Blogs from Khartoum, North, Sudan, Africa - page 3

My LP grimly prophesises seven hours to Atbara from Karima, but it takes just three. This allows me time to transfer - after a another free lunch and lift between bus depots courtesy of an off duty policeman - straight on to Khartoum, rather than waste a day in this uninteresting transport hub. Just under halfway, at my request, I am unceremoniously dumped in the desert at Begrawiya, just shy of the sensational Meroe pyramids. These crumbling tombs are the last testament to the ancient Kingdom of Kush (800BC - 350AD) of which Meroe was the capital. They are a fantastic sight. Significantly smaller and also narrower in structure than the epic pyramids of Giza, these ruins are appealing because of their solitude. They occupy rises on three sides of a sunken, empty plain and the ... read more

Before leaving Luxor and going onto our last week in Egypt we paid a visit to the Sunshine Children’s orphanage where we spent the morning playing with the children and seeing their home. It was set up 13 years ago by an English lady (who was a Methodist) who came to visit Egypt many times and noticed the amount of street children there were without parents. She decided to sell her home in England and use the money to come out to Luxor and set up the home and they now have over 80 children in their care. Despite them all being orphans, the children were very happy and loving (most of the time I had one toddler jumping on me cuddling and a baby on the other arm!) and enjoyed us being there. I gave ... read more

Hello all hope everyone is well, its about 45 degrees were we are at the moment, now in sudan which is pretty cool. Anyway will start were i left off in Addis, forgot to mention one of our highlights and a deffinate warnin to all if you stay in a hotel in ethiopia remember to lock your door, a few of us forgot that and at about 6 in the mornin we had a visitor at the door who me and Carlo fort wanted to do our laundry as she was pointing to the clothes in the room, we then realised this was not her intentions wen she started suckin on her finger in a very rude way, so we got rid of her after a bit of cussin in africans(the saffa tounge) and good old ... read more

Well, I hope this blog entry isn't as boring as the title! So, what's it like now for me in Sudan? The old adage "what a difference a day makes" might be quite appropriate here. I'm sharing a house with a really lovely couple, a Frenchman called Serge and his wife Pat, originally from Wales. Having spent the first few days isolated with people whose first language wasn't English, then with young people (very early 20's) who, despite being really lovely, are definitely on an entirely different wavelength, it's brilliant to be with people who are in my age group. No more "awesome" as a response to virtually every question/comment, etc . etc. Result. The house I'm sharing is lovely. It's got two bedrooms, one of which is mine (which has twin beds in it). I've ... read more

Well, it's been a baptism of fire to say the least. At first Ahfad University were saying that I had a contract with them and not SVP, and SVP seemed not to want anything to do with me!! Not good. I was stuck in a place where I didn't know where I was, staying with Amna, the Head of the English Dept of the university where I was going to be working, I didn't have any contact with any other volunteers, Omna's family were, I felt, less than welcoming. I was given a bed in a room with two beds, shown the kitchen that didn't have any gas so I didn't have any cooking facilities, etc. etc. I asked Omna for her mobile phone number - she wouldn't give it to me! said I could get ... read more