More pics from Jebel Awliya

Local fishers out early in the morning! The sail of the boat was made from an old and tattered tarp!

Goats wandered into our campsite looking for scraps of food. The cows came by the waters edge for a cool drink and the sheep were herded in the patch of green near our campsite.

Jebel Awliya

I just returned from camping at Jebel Awliya. It is an area just south of Khartoum. A large dam was built years ago and this caused the river to flood and it left a large lake where many go to fish. We went camping and kayaking there.
It was so beautiful. The drive there was through the typical desert but once we got close to Jebel Awliya you could smell the water. We drover off road for about 20 minutes through hard packed sand and past a small town. We camped for the night and left the next morning.
We saw goats, sheep and cows come by the waters edge. We also saw some beautiful birds, hoopoe, spur-winged polover(black/white and grey) and abyssinian roller(blue).
I wasn't able to get any clear pictures of them but you can see what they look like from these internet photos of them. The hoopoe was amazing to watch fly. It was as if it were dancing in the air. It turned its head from side to side and flipped its body back and forth while it flew overhead.
The area around the lake had the typical prickely trees with thorns as long as your pinkey. There were also some small sand dunes wind whipped with soft sand.
At night the moon was about 1/4 full. There was enough light for us to go on a late night kayak ride. There were some other campers that came later and they built a small fire and went night fishing. One of the guys there was telling us how his father used to hunt crocodiles along the river about 40 some years ago but there haven't been sightings of crocs in that area in years. After that story I still ok out on the water with only the moonlight and the small beach side fire as my guide.

At the end of our trip we stopped at the Dam and had some tea. There was fresh fish cooking all around and the market was busy for a Friday morning. I had some spicy tea with cinnamon.

Fatour Music & Dance Performances

Ramadan Kareem!

It is about to be Eid and the holy month of Ramadan will end. We had a fatour dinner at our school for the majority muslim working staff. It is always a nice event. We break fast with the workers who speak mostly arabic and a bit of English. We talk through hand motions and smiles and eat together. We had traditional Sudanese foods. Foul = hearty bean stew with feta cheese on top eaten with fresh bread. Asida with a sauce made of okra. Asida is the consistency of cream of wheat or gritz when its cold. It has a mild sour taste and the sauce is flavorfull. There was carcidae (hibiscus flower) drink and stewed beef as well.

I also got the chance to go to another fatour and art performance in Bahri which is right over the bridge (over the Blue Nile) it is another part of Khartoum.
There is an theatre group called Hilahop. They have place with an outdoor stage and the dinner was there. Every night of Ramadan they have had performances of different artists and a fatour dinner free for the public. It was amazing. I saw some great dancers and singers and have attached some of the video clips here.
There were dances from different parts of Sudan. East, South, North. Its interesting to watch the dances closely because you can see the influence of the boarder countries in the dances. For instance the East Sudanese dances look very similar to Ethiopian (shoulder shaking) dances.
The event went until about 1am but I had to leave early because it was a school night. So I didn't get to see Hilahop perform but I plan to go back another time and see the theater group in action. You can also find them on youtube!

Video of bus trip through Khartoum

Floods and Dust Storms

This past week we took the kids on a field trip around Khartoum to see the flood water and how it affected the city. Many of the homes in and around the city are made of a traditional mud brick. So when the rains came many of the homes were damaged and destroyed. Many of the workers at our school live in homes like this and we as a school community wanted to help in ways that we could. We realized through meetings and discussions that the best way we could help fairly was to give the workers and Eid gift of food, clothes and money. Because we can not asses the damages of each home and also because of cultural and language barriers may not be able to talk to each family affected we thought it best to give everyone the same thing. Money and food are used by all and clothes given if not used can also be used as currency.
In the attached video you can see the mudbrick homes and the water that is still all over even a week after the rains have stopped.
We also decided to start an emergency fund for the workers at our school. This could be used to help when future emergencys arise. We want to also set up a meeting with them with a translator so they can discuss their needs and decide on what things we could actually help them with. Communication is important and we want them to have agency and a voice in our efforts to help. We don't want to give what isn't needed or help in an area and appear patronizing.
We also learned that many of the workers get a financial incentive from our school if they know English. So now we are discussing the possibility of having English language classes for the workers. Although we all are at school all day many of us as teachers don't interact much beyond hello and goodbye with the staff that cleans and maintains our campus. We want to change that.

There was also a huge haboob at the end of last week. I was on the roof of my building and got some pictures. It was amazing to watch it come in.