ARRIVED!!!

So, the next part of my business trip has been sucessfully acheived!! - I have managed to land safely in Addis, and am now doing all the work that needs to be done in Ethiopia.....

Though I must say that I should mention the little incident before getting to Addis and some thoughts that came to mind.....

Last shock in Khartoum - the Airport!!!! The worst international airport I had ever seen (and I think I've seen quite a few)...... there is no information anywhere, the checkin desks are randomly placed, and you sort of have to discover which is the right one, but aimlessly queuing in various desks..... after the long queue - you realise you forgot to pay airport tax before you check in.... so once again another queue, then again another check in queue, please note that the space is extremely small, so apart from mavouvering you luggage you also have to manouver your way through the confusion of people moving aimlessly from one part of the hall to the other..... phew.... check in is over..... passport control is not that bad!!! Apart from the fact that it takes the security about 10mins per person to fill in the details, check the visa, check the registration.....

When you think its all over its not, as soon as you pass passport control you have to pick out your luggage that you just passed through to check in..... your luggage is usually in the middle of large group of luggage!!! Luckily mine is bright red! easy to spot..... you take your luggage again and take it for screening..... you luggage is opened and checked (please note another queue) - unfortunately the chinese guy infront of me had a battery operated torch in his bag!!! I don't think they had ever seen anything like that as they were switching it on and off, and trying to figure it out, turning it around and asking loads of questions..... finally this is over too and you hope that your luggage would actually be sent off to the right plane.....

You think you can finally sit in the Gate and wait for your plane with a cup of coffee.... well... the airport is made up of 6 gates, there are 3 waiting halls with 2 doors each - every door is called a gate - ok fair enough, we could deal with that!! - however nobody knows which gate the flight leaves. So people wait sitting on these plastic chairs which face a TV either showing a discovery channel programme or some arabic soap opera.....
The announcer suddenly announces a flight - please note in Arabic, or in very mumbled English - at this point everyone stands up and tries figuring out which flight was just announced and which gate to go to!!! - Super Chaos

People flying to Ethiopia got to be unfortunate..... at 7.00pm, the time of the flight, we were still in the waiting hall..... it was a bit worrying....... confusion started again, everyone asking everyone and nobody knows.... I finally managed to get hold of a security guy and asked him what is wrong with the flight - and he tells me that the flight is at 8.00pm.... releived I ask, ' Ah so it's delayed'.... and the guy goes 'No!' which is a bit worrying...... I somehow thought I might have missed my flight in all the confusion......

It turned out (we found this out 2hrs after the flight was actually supposed to depart) that the flight had a delay from Cairo and would thus have a 3hr delay.... phew......

The 5hr delay did not turn out to be that bad after all, I sat quietly in a corner, and finished the Induction Session preparation which I had to run the day after, I actually had planned to do in Addis over a beer.....but ended up doing it in a bland, freezing and dirty airport gate...

Travelling alone and having an open mind to what surrounds you enables you to discover....

Thus while sitting alone on my green plastic chair, wondering what time I'll be in Ethiopia, I got chatting with a middle aged Swiss guy.... he turned out to be a Professor in a university in Geneva, who is fascinated about parasites. He came down to Sudan to do research about fish parasite in fresh water...... he told me about how they do it, what they do, what are these parasites, what they involved......I in turn spoke to him about my field, we spoke about telecommunication and what I do....... I had never met a fish parasite researcher before..... and I don't think it would be anything I would have really bothered to read about, but chatting with this man and getting an insight of the work and his passion for his job was enlightening.....

The second group of people I got to meet were a group of Koreans, or what I think were Koreans, this was actually funny rather than enlightening....... at a point in time these group of Korean looking people approached me and stood around me...... I was pretty puzzled, then after some discussions between them which I could not really understand, one of them stepped out and pointed at my passport - ?!? - what did he want??? After some time, I realised that he wanted to see my ticket, so he could compare if we were on the same flight!!! Finally his face shone as he realised that we were on the same flight, and he thus didn't miss his flight........ The guys didn't speak a word of English (I am really amazed at how they manage to get around) so they mumbled something in some strange language - questions which obviously I couldn't answer - the intonation they used made them sound like questions - anyhow, these guys probably gave up on me and decided to sit on the chairs next to me.... the funny part was when I finally decided that I got fed up sitting and decided to go for a walk.... as soon as I stood up the guy stood up and followed me around the room!!! ha ha it was quite funny!!! I had a laugh at their expense... finally I managed to explain to them that I just wanted to go for a walk and the flight had not arrived yet!!! :)))

