Sudan in Retrospect
Best thing brought: Sleeping bag for overnight camping at the pyramids.
Worst thing brought: Sexy little black dress, a dormant STI.
Best thing bought: Food and drink: cheap, filling and wonderful.
Worst thing bought: The travel permits for down south, 44USD, and ages to get... no one checked them, not once, not even a glance, they didn't give a monkeys.
Most surprising: Being fired, and the general attitude of the volunteer facilitator. The incredible support of fellow volunteers who instantly and brilliantly fall into the roles of friend, confident, guide, family member and entertainer.
Typically Sudanese: Being invited into a strangers house and them treating you like it is the biggest honour in the world to have you there, infectious generosity beyond compare.
What's accepted: Gender inequality, I have somehow turned into a raving feminist, I liken they way women are treated here to apartheid. women are seen as not just different but inferior, I ask if it is wrong to let a Muslim drive a truck but not a christian - of course it is wrong. I ask is it wrong to let a black person drive a truck but not an Asian - of course it is wrong. I ask, so why are women not entitled to passenger vehicles or heavy vehicles licences here - oh, but that's because they are female. Defended in the name of tradition (like slavery was) and religion (like Human sacrifice was)... see, absolutely raving.
What's not accepted: questioning authority, being atheist, a female who wants to cut her hair short (I was ok, because I'm growing out my short hair... into a fluffy mouse brown mullet as it turns out, my hair never left the 80s)
What works: pay as you go mobile phones, without addresses or credit people in mud houses with 2 hours electricity a night stay in touch easily. Also tea ladies, butt hoses, trees and bus boys.
What doesn't work: Plastic, it's everywhere, seriously Plastic bottles and bags should be banned until there is some sort of system of recycling or effective disposal.
What I learnt: The UN are not liked by many, they are seen as corrupt pawns of western ideology that create inflation, make the rich richer, exploit poor nations, pander to the US and never actually resolve any problems.
What I learnt to do: Smoke shisha without coughing. listen to the ideas and opinions of my students (see above).
I knew I was in Africa when: The tomatoes in my fridge were frozen solid but the the water in ice tray in my freezer remained liquid.
Worst thing brought: Sexy little black dress, a dormant STI.
Best thing bought: Food and drink: cheap, filling and wonderful.
Worst thing bought: The travel permits for down south, 44USD, and ages to get... no one checked them, not once, not even a glance, they didn't give a monkeys.
Most surprising: Being fired, and the general attitude of the volunteer facilitator. The incredible support of fellow volunteers who instantly and brilliantly fall into the roles of friend, confident, guide, family member and entertainer.
Typically Sudanese: Being invited into a strangers house and them treating you like it is the biggest honour in the world to have you there, infectious generosity beyond compare.
What's accepted: Gender inequality, I have somehow turned into a raving feminist, I liken they way women are treated here to apartheid. women are seen as not just different but inferior, I ask if it is wrong to let a Muslim drive a truck but not a christian - of course it is wrong. I ask is it wrong to let a black person drive a truck but not an Asian - of course it is wrong. I ask, so why are women not entitled to passenger vehicles or heavy vehicles licences here - oh, but that's because they are female. Defended in the name of tradition (like slavery was) and religion (like Human sacrifice was)... see, absolutely raving.
What's not accepted: questioning authority, being atheist, a female who wants to cut her hair short (I was ok, because I'm growing out my short hair... into a fluffy mouse brown mullet as it turns out, my hair never left the 80s)
What works: pay as you go mobile phones, without addresses or credit people in mud houses with 2 hours electricity a night stay in touch easily. Also tea ladies, butt hoses, trees and bus boys.
What doesn't work: Plastic, it's everywhere, seriously Plastic bottles and bags should be banned until there is some sort of system of recycling or effective disposal.
What I learnt: The UN are not liked by many, they are seen as corrupt pawns of western ideology that create inflation, make the rich richer, exploit poor nations, pander to the US and never actually resolve any problems.
What I learnt to do: Smoke shisha without coughing. listen to the ideas and opinions of my students (see above).
I knew I was in Africa when: The tomatoes in my fridge were frozen solid but the the water in ice tray in my freezer remained liquid.
posted by Rachel | 2:46 pm
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