abroad, however, living in Khartoum- a little treat really is nice.

Eid Mubarak!

Happy Eid!
While Sudan is celebrating Eid al Fitr, the end of Ramadan, we are sneaking off for a lovely week in India!

Don't look for any updates in the next week- I'll be on the beach in Goa!

Live from Bahri...