The finally group of people I got to meet, and actually the most interesting are 2 journalists from Al Gezira - Al Gezira is the CNN of the Middle East. The were both Lebanese as the office is located in Lebanon........ they were in Khartoum for the Arabic Summit that was held while I was there. Fascinating..... they told me about their job, travels, how they broadcast, what they look out for, what they have seen. We then went on discussing the Arabic Summit Gossip, the presidents of these countries and how they act, the role of this summit..... and I also got to see the extra pictures they took of the Summit which would not be published on the newspapers - I also got to see the pictures of Ghaddafi with his female body guard.... and was told of how he pitched his tent outside the convention building rather than staying in the palace of the Sudanese President together with all the other Presidents.....

The guys went on telling me about their life in Lebanon, about Lebanon as a country, its history, its connection between its surrounding countries and the problems it is currently facing........ awesome!!! I was also promised to be taken around Beirut as soon as I visit......:) - I think I have somehow decided to make Lebanon my next holiday adventure destination!!!!!

These 5hrs made me think about how I've changed.... how I'm more open to people and how much more confident of myself I am now compared to 3years ago..... would I really have done this 3yrs ago? Most of my good friends, and people I look up to are now African and Arab - 6years ago I don't think I would have dreamt of this, due to the prejudices the society I lived in fostered, and hence the onces I grew up with...... I have now overcome all prejudices and my mind is now wide open to bring in anyone or anything...... I can't wait to go to Malta and say this to all my friends, the ones who did not get my opportunities and the ones who still foster the childhood prejudices......

The plane finally arrived - after a 5hr wait int he lurid airport everyone was relieved to board.... the cause of the problem was apparently some guy who was transported on a stretcher from Cairo, as his papers were not in place, they had to wait!!!!!

Finally back in Addis, it doesn't seems as though I've left it at all, my friends are still there, the city still looks the same and the Hilton is still the good old Hilton..... the porters even remember me! :))))

And yesterday I enjoyed a lovely night with my friends over Injera, Tibs, Doro Wat, Shiro and all the Ethiopian things I've missed......

The Darwish Ritual

Or this is what I understood it is called..... please correct me if I'm wrong.....

So, Friday late afternoon, after my tour of downtown Khartoum, the Country Manager - a sweet Croatian man - decided to give me more of the Sudanese Cultural dose and took me to a ritual, performed by a certain group of Muslims every Friday just before sunset, in front of a certain Mosque, which is said to be built in the Sudanese style.

So at about 6.00pm we headed off to Omdurman (sorry for the spelling) a part of Khartoum on the West of Nile (as far as my sense of direction told me).

We got to this beautiful Mosque where loads of people were hanging out, playing music, making tea and coffee and having little picnics....

the beautiful Mosque and the crowd entertaining themselves

My first shock was the location..... the Mosque was built in the middle of a massive cemetery!!! The cemetery was the likes of one I had never seen before...... there were no slabs, not traditional little houses where the Muslims usually bury their families...... the cemetery was full of bumps which you would assume were where the bodies were buried, and at the head/foot of these bumps was a piece of stick, with a piece of metal rectangular sheet maybe 50cms by 25cms and an Arabic script on it which I would assume would be the name of the person and other details.... I did not have the heart to take any pictures of this, as it was pretty heart wrenching........ the worst of all was that the people were actually driving over these buried bodies and having
picnics!!!!!! how??

Anyhow, all of a sudden, at a point in time, the crowd started gathering into a big circle which kept on getting bigger and bigger..... some chanting in Arabic started, first slow then it started building rhythm faster and faster. I couldn't understand the chanting as it was in Arabic, but I know it had the word Allah in it. So the rhythm got faster and the people forming the circle started 'dancing to this rhythm' I don't know how to describe it, but they were basically bending up and down - their back at 90 degrees and at the same time moving their arms in and out. (I have not arrived to the point of learning how to upload videos... cause if I did I would have uploaded a little video I took)

the crowd starting their chanting

one of the leaders

These people were being led by other men, who walked around the inner part of the circle and determined the speed of the rhythm, shouting out the words for the crowd to repeat. It was a great sensation.... the crowd was one - it was amazing to be in the midst of it....

one of the spinner, who seems to be in a trans.... don't ask me why he is wearing the funny clothes, I've got no idea!!

