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Published: June 23rd 2006
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 what I came here to do and not get involved in any kind of futile gestures to try to solve problems that stem from the cultural mire around here, but I got so angry and fed up with just sitting around, or walking past while stuff like that was going on, so I ran accross the street (while Nikolai and Bronskpy promptly got up and ditched me and ran back to the hotel, as I found out). I grabbed this one arab guy by the back of his kaffiyeh and jerked his neck back, knocking him down and pulling him away from the black woman, who ran away because the other guy turned around. The other guy punched me in the chest, and I grabbed him and hiptossed him to the ground pretty hard, only to get kicked in the face by the first man who was back up. I got up and kicked him where it counted, and just kept punching him in his face and slamming his head against the ground. I then was pulled off of him by the second man, and I dont know how they all got there, but there were Arabs standing all around me, hitting and kicking me, and hitting me with things made out of wood (i dont really remember what, because they knocked me out). I woke up in the hospital (which is on par with some of the public housing units that I have been in before), and Nigel, Lars, Ulrich, Juan, and Raymond and Nikolai waiting there in the room. They were all really happy that I came to, and then I got reemed out by all of them, especially Juan and Raymond (sec. guys). I know that they are right in the sense that I cannot (obviously) make any kind of difference in all the mess around here, but I just wish I could. It really messes with me that I cant do a thing to stop any of the stuff.
This whole thing kind of changed my perspective a bit, and brought some inner things to light as well. I guess after having been at military school for so long and winning whatever bout I ended up in for so long, I forgot the feeling that I used to get in elementary school when I got my butt kicked, which is a really and overly nice way of putting what I got yesterday. All in all, I have a fair amount of lacerations/cuts on my chest and top of my head (obscured a bit by my hair), 1 broken rib, a rapidly-unswelling face, and an upper body covered in bruises, as well as getting a concussion. I didnt even remember what all I got from it when Nigel first told me (the Doctor in that ward didnt come back after they patched me up and gave me painkillers), as I was still a bit concussed and pretty wacked out on painkillers. Rewinding a little bit, I remember that after I started getting beat down by all those guys, I thought about Shirlina (my girlfriend) and how I wanted to get back to her, and I made one last attempt to get up and grabbed this guys legs out from under him right before I finally got knocked unconcious. In retrospect, I did exactly what everyone, and I mean everyone, told me not to do. I have mixed feelings. Besides the fact that I am in so much pain that I cant even lay down to sleep right now, I feel that it was such a fruitless thing to have done. I am genuinly glad that I helped that woman out though. Juan said that I (misguidedly) saved her from the worst degredation she could ever suffer, which he is right about. Rape however, seems to be a quasi-accepted thing in the Sudan (and Africa at large), which is incomprehensible to me, but then again..so is most of the goings-on here.
I will hopefully fall asleep at the desk here soon, as the bed is actually a painful thing for me right about now. Later on, about half of us are going about an hour and a half south of Khartoum to a village that was recently raided by government forces. The UN has people there giving out supplies and food, and there are enough journalists and security contractors there now that things will probably be pretty calm and hopefully uneventful. I heard some British cameraman at the cafe yesterday morning call the Sudan the "Land of the Lost Journalists", which I thought to be a pretty callous, mean, and insensitive remark to make when so many of us were obviously around. A fairly significant number of journalists and other pressies have died here, and the world rarely finds out. It seems that people are far too focused on the "peace talks" that are supposedly going on and "making great progress". I fail to see any progress when the janjaweed and the various rebel groups are still running around like modern day vikings, and government forces take control of all UN shipments into the country and keep them either in Khartoum or in a couple select areas where their powerbase is, still leaving the rest of their people starving, helpless, the very reasons for the massive influx of supplies. This isnt anything new, which makes me question what the UN is doing, for while they are dealing with a whole lot (again, some more understatement), they have got to know that throwing funds and goods at a problem without actual force and motivation to rectify things, that nothing is going to ever get done here.
I am excited about getting out later on today and getting close to getting the amount of interviews that I want, as well as footage and Nigel's shots/insight on things. I cannot wait to finish my research and materials, and I long to be done with this article, and just wait for news on whether it will be published or not. Btw, Nigel is going to get me the picture that he took of me about 2 hrs after I came to, I am all banged up in it, but I am still smiling though, and thats what counts I guess.
We leave on MOnday, and I can definitely say that I will a) be done with everything that I need to accomplish here, despite losing a day; and b) be so glad to get out of here and never have to come back to this place ever again unless I have some odd epiphany and decide to go, which seems highly unlikely right about now. Right now, I wouldnt mind being home, holding Shirlina close (after my ribs get better though, as that'd be freakin excruciating right about now), although that would be hard, as (assuming she was in the country) it'd probably be hard to get her allowed to come up to good old Alexandria, but hey, there is always hope right? On that note, already being a person who prayed at least a couple times a day, I seem to be doing that more often, and I think it helps, and that its def. a good thing. I also think about Shir alot, as that is something that I cannot help but do. I miss her, but such a thing would be pretty evident though.
Well, I apologize for the majority of this one being about me getting downtroddenly thrashed, but that was the contents of my day, erego the contents of the blog. I promise that the next one will be different, and you'll get to see a pic. of a really banged up David. I could def. think of a few people who (in a nice way of course, if you understand) wouldnt mind seeing that, but whatever, I saw it, and I dont think its all that bad, actually. Back to the original train of thought...I should be able to beam me up some internet access tommorow (as we arent doing the whole "village" thing anymore, as militiamen and rebels are getting more active and are roving again, a bad thing if you are a westerner), so I should be able to get another entry on here, hopefully on something different than just the many and ever apparent culture flaws and messed up things here.
Until next time,
David
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George y Rosie
Rosita Crespo
Ouch!
That is really messed up! (why do we understate so much?) I don't know why your "friends" didn't come after you to save -you- from -your- peril. But, anyway, seems there's lessons in this for everyone who reads your adventures. Among those is in general how little we express appreciation for what we have. Hardly ever do you hear someone expressing gratitude for where one lives, works, or whatever around here - and on those rare occasions, we tend to dismiss that one as nuts. Instead, most of what we hear is griping about how bad things are at work, home, locality, country, president, etc. and other such negative energy. But here, despite a country of countless problems, we have much to be grateful for. Abundance of food, housing, and reasonable security, with still some degree of freedom left. (though diminishing fast) Of course we do have the occasional "thorn in the side" like crooked cop type who will invent and exaggerate stories to use maliciously against persons he does not like, and things like that can be irritating, but we really should look at the positives in life and as the old saying goes, "count your blessings". Just the one blessing alone that God sent his son, Jesus, to save us, His chosen people, from our iniquities and give us everlasting life in the place He prepares for us, should be enough for us to be happy and content in His name. Yet naturally, as we exist in this human form on this planet earth, we hope to enjoy some comfort and peace-of-mind; thus, we should be thankful for the plentiful quantities of both we may enjoy. As for your condition, we hope the pain will subside quickly (but not the feeling of content for having exercised this brave act of good will) and that injuries heal rapidly. May God be with you and guide you!