Thursday, July 16, 2009

This is it!

My six-month mission in Sudan has come to an end! Tomorrow, I will be leaving Africa. I am not looking forward to the long journey (Khartoum/Jeddah/Frankfurt/New York), but Inshallah, I will get some sleep on the planesssssss! This week has been quite busy w/ good-bye dinners and get-togethers, so I am feeling pretty exhausted.

I had a very good experience here. Met some incredible people and really enjoyed learning about the Sudanese culture.
Khartoum; “the city of dust”, where the two Niles meet and the air is hot, think and arid will always be in my memories. Particularly the sight of women wearing long sleeves turtlenecks, socks and gloves under 100F and the fine sand fog that was always in the air, stayed on my skin and turned my clothes to a reddish yellow…

I hope that for those of you who followed this blog, I made the entries interesting enough. I tried! It’s really hard to put into words every little thing that amazed me here! But, with time, I am sure I will get to tell you more stories in person.

Thanks for your support!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Whirling Dervishes

This weekend I went to see the Whirling Dervishes of the Sufi. The Sufi movement is known in Sudan as Tariqas (the way to God). Their unique spiritual practice aims at letting go of personal desires and purifying the inner self to gain a closer connection to God.
We arrived around 5PM and went straight to see the Maqam, a tomb of Sheikh Hamad Al Nil (a 19th century Sufi leader who is worshiped today). Inside, it was just a couple of people praying and lighting incense next to the tomb. Some came to greet me and one lady put some perfume on my hand. They seem happy to have an outsider there.

Then, we went outside and the ritual began. It is a prayer, but to me it looked more like a celebration. It started around 6PM, when dervishes from other communities arrived. -This all happens inside the cemetery by the way-. They formed a big circle and with the sound of drums and repetition of divine names of God, the movements began. Trance is primarily used and attained through whirling around. But I saw some people also inflicting pain on themselves through bites and rolling on the ground. Most participants had a smile on their face though, and when I pointed that observation out to our driver (a local Muslim) he told me: “lady, the word dervish means crazy. Crazy in love with God!” :) At sundown, the ritual ended and the dervishes went to the mosque to pray in a very orthodox Islamic manner.


Thursday, July 9, 2009

"I relate, therefore I am"

I have learned that family is central to life in Africa.
The family here extends to relations that most Western cultures, I think, would no longer have knowledge of. Yesterday, my colleague asked me how she would call/refer to, the wife of her brother-in-law’s cousin. She wanted to learn the English word. After I repeated her question in my head a couple of times to make sure I understood it, my reply was: “Nothing. It’s too far removed!” She smiled and said that I was wrong. It’s not “too far removed.” She explained that her brother-in-law was like a brother to her and his cousin was like a brother to him. Therefore, the cousin was also her brother so the woman he married, should be considered her sister. My response was just “Wow!” :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I feel like a wallet with legs...

“Sister! Sister! Buy this watch from me, buy this raffle ticket, buy this bucket, buy this box of napkins, buy me water, or just give me money!” I am so tired of listening to this every single day! Same people stand in the same street lights and come to me with the same story! Not to mention the “thieves” in the market who have the nerve to charge me USD$5 for ONE onion! :)

The internationals have really spoiled these people... They see us, and dollar signs must go into their heads…

Friday, June 26, 2009

Count down...

I have served 96% of my mission. t’s almost time to leave Khartoum…
I will miss the work and some of the friends I made here, but there are some things (like sand getting stuck on my lips because I am wearing a melting lip balm because of the crazy dry weather and heat), that I just can’t wait to not have to deal with!

Monday, June 15, 2009

In transit...

After a two-week vacation in the States, I am now on my way back to finish the mission. Oh, the JFK-Dubai Emirates flight is such a killer! I watched six movies and couldn’t sleep due to various types of odor, kids screaming and prayer sounds around me. Now that I have done some shopping here in Dubai airport, I just can’t wait to get back to my apartment in Khartoum so I can have some rest!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

"What was your Dowry?"

That was the question my Southern Sudanese colleague asked me the other day over coffee. When I explained to her that in my culture, this is not necessary, her jaw dropped! "This is not right!" she said.

