The best and the worst...and a run in with the police

Hi all - I am not sure what is happening to the comments, but people have been putting them there and I cannot publish them...Oh technology...

I thought I would talk a little bit about the worst things in Sudan and then tell you about the best things..

The worst is the dust. It is everywhere, on every part of you, and I wash my clothes every day (lovely lana rooney will attest to such predilicitons) and the water is black. It is in your hair, on your face, on your clothes, you may as well just roll in it.. The other day I went to have a meeting with my boss at the British Council and as I was sitting there I looked down and in horror realised that my white shirt was actually filthy! It literally looked like just before the meeting I had sat in the dirt and rolled from side to side... I commented about how dirty I was, and she agreed! How embarrassing..I had only had it on for a few hours. There is definitley a skill in keeping 'clean'. The Africans have it mastered.

The next, or course is the lack of alcohol. It is easier to get drugs than grog. The other night, with a friend, we drove around on alcohol "missions". It really is rather hilarious. It feels like I am in high school..

The best is the people. Really they are so kind and friendly. Last Friday I went to Nazik's house, a woman I work with now at teh NGO and I invited Anna, her son, Ahmed, and Rachel and they make us lunch, took us to the Sufi dancing and generally opened up their home and hospitality to us. This is so common. People and friendly, warm, welcoming and generous. For what Sudan lacks in so many ways, it makes up for in this area.

That is probably the best thing, the main thing, dare I say the only thing....

I will share a little adventure we had with the police. On Saturday night Trish, Rinee and I went to a flash UN BBQ - it was very good, but the best was yet to come. Rinee and I got a rickshaw home. I have mentioned the drivers, young, teenage and a bit rough. Well after driving us around for 20 minutes, all the back roads (here back roads are dirt tracks), we finally had enough. We got out, said we were not going to pay and went to catch an Amgad (like a taxi). He was furious and demanded that the Amgad driver take us and him to the police unless we paid. We refused. So off we all went to the police station....Mmmmm....my phone battery was low, so was Rinee's and we were not sure where we were.

Now Rinee and I had had a few drinks so we were feeling a little surly. We were NOT going to PAY! This wene round and round for a while. The mood was a little strange, the police were half laughing, half ogling (I did have a very low cut top on) and half angry with us - all in very bad english of course We tried to call Ahmed, his phone was off. We called Mohammed (my volunteer co-ordinator) and Rinee's phone cut out. We called him on mine and mine cut out. So now we were unsure where we were, were fighting with the police and had no way of contacting anyone or being contacted by anyone...mmmmm time to take care, but NO, it was at this point that Rinee decided it was a great time to start yelling at the police. I was horrified. I said RINEE, we are in a fundamentalist state with not a great record for human rights (!) please don't yell at the police! lol.

It could have all gone very badly, but I think they didn't quite know what to make of us and so in the end we paid a little money to the rickshaw driver and they let us go.

The Amjad driver was pissing himself laughing. We took off with him (he'd waited), probably the best fun he'd had in ages, and started home. We sort of acquired a policeman who sat in the front seat on the way and who just kept looking at us and laughing hysterically with the Amjad driver...Who were these wild western women who yelled at the police??

Really the things that happen are never what you expect....Just another day.....

I will post some photos again soon....