The First Night in Khartoum

Thursday September 9th 2010 4am

The First Night in Khartoum...
It is now 4am, and we have just returned home after a long first night in Khartoum.

We arrived in Khartoum at 6pm this evening. The airport was fairly uneventful in terms of security or difficulty. We did meet a quite rude UN diplomat, while waiting in the passport control line, who attempted to bond with us over, what he seemed to believe, is the sheer misery of Sudan. He complained about the slow passport control process, the general inefficiency of Sudan, and really emphasized that no one comes here because they want to and that we should turn around and leave immediately, emphasizing the violence of Darfur and the political corruption at large. It was quite awkward because he demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the Sudanese individuals surrounding us, as he was complaining quite loudly. When some Sudanese men wandered past the passport control line, he went up to them, trying to wave them away with his hands and put them back behind the line where he believed they should be.

Hamada and his friend met us at the airport. He had already arranged a beautiful apartment for us and took us to it right away. Him and his friends had spent days meeting with different land lords and bargaining for the best quality apartment for the best price, on our behalf. His friend owns a cleaning company and had arranged for the apartment to be cleaned very thoroughly before our arrival. The place is beautiful. A large sitting room with a dining table, television and sofas, a large kitchen with dishes and cookware, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, each with a balcony, two beds, and two wardrobes. The apartment is very beautiful and conveniently located with small markets right downstairs.

After the apartment, Hamada and his friend drove us to a mall where they showed us a huge store where we will be able to buy everything that we need and a small boutique with beautiful jewelry and clothing, which they explained is worn during weddings. They spent some time driving around Khartoum, showing us different government buildings, the university of Khartoum, a hospital, and many bridges crossing the blue and white Nile rivers. They took us to a restaurant where we ate delicious food and drank iced teas. Two more men joined us at the restaurant after we had eaten. Everyone was exceptionally friendly, asked what we thought of Khartoum thus far, making sure that we were comfortable and had everything we needed, and asking if the apartment is ok and what we need.

After the restaurant, we went to Nile Road, the road that follows the Nile River, and sat outside, looking at the view of the Nile and sitting in a circle to talk. A woman nearby was making tea and coffee, boiled on coals, and we drank traditional Sudanese coffee out of small cups. We stayed there until approximately 2am, after which Hamada’s friend drove us around Khartoum some more. He drove to Omdurman, to the West of Khartoum, where he took us to fish restaurants next to the Nile. They both emphasized that the fish is delicious and generously insisted on buying us 4 huge fried fish.

We came home around 3am. It was such a wonderful night, and I learned so much while driving through Khartoum, relaxing at the restaurant and Nile, and throughout all the conversations. Hamada and his friends were all very eager to talk about their culture, share advice with us, and answer our questions.

The following is some of what they explained to us in an attempt to familiarize us with their culture and home:

Khartoum is very safe. There is essentially no crime in Khartoum. You can walk through any part of the city, at any time of day or night, alone or with others, without fear of anything. No one fights, steals, mugs, or robs. If someone did attempt to steal or harm a person, there is no need to call the police, as everyone around would chase the person down and make sure that justice is served. When we were about to leave the Nile and Hamada wanted to pay the woman for the coffee we had drank, she was nowhere to be found. We waited for about 10 minutes, after which Hamada decided to just leave some money near her belongings, which she had abandoned to go wherever she was going. There were many people around, and many who were eager to earn money as demonstrated by their attempts to wash cars or sell drinks or other small items to those who sat by the Nile. I asked him if anyone would take the money if he just set it on top of her belongings and he assured me that it would never happen and that it is perfectly safe and no one will steal belongings or money.

Sudanese people are very friendly, polite, respectful, eager to help, and talkative. They didn’t necessarily need to tell us this, as it was readily apparent throughout our first few hours in Khartoum, and even before arriving in the country. An Example: How I met Hamada. I met Hamada by chance, a couple of months prior to travelling to Khartoum, because he was in Oslo representing the Sudanese Olympic Committee. A friend of mine, who I had discussed my recent field work location change from Wau to Khartoum to, and with whom I had shared some of my worries about now having good connections or contacts in Khartoum, met Hamada one night while out in town. He spent some time talking to him and got to know him a bit, and then explained to Hamada that he had a friend who would soon be travelling to Khartoum. Hamada gave my friend his contact information and was very eager to meet me, telling my friend that he would do whatever he could to make Khartoum an enjoyable experience for me and my field work successful. When I met Hamada, it was clear that he was so happy to hear that I was planning a trip to Khartoum and he was eager to hear all about my project, to find relevant connections between my project and his work, knowledge and interests, and find out exactly what I needed so that he could make all the preparations for my arrival upon his return to Khartoum in a couple of weeks. We spent a lot of time getting to know each other while he was in Oslo, and after he left, we stayed in touch. In the days leading up to our arrival, Hamada dedicated hours to preparations for our arrival, arranging an apartment, having it cleaned, purchasing the items that he thought we would need upon arrival, such as kilograms of electricity for the apartment, local sim cards for our cell phones, local currency, and some water and food items. He has assured us that he will see to it that all of our practical needs are taken care of, such as registering with government, extending our visas, transportation, and so on.

But “keep your detectors on.” This was point was quite interesting. Hamada’s friend had spent some years living in Washington, in the United States, and told me about how he had a police detector installed in his car to alert him whenever a police car was approaching so that he could be sure to slow down. He tried to use this analogy to explain that we should imagine similar detectors that we take everywhere with us, so that we avoid getting to know all of the people who approach us or let just anyone get to close to us. This did not seem to be a warning that certain people have malicious intentions, will try to take advantage of us, or wish to harm us in some way, but rather that everyone is far too talkative and friendly in general and that they will all try to get to know us and become friends. Hamada explained that one of his least favorite things about Sudanese culture is that everyone wants to know everyone, on very personal levels, and that they will talk to excessive lengths. He said that he prefers the privacy associated with Europe, where people are polite to strangers in public but do not try to become such good friends on personal levels.