She told me that if I got married here, to a man from a Dinka tribe, I'd be worth about 250 cows due to my height. Taller women are expensive! The short ones "cost" about 100 cows.
The "Dowry system" here works in the way that the family of the man pays to the family of the wife. With cows, goats etc.

It is very interesting to be hearing these sort of things from the Sudanese culture. My colleague is as shocked as I am about this dowry/no dowry issue :)

What a world!!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Grabbing Boy

The other day I had the weirdest thing happen to me since I arrived here in Khartoum. This cute little kid, who was not older than three, came and latched on me for like 5 minutes and only let go when my colleague gave him money. It was a very strange way to beg and a very uncomfortable situation for me. I could see a woman, whom I assumed was the mother, giving him instructions from the side of the street and that made me a little upset. She mumbled words and made gestures to him. Neither one looked at my face. I felt really like a log! :)

As I tried to walk, with him attached to my leg like a little dog, I felt very bad for him and upset with the woman. It was hot; the little boy was dirty and stinky. He didn’t even try to speak with me, nor did he put out his hand or made a sad face as most street beggars do here. He simply grabbed my back pocket and then my leg until he got one pound.
So odd!

Monday, May 11, 2009

La vie en dustland...


This weekend, I witnessed my first real sandstorm, aka Haboub. It was really difficult to stay and see outside. There were sand and trash flying all around! Inside the apartment, I also could smell the dust because it found its way in... It was crazy! The following day, my place looked like it was under construction.

The “Hahoub” ended within a few hours, but the dust is still in the air. I heard it will only go away when it rains. But it almost never rains here! One positive side of all this dust is that it blocks the sun. So it’s cool and dusty :)



Anyway, I also had a nice market experience on Saturday. I went to a local place with my friend and had lots of fun. I felt a lot like an outsider, but also felt welcomed and confortable in the area.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

A sign in the UNMIS bathroom stalls

Sudanese are just not familiar with our type of toilets...


Monday, April 27, 2009

A hot massage...

Since I had a terrible experience in a massage place in East Timor, I was hesitating to go to such places here in Khartoum. I am not a big fun of paying to be tortured. But I really felt like a massage this week so I asked my best friend to take me to this place that she had been going for a while for a Thai massage. I took a chance and didn’t get lucky :)

As soon as I get in the place, they ask for money (advance payment always, here!) and then I am told to go to room #4 and wait. The tone in the receptionist’s voice wasn’t so pleasant, but Sudanese in general are not very client oriented. I didn’t mind that so much and did as told. I get in the room, change into some extremely large pants and sit on the mattress on the floor -(the only thing in the room). A nice lady comes in a little bit later and as soon as she begins the massage, the lights go off. I immediately ask if they have a generator in that “spa” and shaking her head she says: “it’s broken Madame.” I thought to myself: “just my luck!”

What could have been a quite good experience (because the girl was actually from Thailand and a professional) turned out to be 30mins of a sweaty and “mosquitoey” session. I don’t think I have to repeat myself about the heat in Khartoum so I leave up to your imagination to picture the scene! I had paid for 1h, but I could only tolerate 30mins of it. I left a little annoyed, not surprised though. I came to a mission area, a place where hardship allowance is paid to us, so “pampering” is a luxury I shouldn’t have expected. :)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Nubian region of Sudan...

This weekend, I went on my first excursion out of Khartoum. I joined a colleague who works at the Brazilian embassy and we took the “Bin Laden road” (BL fund the contruction of this road during the time he lived here in the 90s) to an area called “Mussawarat es-sufra”. It’s an area with ruins, temples and some pyramids. It was a 2 ½ hour drive north of Khartoum.

The pyramids here in Sudan are the “poor cousins” of the ones in Gyza, but I enjoyed seeing them. The heat was extreme in that area. The temperature must have been around 55C. The sand was getting inside my sandals and burning my feet, but I refused to ride the camel. It just isn't my kind of thing :) . My friend jokingly said that here in Sudan, there isn’t “one sun”, but “one sun for each person”. It’s really indescribable!