But this is not all... the most amazing of it were the people in the middle of the circle...... In the middle of the circle were a handful of people, who were spinning round and round. Sometimes they were spinning on one foot with their hand in the air, another time on both feet and the spinning got faster, another time they just ran around the circle - WOW!!!!

spinning on one leg

another spinner

It is apparently their belief that the spinning gets you closer to God, you reach a certain Euphoria and oneness with God - If I had to do the amount of spinning they did I'd have fallen flat on the floor with dizziness in a matter of 5mins, but these people went on and on for at least 30mins to an hour!!!!!

another randomer.... I was told that some of them even hit themselves still they bleed while spinning!!

I was in awe, it was pretty impressive - the crowd was chanting and the handful of people spinning and spinning in the middle.

All of a sudden the sun went down, the prayer caller chanted his 7.00pm 'Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar....' on the mosque loud speaker, and the crowd.... somehow like zombies headed uniformly to the direction of the mosque for their evening prayer.

This sort of ritual is apparently done in other Muslim countries...... I was told most especially in Turkey, however more organised than this..... but this was great, it was spontaneous and somehow kind of spiritual once you feel the energy in the crowd........

A nice pizza and ice-cream and a lovely chat with the Country Manager ended the day - by the way, Sudan has amazing ice-cream - the best when compared to the rest of the African Countries I've been to - pretty good considering it is a very hot, embargo Country!!!!

Ahh another awesome thing about Sudan are the tuk-tuks - or what the Sudanese call Racksha - the first time I saw these things was in Sri Lanka.... I always thought they were some East Asian thing... so I was pretty surprised to see them here too - they are like mini taxis... however used only within the specific area and cannot move from one area in Khartoum to another - unlike Sri Lanka where they are allowed to move all over Colombo!!!!

Tuk-Tuk

I also got to ride one of them, these are usually run by Ethiopians or Eritreans.... mine was handled by an Eritrean.... so I also got to enjoy an interesting conversation regarding the relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia and Sudan on the ride home.....

As soon as I get the photos sorted.... I'll tell you all about my Saturday trip to the Sudanese Pyramids!!!

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!!!

Bella Roma

Finally I have made it to Europe......

I hadn't set foot in 'Continental Europe' for 2 1/2 years..... after living in Brussels for 2years I somehow needed a does of European lifestyle.... the green parks, orderly queues, wine and pork, cafe's and beer, impressive monuments and buildings, orderly traffic, Metros where you don't have to push you way to go in or get out.... etc etc....

enjoying the tranquility of European Parks...

European way of life....

A workshop on an new Leadership framework whisked me off to Italy.... to be precise, the little village of Frascati... about 1hr out of Rome....

a couple of us dared venture out in the cold for a stroll around the park

It was actually my first big international work meeting.... usually the HR meetings I attend consist of the HR managers in our region - north Africa, however this time there were managers from Europe (France, the Netherlands, Sweden, UK, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine etc etc), Africa (South Africa and me - almost Libyan) and the Middle East (Israel, Dubai, Lebanon)...... wonderful smart people, a couple of years ago, while going through my years in AIESEC and listening to the multinational companies making their presentation of their organization, I had only dreamt of meeting corporate HR people like these......now they are my friends and buddies who inspire and support my development....

enjoying a coffee in a typical Roman cafe with the Ukrainian HR Manager and the Regional HR Manager of Turkey and Israel

Three days in Rome were great.... apart from meeting wonderful HR people from all over the 3 regions, I got to reuse my Italian, chat with the locals, shop till I had no money left.... meet up with Veronica, and Maria, two Maltese living in Rome..... drink good cappuccino and amazingly good wine, eat loads of Parma ham and home made pasta, and throw my coin in the Trevi Fountain.....

... throwing my 20 euro cents into the fountain.... when will I be back in Rome? Hope it won't take me another 15yrs...

Bye Bye Europe.... see you in June, where a trip to Sweden and possibly Belgium is on the Agenda....

Fontana Dei Trevi.. surrounded with amazing ice-cream shops... how to not have an Italian Ice-Cream although the temperature is almost 0 and your hands are purple...

Piazza di Venezia