Welcome to Sudan.......

.....these are the words I've been hearing for the past 4 days..... 4 days ago I jumped on to an Afriquiyah plane and headed down to the 40 degrees Celsius of sunshine in Khartoum, the city named after Elephants' Tusks.

Although no pleasure trip, I still managed to fit in some culture between the long hours of work.

How can you head off to a new country and only move from the hotel to the office???

Luckily I got to see a bit of what this country has to offer..... A drive around the city of Khartoum and a coffee with a Portuguese colleague gave me a first impression of Khartoum.....

a building being built by the Libyans.... the Al Fateh tower.... does it remind you of anything???

The first question that pops into your mind after a drive around is - Is Sudan an Arab State or an African one? - Sudan is both in the Arab League and in the African Union.....however it is more Arab than Ethiopia, and more African than Libya.....

Sudan is on the border line..... I don't think I could call it an Arab State, and I however find it hard to call it an African Country......

Loads of dust, brown one storey mud-brick houses, barely tarmaked streets, and black people gives you the feel of Africa, however, Mosques, men in gallabeya's, women with covered hair and Arabic script on the big commercial billboards gives you a middle-eastern/Arab feel. The music even seems to be a mix of both in one song.....

the streets... a little bit of asphalt in the middle of loads of dust!!! At least this has some asphalt!! Most don't!!

Khartoum, just like Cairo is built around the Nile..... the White Nile as well as the Blue one (nobody seems to be able to tell me why the different colours!!). The point where these two meet is also in Khartoum, to be precise next to an island right in the middle of the river. The Nile is my favourite river in the world..... its a river which flows through powerful nations, and carries along majestic history and never-ending life. The Nile in Khartoum portrays this...

The White Nile....

The Blue Nile

Where the White Nile from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile from Ethiopia meet and become the Egypt Nile..

A drive through Khartoum is not enough to get to know Sudan.... what better than a local wedding to get to know traditions and society of a country?

Luckily, one of the engineers kindly invited me to a wedding of one of her good friends...... I was ecstatic - what fun!!! I then realised, that I was on a business trip.... who brings wedding clothes on a business trip???...... However, the problem was soon solved!!! A Sudanese Thuba - a long piece of cloth wrapped around your waist then over your head, around your neck and finally over your shoulder!!!! This is what women were all over Sudan..... I always though it was very beautiful when I saw the Sudanese women in Egypt - now I got to wear one myself!

flaunting my Thuba

So the girls came over with a selection of Thubas for me to choose from, and dress me up. Although the Thuba is very comfortable, I somehow did not have the skills to keep it on. The cloth kept on falling off from all places, making me the laughing stock of our little party.......

Gossip time at the wedding!!

We headed off to the wedding, said congratulations to the bride and groom as is customary, ate Sudanese finger food and enjoyed watching the dancing. Sudanese Dancing is quite peculiar. The idea is to stand in one place, bounce up and down and flick your fingers in the air.... not at all hard..... if you have the rythm!!!! - the funny thing is that old men with walking sticks, shake their stick in the air instead of flicking their fingers!!

the old man got tired dancing and decided to retire to his seat

Friday, as in all predominantly Muslim countries is the day off.... I decided to enjoy the 40 degrees Celsius of Sunshine, (not as hot as I thought it would be as its very dry).... and headed off down town, strolled by the Nile, walked around the National Museum and lay by he pool in one of the hotels.....

the Sudanese Museum

The great thing about Khartoum, unlike Tripoli, is that it has a wide variety of food choice, - Chinese, Indian, Malay, Middle-Eastern, Turkish, Italian even Ethiopian!!! so I feasted on an Indian Dish of Chicken Tikka Maasala and headed off home for a rest before I head out to some other cultural even with the General Manager this evening!!!