Anyway, the road was good for most of the time, but at some point we had to make a turn into the sandy area. It was like going on a safari, only with very limited types of animals to see. We just saw camels, donkeys and goats. It was a bumpy ride and the car got stuck in the sand, but it was just a scary minute. We managed to get it out.

We met a few people who lived in the communities around the temples and it amazed me that they were there. It’s hard to imagine that one can survive in such dry conditions…

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

My Birthday

It’s really true, time flies! Yesterday I turned 31. And I never thought I’d celebrate it in Africa! Wow! I am looking forward to the rest of my life! :)

Yesterday was a quite usual day for me. Not many people in the office knew it was my birthday and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Only a few colleagues wished me well. But I received plenty of messages and phone calls from my friends abroad to make up for it!

The sun was shining really strongly in Khartoum as usual. At 7:45am the temperature was about 105F and by noon it was already 115F, so I spent most of my day inside the office (with a/c). I had lunch with one of my Brazilian colleagues and at the end of the day, I went to the gym.

Afterwards, I had a very nice dinner at the Rotana with two other friends. I had the “Om Ali” dessert that I like so much, plus many many others! :)

Monday, March 30, 2009

Egypt

I just came back from a wonderful vacation with Matt and my mom in Egypt! Although we did visit basically all the temples there, took a boat, four planes and a car, we also managed to find a lot of down time to just relax.
We spent a total of 3 days in Cairo where we rode horses (Matt rode a Camel) to the Pyramids, visited the Sphinx, the Cairo museum, the famous local Souq, the Citadel and the Coptic city area.

We also took the Nile cruise and stopped in all the major towns along the river: Aswan, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Luxor. We visited a temple devoted to a crocodile god, saw the Dam that stopped the Nile river and created Lake Nasser, visited a local spice market in Aswan and drove 2.5 hours to Abu Simbel (which is the probably the world’s biggest middle of nowhere! Through the window of the van, I saw absolutely nothing but sand during the whole time!) The temple in Abu Simbel was great though. It was worth the trip.

Our last stop on the cruise was Luxor. It is a cute town, nicely kept, but clearly very touristy. There, we visited the Valley of the Kings, which is an enormous pharaonic cemetery (where king Tut’s tomb is), the temple of Hatshepsut (the female ruler), and the gigantic temples of Karnak and Luxor. We also experienced a sandstorm in this town. It was incredible!

We had a private guide the whole time and he was very educated about Egyptology. The ancient Egyptian monuments and the hieroglyphic texts were all amazing to see.

We ended our trip in the nice beach resort town of Sharm el Sheikh. Matt and I relaxed a lot by the Red Sea. We stayed in the Naama Bay area, which is the center and THE place to be. We ate a lot of good food, went to a casino, saw belly dancers and whirling dervishes’ dancers, tried sheesha, laughed and enjoyed each other's company very much!
Now I am back in Sudan. Well rested and ready for another couple of weeks of work before my next vacation… :)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Update

Hi all!

I don’t have much news to report. These past few days have been normal and although the ICC decision caused all of us to be more concerned and alert, thank God nothing major has happened here in Khartoum and we’ve been going about our business as usual.

I am just going to post some pictures of me so you all see that I am fine and describe a little of my routine in this city.

I ride to work everyday at 8:00 with my Brazilian colleague (10min drive). Once I arrive in the office, I make a phone call to the U.S., read the daily local newspaper and start working. Our department is in preparation phase and there are still a lot to be organized before the elections actually happen!

Around lunch time I usually have a sandwich or a yogurt at my desk. Sometimes some of us from the office go out to a restaurant. I never eat in the UNMIS cafeteria. The food there is terrible!

About 3x a week I go to the Rotana in the evenings to work out for 1 hour. (Tef and Yndira will be surprised to read this!) but I am not on any better shape. I eat lots of sweets; There are amazing ones here! The gym is just to pass time :)

On weekends, I also work out a little and then go spend the rest of the day by the pool. It’s great! I read, chat with my friend and play with her kids.

