Ghosts and Mysteries.

Ok, I've been alone in the big horrible house for two weeks now and I'm guessing it's starting to affect me. I was reading a horror novel (duh...) when the electricity went out and I heard wierd noises and saw strange shadows everywhere. I've hardly slept at all this past week! A few days ago I first woke up by our maid had opened the bedroom door and was standing there looking at me, I waved at her, turned around and went back to sleep. Later I found out that she apparently hadn't even been in the house that day! The day after I woke up when something invisible was poking at me. So, either this house is haunted or I'm going crazy. No one else seems to believe me. I told Björn and Alessandra about the events and they offered me a bed to sleep in in their house until my employer and his daughter gets back. I'm thinking of accepting since I doubt if I can spend one more night listening for ghosts!

Except for the ghosts I once woke up by the bed was shaking. I tried to be logical and thought that it must have been a minor earth quake, but no one else seems to have noticed it...

Later that day I went to an internet café close by. When I came out of there I saw that the whole horizon was filled with thick black smoke. A gentleman said that it must be a gass station on fire. I crossed the first lane of the big road and stood there watching the spectacle, all the wile standing in the middle of two lanes. Normally one usually looks the way were the cars comes from when crossing a street, but this day I learned to look at all possible and impossible directions before crossing. I was half a meter of being hit by a bus that was driving in the oposite direction. And they got angry with me! With my dear death experience I went home to my ghosts.

Winter is getting close and it's actually quite comfortable at night (only like 30 degrees). Can you imagine that I actually freeze when it's below 25?! If it had been 25 degrees in my bedroom home in Sweden I would have been close to dying from the heat. It's amazing how the body can adapt.

Evening Breakfast and Every day Life

A couple of days ago I was invited to Shabia in North Khartoum where Swedish Cecce lives. It was nice to get away from the city and to see some greeneries for once. She showed me around at the Univeristy and I met a few new people. Then we took a welk down to the Nile before we went to her Sudanese family to have my very first Ramadan breakfast. I can't really understand how they manage to fast during the days, but obviously they're doing pretty well even though they get slow and lazy and blames it all on Ramadan! The word "ramida" means something like "extreme heat" and during Ramadan you will burn away your sins. I have begun to think that maybe they have a point there, I mean, this heat is NOT normal.

It's sad that I didn't get the chance to meet Cecce until now, because her and me are pretty much aloke. I have a great time with her and it already feels like we've been friends for a long time. On Thursday she's going back to Sweden (Please Cecce, come back soon!).

Ramadan Kareem!

Day four of Ramadan, which is a muslim monthly holiday for those of you who didn't know. Everyone is fasting between sunup and sundown, meaning no drink, no food, nothing to buy and nothing to do . As a khawajia (westerner) the rules don't really apply to you, but it's very rude to drink or eat among fasting people until the sun set.

Yesterday me and Björn went to Suq es-Shabi, a market not too far from where I live. It was pretty frustrating because you heard a "Welcome!", "kssss kssss" and/or finger snappings ever five meter you went. But Björn was fun so it was fun anyways. I god hold of a couple of nice tunics too.

There are more Swedes here than I had thought there would be. I mostly hang out with Björn, but also with Cecilia, Ida, Linn and Cecce. It's nice to speak Swedish now and then and to be able to talk about people behind their back without them understanding (yes, I know I'm a bad person, but one has to take pleasure in the small things in the every day life).

My report in Transit, P3, has been moved to October 24th.

Important Me

It's been an eventful week. First of all I can annouce that I got a job. All by myself! By coincidence I ended up on SWERA's (Swedish Refugee Aid) homepage. When I lived in Lund, southern Sweden, I was supposed to help them to start a refugee group, but it never happened. Anyways, on their webpage it said that they have a cooperation with AHA (African Humanitarian Action) here in Sudan. So, I wrote an email with CV, intriduced myself and asked if they possibly needed any help with anything here in Khartoum, and a couple of days later I got a reply from the general secretary saying that they could really use my help.

I think I'm menat to monitor the IDP's (Internally Displaced Persons) return to the Southern Sudan, be their liaison between SWERA and AHA, go to meetings and write reports. They don't have an office here but from what I gather I will be their only representant in the country. In one or two weeks I will get more information about what I will do. I met a woman from SIDA, went to a few Norwegian organizations and will go with them to one of the IDP camps outside of Khartoum as soon as I get a travel permit.

