Friday, September 23, 2005

Heat Blisters

Ok, so I've been in Sudan for a month now. Today me and French Charlotte went shopping in Souq Omdurman, a market in the old part of Khartoum. We were lucky and met two Sudanese boys that followed us through the market and managed to give us better prices. They were really nice and it was nice to see that there actually are male Sudanese that are all normal without having a hidden agenda. I was sweating like a pig for four hours under a burning sun, crowding and the stench of garbage, excrement and God knows what else. When I got home I had water filled heat blisters all over my body. That wasn't too fun, but at least I gained a new experience!

I met three more Swedish girls; Cecilia, Ida and Linn. A couple of days ago we went to a women's café and watched traditional sudanese wedding dancing. It's great to see that the muslim women can move in such an... exotic way, when the men aren't around! Next Thursday I think I'm going with the girls to a big wedding, so I'm hoping to see more of what a Sudanese wedding is like then.

The Sudanese people are very kind, but they often go from one extreme to another. If you for example order an orange juice and it's too sweet (like most of the things are here, the Sudanese LOVES sugar!) then you will get a juice with no sugar at all next time. If I ask our cook to make a little less rice until next time, then she stops cooking rice completely. If you ask someone to help you with something, then they suddenly want to help you with everything.

Despite of everything, I'm liking it here. As soon as you got a small group of friends it's more than ok. I mean, there are way too much that is bad in this country (the heat, the dust, policemenwith automatic guns everywhere, starvation, illness, poverty etc), but it definitely has it's charms. People here have gone through so much and from the deepest parts of my heart I admire their ability to still be able to smile. I hope that you, back home, are smiling too, because you certainly have a reason to! Yalla!

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