Blogs from Khartoum, North, Sudan, Africa - page 4

The Ethiopian side took a long time, and while the truck is parked lots of people hooting at us and money changers prowl about, we managed to change our last dibdobs to Sudanese money at a back alley somewhere, the guy tried to cheat us but his competition told us and so we got a better rate in the end. Soon as we're done we crossed to Sudan, we need to pay for registration so we walked back to the Ethiopian side to change more money as they have better rates, we queued up to get entry stamps and at the same time we registered, it was cumbersome task as they have to translate into Arabic some informations. After that off we went only to be turned back 30 minutes later by a checkpoint saying we ... read more

During our stay in Khartoum we had the opportunity to check out the "Whirling Dervishes". Every Friday the Sufi Muslims gather at the cemetery and take part in an interesting religous ceremony that involves lots of chanting and dancing. The idea being that the ceremony brings them closer to God. Some of the participants work themselves into such a trance by spinning and hopping around that they really do appear to be in a different world. One guy was witnessed to be spinning for half an hour straight. Pretty incredible! Our last night in Sudan we camped near the Ethiopian border. Oddly enough the area was littered with old spent artillary shells, hmmm... Nice sunrise sending us off the next day though.... read more

I would like to congratulate some of Ms Cords students for posting their thoughts on rebuilding a country that has been through a lot of conflict. Many people identified a lot of issues with the majority seeing a change in government, and an increase in education as being key to a solid foundation for a state. At close second, health care, housing, and the military were mentioned. Once again, there were some ridiculous responses, but for the most part, people had some great things to say. Speaking for myself, I had no idea how complex the issues were with re-forming a functional society that includes, education, infrastrucutre, health care, trade and commerce, security, etc could be until I arrived here and saw it for myself. For instance, with education you can improve the youth so that ... read more

Day 50! While breaking camp we saw a flock of sand grouse fly over us - an evocative sight, really reinforcing the fact that we are in the tropics and getting nearer the equator. Off south on the toll road to Khartoum we stopped briefly to look at the pyramids of Meroe. We never stopped the cars’ engines as we were besieged by hassling touts on their camels wanting money and biros. Not really the best way to attract the tourist we feel. Our next objective was The Sixth Cataract, rapids in the Nile some 60 miles north of Khartoum. With the help of GPS navigation, verbal directions and a lot of luck we managed to find the right track to the Cataract where we found that the tourist infrastructure was in its birth pains. Lots ... read more

Monday, June 4th, 2007 Khartoum - Well my induction training and my UNMO refresher are complete, and they are sending me to Torit, in Sector 1. I will be the only Canadian, as well as the only native English speaker of the entire team site. Shit. This actually goes against the Canadian policy of attempting to pair up Canadian's, or at least Native English speakers. There are two Germans, and a Dutch UNMO there right now, so hopefully the English will be okay initially. Personally, I think it is going to be very difficult. I think I will try to plant a garden to grow some of my own vegetables, and if I am lucky, I will be able to train some Muay Thai kickboxing with the two Thai UNMO's that are living there right now. ... read more