Another day.....

Well my life here is so different and so interesting...For such a large town, it really is a small community. i spend a lot of time with my fellow volunteers and I thought I should tell you about them..

Anna: I spend most time with the lovely Anna. She is a 60 year old vicar's wife and is as hilarious as you would imagine. She swears like a trooper, loves a gin a tonic and is full of vile and vitriole. We have the best fun. She is English, as are most of the vollies, and is always ready with a cup of tea and a joke from her husband (he emails one daily

Rachel: or as Ahmed calls her Raashelllle.... Rachel is a 30 year old retired burlesque dancer (and in a night of confessions a former pole and lap dancer!). She is a Kiwi and has been travelling for 8 years. She oscillates between the goth and the vamp and is always up for any adventures that are on offer.

Renee: works at the British Council and is always light and fun and ready for a night out. She is a former lawyer, turned teacher, turned international adventurer. Her former assignment was in Turkey and her next, who knows. She dates Micheli, an Italian tour guide, who again is the funniest man. When we are all together we laugh all night...

The boys: There is Liam, an English lad who spends his days and nights studying Arabic. His lessons at the moment consist of sitting for hours either in the Sheesa cafe or with the tea ladies and chatting to all and sundry. He is a former engineer, has been living in Palestine and is here for the duration I think.

Young Matt is 22, sweet and full of hormones. I am not sure what he hopes to achieve with the furious texting with all the young sudanese girls, but it seems to fill his time...

Nick is a fellow Aussie - I don't see much of him as he is always off doing something interesting somewhere..

That is sort of it, there are others that come and go, but that is the core group. It has been so much more than I expected...these people....and such a different life than I thought. For eg, last Monday I had an appt at an NGO, after I cam to the British Council where I found Renee, who was having coffee with Angus (a new trainer), Rachel and Anna turned up and we sat and chatted for a good hour. Then I wanted to go to the French centre, so Anna and Angus and I went there. I passed my French exam and enrolled in the next level. Angus has a girlfriend working for Medcin sans Frontier, in the Congo, so he wanted to brush up on his French. While he was organising this, Olivia, the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and again a good friend of Anna's stolled in. She is from Chad/France and so she offered him lessons, we all sat in the French garden drinking tea.. Rachel popped in and we all went to the internet cafe, then we went to Renee's for dinner that night...Micheli came and Mauro (a friend of his from Italy) and we just told stupid stories all night and then raced home in not too safe rickshaws with unlicenced teenage drivers. NOt quite the life one would imagine I was having in Sudan, but really, my days are so extraordinary..

On a more serious note I am now doing volunteer work for two NGOs. I am in the middle of a proposal for a women's centre in Darfur - ie a place devoted to addressing violence against women. I am then going to do a proposal for another NGO on FGM. So all of that is falling into place. My problem now is time. Ahmed is complaining that I am not a very good Muslim wife as I am not devoting all my time to him. I have to agree. But then again I am not a Muslim wife so not much I can do about that... He is good though, he has come back from Egypt and has now gone down south for a week for work. No chance to get sick of him.

That is it. Please write comments in the space below dedicated to comments. It adds to the fun