Blogs from Sudan, Africa - page 14

Well, I must say that today has been great actually. I conducted one interview with a woman in a hospital ward in Southern Darfur province to get her story that other people were getting as well, and then we just headed back to Khartoum and got in around late evening here. I found a guy to get a digital camera from, but he was asking for more money than I have left for this trip, in cash nontheless, so I said screw that, I have plenty of film...it'll make for a nice binder full of pictures when I get back and actually have the time to put something like that together. Other than that, today was totally chill, and we've all just been hanging out ever since. I caught up on some sleep with an evening ... read more

Well, its probably around 9 pm for you east coast folks, but its around 6am for me here. I was extremely suprised this morning when I was blasted out of bed by the local mosque's minaret-mounted imam with a loudspeaker....I also heard the sounds of rain. It is raining, and it is raining very hard at that! For most that sounds quite trivial, and its not like the Sudan is totally arid (as it is partially within the Sahel region as oppossed to being totally Sahara-bound), but it is the first time it has rained since I have been here, and the pita-guy outside on the covered sidewalk of sorts said its the first time that its rained in a few months. It'll be nice for it to be a little bit cooler, but then it'll ... read more

Well, true to his word, Prof. Taha (Minister of the Interior) got me a lunch and long sitdown with the man himself, Omar al-Bashir, the President of the Sudan!! He is a very imposing man, its not that he is huge and physically intimidating, he just had this imposing air about him, but one that I suspect that all dictators (admitted or otherwise) probably have. He (like Prof. Taha) suprised me, and he was incredibly intelligent, expounding about how the world and UN has the wrong perception on what is going on in the Sudan. I would beg to differ from what I have seen already, but I was more than smart enough to not let my own thoughts be known. The funny thing was, we actually didnt talk about domestic and world affairs for all ... read more

Well, I stayed in bed for most of today and caugt up on some sleep. When I woke up around 2pm here, I went downstairs to the bar/restaurant and chilled with Nigel, Paulos, and Juan, who had all stayed in for the day, since I ussually go with them and conduct the interviews while Nigel handles all things camera related. Once we started watching the TV in there, I was really glad I did. One French and one Czech journalist were stopped, ambushed, and killed yesterday out in Darfur. We had to watch this on Al-Jazeera (International Arab TV station), so it a bit upsetting to say the least, b/c it almost seemed like they were subliminally glorifying those wretches who were beating those guys bodies. I actually met the Frenchman when I first got here ... read more

Well...its a little after 4am here, probably around 9pm for you east coast folks, or my special lady on the west coast of SA. I cant sleep, my side..and pretty much my whole body hurts, and the painkillers that they gave me at the hospital wore off a long time ago...so I am just kinda stuck. The reason for the title comes from the utter weirdness (severe and characteristic understatement) that seems to pervade here. Nikolai and Bronskpy (two of the Russians) went out to breakfast at a cafe today (well yesterday, technically). I was eating a breakfast pita and fresh fruit when Bronskpy and I both saw two Arab men dragging a black woman into an alleyway. Since I found out about this trip, I have been telling myself that I had to just do ... read more

Sudan!!! This is the most adventure country of all until now! We left Aswan in the south of Egypt in the 19th to go to Khartoun, capital of Sudan. Take a ferry and a bus. How hard this could be? The weekly ferry departure time was 4pm, but of course we had to get there at 9 in the morning. Nothing more obvious...hehehe. After fighting for keeping our seats during 7 hours our ferry departed. The ferry was great, every person brought with him 500 kilos of luggage. First the luggage whent to the head compartiments, then to the corridos, then to the windows, then to emergency exits, then to everybodys laps (We had three bags from someone unkonwn in our laps). The trip took us as little as 18 hours to get to Waldi Halfa ... read more

Well, today was an early morning being blasted out of bed to Muslim prayers on a loudspeaker from (I presume) the local Mosque. Needless to say, given my lack of sleep the night before...I was quite bitter. After a breakfast of crummy eggs and this bread akin to pita-bread, most of us set out for the West (the Darfur region therein). I got alot done during the day actually. I vox-recorded 14 interviews (w/ an interpreter of course, as I dont speak any Arabic, yet anyways..), and we got to film another 4 short ones right around the time that we left. We drove East after we ate dinner (rice and cooked fish, courtesy of Raymond {a freindly sec. guy from Kentucky}), and had planned on stopping in this town and staying in this one town ... read more

So...I finally managed to get Lars (a Dutch cameraman/resident tech expert who is with us) to get my laptop connected to the internet somehow, so I guess this whole thing can start. My planeride over to Sudan was so great, we flew out of DeGaulle in Paris, and meeting everybody was so awesome. There are Dutch cameramen (Lars, Ulrich, Mikael, and Lindersst), a British BBC guy named Nigel, a Greek named Danielo, 3 Russians who are pretty reclusive, 7 American Security Contractors who are with us, as well as another Brazilian Sec. guy named Paulos. Everybody seems really cool, especially Paulos and Nigel. On the long ride over, we all exchanged stories, pictures, etc...and I handed the pictures that I brought of Shirlina (my wonderful girlfriend)...and everyone said that she was beautiful, which is a sentiment ... read more

As the heat soared and soared I tried to imagine the cool of the Ethiopian mountains, only a week away. I’d started feeling a little rundown, blamed it on the heat and decided to leave Khartoum. I awoke the following morning at 5am after sleeping in what felt like a sauna. My Throat hurt and my head was blocked. I wasn’t up to the ride but had just enough time left on my visa to leave the following day. As the day progressed I realized I was developing a cold, I decided to ignore it and still planned to depart the following morning. I should be in good health. I was fit, eating well and off the booze - all would be ok tomorrow. Tomorrow came along and I was far worse. Just walking the 50 ... read more

So I sit on the street and drink a coffee. Its a few degrees over 40c and the water for the coffee is being boiled on a charcoal fire, so its probably about 100C where I am sitting. I sit on an up turned Nestle powered milk can, its a good stood. The coffee pot is an old can that's had a spout welded onto it. The coffee is good, its not too sweet and has been flavored with ginger and cardamom. It has a bite and clears my sleepy head. Frankincense burns in a small pot and the air smells sweet. The "Tea Lady" who makes my coffee is beautiful. She tall, black and elegant. In fact she one of the most elegant people I've ever seen. Her hands and feet and maybe more, are ... read more