So, that’s it. Today is Sunday here and I am about to start my last work week before a 10-day vacation! Yay! :)



Friday, March 6, 2009

"Isabel"

I didn’t expect that after officially changing my last name, I’d create a new confusion!
When it was just "Aline Alves", the problem most people seemed to have was getting the right pronunciation of my first name. However, “Alves” was always pronounced correctly. After all, it is a Spanish last name! :)

Here in Sudan, I think people’s eyes are getting puzzled with the As and Ls in both names or they are just too lazy to try to pronounce Aline, because Asbell has stuck in their minds and a few people have assumed that my first name is “Isabel” :)

So, in the UN compound, I am known to some as Aline and to others as Isabel!
I have to come up with a way to use that to my advantage…

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Hummus

Last Saturday, I was invited for a barbeque lunch over my Lebanese friend’s house. We had delicious lamb kebabs and I saw (and learned) how hummus is made from scratch! It was a fun day. However, it was the day I found out that I cannot pronounce the word “hummus”! I’ve been saying it for years and no one ever corrected me, but this one day, my friend’s brother-in-law corrected my pronunciation all the time! :)

Anyway, this afternoon the ICC will deliver its decision on the charges against the Sudanese president. We are probably going to be released from work soon...

Friday, February 27, 2009

Power outage

Last night I experienced my first power outage in Khartoum. Apparently, there are many more to come!
I got home around 8:30pm and realized that I had to use one the “thatchas” my mother-in-law gave me to carry in my purse - a mini flash light which was just enough to guide my way through the walkway to the main door of the building and to my apartment –.

Once I got in and felt the heat, I decided to call my friend to ask her about the situation in her neighborhood and probably ask to sleep over because my apt. felt like an oven! At that moment, I see my neighbor who invites me to go outside with her and learn how to turn on the generator! I had never seem the generator, but it’s this big contraption which stays right on the sidewalk in front of the building! (I passed by it everyday and never noticed it) It's kept inside a cage secured by a huge locker! There are four buttons, which need to be pressed in a particular order and many others that we are not supposed to touch at all! I wrote down the instructions, but the difficult part is to open the lock to get access to these buttons! The hole collects dust and the key won’t get it! Once it does and we get it to open, it’s hard to close it! After we are done, we need to turn up switches for each apartment. It's a kind of annoying task, but I can handle it.


Anyway, it took us about 10mins to get it going, but it was a good experience. I needed to learn in case I am ever alone in the building when this happens next. This blackout also gave me an opportunity to get to know my neighbor a little better. We spent a few hours chatting and by the time the conversation was over, power had returned and we went to turn off the generator!

Today I went to the gym and the pool. It was a very nice (AND VERY HOT) day :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Incident at the UN!




Incident at the UN!

Yesterday was a weird day for me. I arrived in the office at 8:00 and found out that my work computer had been stolen over night. A mystery! No one heard or saw anything and I basically had to spend my day being interrogated by the Investigations Division! A very unfortunate situation that resulted in a very unproductive day!

Not much else to report. The whether in Khartoum remains hot, dry and dusty. The traffic is still chaotic (did I mention that the lights here turn yellow before they turn green?), but the food is good, the friends I made have been great and I am still enjoying this mission very much! It’s already been a month since I left New York City! Time flew!

One last thing; besides Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Al Bagdadia, AlThuraya, Al Rafiden, Al Majd, Al Hakeka, AlFajr, AlKass etc. I am excited to also get CNN (in English) on my TV at home! Guess which channel I fell asleep to last night? :)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sandstorm...















I have adjusted in my new place (gray building) and I like it very much. I do laundry everyday! :) Also, my ears are stating to get used to the sound of Arabic. “Hamdulilah” is my favorite word so far. It means “Thanks to God” and it’s said all the time here. I like the way it sounds.

Last week I had a taste (literally!) of what the Haboob will be like. We had a sandstorm and for like a whole day, I tasted and breathed sand. I learned not to have conversations outside or by the window! There was so much dust in the air that we couldn’t see the sky. It wasn’t blue nor cloudy. It was just “yellowish”. Some pics are attached, but unfortunately they don't capture the storm very well… These were taken on the way from the UN to my place. Anyway, Happy Belated Valentine’s Day to all! It was also Valentine’s Day here in Sudan.