Progress in Sudan!

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Well, progress of a sort! I've known for a while that I didn't want to go back to Ahfad so have been having discussions with all and sundry, left right and centre. I let SVP know that under no circumstances did I want to return to Ahfad (this was after they had told me that if I stayed at Ahfad I would not be regarded as an SVP volunteer). Anyway, to cut a very long, circuitous and possibly boring, story short, the outcome so far is: I went to El Nielen University today to discuss the possibility of teaching there. They were really happy to have me except: hell, there's alway a get-out clause - except that I'll be teaching 'formal' classes (from a syllabus that needs marking at the end) and, as I'm leaving in May I won't be available for the marking. They tried to get me to extend my time in Sudan up to October 2009 (not a @@@@ chance!!!@!!!). I told them (true) that I had other commitments and that once I made a commitment I honoured that commitment. So, there's a couple of other volunteers who are working at the same university who are apparently going to stay until October 2009 and, that if they would be willing to do the marking, then they would probably take me on. Anyway, they don't want to (don't blame them really) so, I relay this info back. I talk to the top SVP banana in Khartoum with the radical suggestion that they bring the 'exams'/marking forward to that I can do it (this was a suggestion from Areej, another of the SVP staff in Khartoum). He talks to the University, who agree to consider it, so I'm going back tomorrow morning to meet with them and see what the outcome is. Areej seems to think that they'll agree. I am after a university graduate with a post-grad teaching certificate, so I'm certainly more than qualified to do the work. I also figure that, if they didn't want me, they'd have let it drop straight away. So, fingers crossed. I'll update as soon as I get my paws on a computer again.

So, enough of that boring stuff, what else has been happening. I do believe that in my last blog I was going to attempt to get on a bus on my own. And so I did. Let me explain about the buses. OK. Firstly, they're not not buses, they're common-or-garden mini-vans. Secondly, there's about a million of them altogether in the Souq, and you have to wander up and down asking if they're going to whatever is the final destination. Bear in mind that they don't necessarily have any English and I sure as hell don't have much in the way of Arabic! Nonetheless, I tried. I was supposed to meet up with some of the other volunteers for a walk down the Nile but, firstly, this being the place it is, I didn't set of until a long time after they contacted me. Then I couldn't find the place where the buses leave from (direction isn't my strong point). Then the bus did not go right to where I'd asked. Anyway, by asking people, being directed this way and that, I finally found the place I wanted to be. By this point, the other volunteers had gone across the Nile by boat to Tuti Island, a local attraction. Not wanting to go to the island if I couldn't find them, I tried texting/ringng them, but no-one responded. So I though, well, what do I do now? I know, I'll get on the bus and go back. The place I'm at is called the Friendship Palace and I asked the guy on reception where I could get the bus to Omdurman. "It's a llong way away", he informs me. My face drops. "Why don't you get a taxi?" "Too expensive". Next minute, I'm whisked out the door, into a beautiful empty minivan, with four blokes, who take me to the bus station and point me in the direction of where I'll get the bus to Omdurman. All free. I could have hugged them. Anyway, I tracked down a bus that was going to the Omdurman Souk (I live right by the Souk) and, I'm informed I'm at the Souk when we get there, but I don't recognise the place. In response to me wearing my most puzzled frown (or maybe that was my terrified, I'm lost, anxious look) and young man points me in the direction of the Souk, suggests I get in a rickshaw (Tuk Tuk), gets in beside me (there's already a person on the other side, so I'm squashed in the middle like a sardine), we go what seems just yards, get out and, whilst I'm fumbling in my purse to pay, the young guy informs me that he has already paid. It was probably only pennies but, nevertheless, I thought that was really kind of him.

The following day Sabir came to the flat, gave us a lift to Khartoum, where SVP had hired a minivan to take us out and about. We went to the Nile, where I had a paddle. We went to visit some fortifications which were built at the time of Kitchener to repel the British. Finally, we went to visit a pottery, to watch the huge water jugs being made. A quite fun day.

And you already know what I've been doing today, so that's it for now. Till the next time.

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