PS. I think I'll be on Transit in P3 on October 7, so keep your ears open! DS

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!

Fruitless Crocodile Hunting

Yesterday I got my first Sudanese love declaration from a guy that was really really embarrassed and was blushing the whole time. "I fell in love with you - did you fall in love with me?". Before that, our only communicating was a few polite greetings, all over and done in a couple of minutes. Then he gave me a package of cookies. Hm... Oh well, I've started to plan for small trips I'd like to go to in the nextcoming few months. I'll definitely go camping in the desert, by the pyramids and go to Port Sudan and scuba dive.

I went crocodile hunting (with my camera, not something sharp) a few days ago, but I didn't see any and got really disappointed. Thinking of going to Tutti Island and make a new search as soon as I get my photo permission. Everything runs veeeeeery slowly here. A lot of talk and too little action. The Sudanese appears to want as little responsibility as possible, and if they get a task it will take ages until something happens, if anything happens at all. But at least they're nice : )

Transit in P3 (Travel program in a major Swedish radio channel) got in touch and want me in one of their programs. It's ramadan in a month or so and I said that I'm thinking fo making a short report then, so keep your eyes and ears open!

Ma'salama!

Powerlessness and Hibiscus Jiuce!

I got a friend! A sudanese friend! Her name is Shayma'a and will probably be my local link to the arab world here. I met her and her friend last week and had Sudanese juice with hibiscus. Strange but nice.

Everythin runs smoothly here, however slowly. We have a full time employed electrician in the house since the electricity is not something to trust. Got to sleep without AC last night again, but that went ok since we've had a few "cool" days when it's only been around 35 degrees. Thank god I got a membership at the Grand Hotel Villa, which probably is the closest you can get to luxury in Sudan at this time. They have a big swimming pool, parasolls, sun chairs and food and drinks that are more than way over priced. I suspect this will be my refuge from now on. It's nice to get away from the dust, the hordes of people and the heat from time to time, although I'm starting to get used to is. A little. I'm still sweating rivers, but it would have been wierd if I didn't. In Sudan it's as common to be shiny with sweat as it is to have a running nose in winter-Sweden.

I've been a criminal too! A couple of days ago, me and Mathew (my employer) went to this China restaurant that serves "special tea". This special tea happens to be BEER! And let me tell you, it was probably one of the best beers I've ever had.

Reality is starting to come back to me down here. A couple of days ago I found out that the house opposite to ours is used as an "questioning building", where the military tries to get information from people with the use of unpleasant methods. Most people call it torture. I almost feel bad for coming from Sweden. We have it so good back home and you realize it first when you've seen what reality is for other people around the world. If you report your wallet to be stolen (as a western person at least), they will most likely grab an innocent Sudanese on the street and beat him for hours just to report that someone has been punished for the crime, although most likely not the right person (but you'd do best in not mentioning that. In fact, don't report your wallet stolen at all, if you can help it).

There are still slave camps in Sudan, where women and children are forced to hard labour without payment. There are thousands of political refugees that are tortured every day. And we see all that back home in Sweden, on TV and in newspapers. We hear of eye witness testimonials and stories, about how rape is used as a weapon during the war, about young men who was forced to rape his mother. We know all this, but it never really gets to us. It's nice there, in the soca, when we're eating crisps and watch the news. We see when people starve and die from dhiorréa and say "this is so sad...", but we never realize how fucking sad it really is. How can we sit there and eat crisps while people have their hands cut off, gets stoned to death, starvs or dies of thirst? How can we not get more affected of what we see on TV?

I feel bad. For being Swedish and "rich" (although God knows I'm not). Every day I have to ignore someone who reach out his hand for monay, every day I have to turn my face away from someone that I can't help. And in the building opposite to ours, people are being tortured.

And can you belive that all the competent people has goon to USA to help the poor americans that got struck by hurricane Katrina?! A few western people die in a natural disaster while thousans are starving every day, and who gets prioritized? Not the children with pointy ribs, flies in their eyes and swollen bellies. Kuwait gave half a billion dollars to USA, an amount of money that could have built this country up from scratch. But who cares about Sudan? Or Nigeria? "But" says someone, "it's not the same thing!".

In a few days the new government will be announced, which is supposed to be a mix between the ruling NCP and the former rebels. Many says that NPC agreed to give the rebels power just to end the fightings, but that they will never keep their part of the deal. If this is true, I believe we can count on more disturbances in the country and that the peace agreement will no longer be.