WHY AFRICA? WHY SUDAN? Chapter 2

It's About The People


Within days of arriving in Sudan we knew we were among some of the world's most gracious people.  It started with the immigration officer who welcomed us, helped speed up the arduous process of obtaining a visa, and exchanged currency for us discreetly at a black market rate.  The warmth continued when we were enthusiastically greeted by Ibrahim, who represented our tour operator, Italian Tourism Company, and then at our hotel, where everyone made sure we were happy and content.  
  

ONE OF THE MANY BEAUTIFUL WOMEN AT THE GUEST HOUSE 

IBRAHIM

While touring the city, I don't remember an instance when someone didn't smile at me first or smile at me after I smiled at him or her.  People riding buses waved at us.  Some gave us a thumbs up sign.  Kids on the street turned to look, waving and shouting something to us that sounded friendly, even though we had no idea what they said.  At the same time, our guide, Laura, cautioned us never to take photos of the police, military or government buildings, or even bridges, which could lead to trouble.  But, to our surprise, a man wearing a police uniform asked if we would take his picture with him standing next to one of us.  We were in a courtyard of a restaurant where we had just finished lunch, so the man may have taken liberties with us in that location where he wouldn't be seen.  Given Laura's warning, he never would have been so friendly to us on the street.  White faces like ours were a novelty and attracted attention. 

THUMBS UP

THIS LITTLE ONE WASN'T SURE ABOUT OUR WHITE FACES

On the university campus where we visited, many students, mainly young women, approached us and asked in  English What brings you to Khartoum? They were as eager to take photos of us with their mobile phones as we were of them.  One student, in particular, stood out.  Khalid finished graduate school where he majored in human rights.  While his dream was to work in the United States, he was happy to have a job as a teaching assistant at the law school.  We saw more female students than male, and were surprised to learn that women have a better chance of landing a job than a man.  Our positive reactions were quickly diminished when we learned that the reason was because beauty ranks higher than brains.  

THESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WERE EAGER TO TALK WITH US 

In Khartoum's busy market one man vigorously shook my hand and welcomed me to his country.  "Sudan loves America, and we are very close," he said with conviction.   I thanked him for his kind words, and then as we walked away, I said to Bruce, "That man has no idea what he's talking about.  Obviously he doesn't know the U.S. has sanctions against his country, and our State Department discourages citizens from traveling to Sudan."

HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS ON THE STREET 

The Nubian people in the northern deserts were friendly too, more reserved perhaps, but still smiling and happy to share a little of themselves with us, even though only a few of them spoke English.   The staff at the guesthouse worked hard to please us, but this high level of hospitality was not just about doing their job.   This is who these people are.  

THIS WAS OUR SUV DRIVER POSING WITH A BABY GOAT

When we returned home, some of our friends asked two simple questions:  Were you scared traveling in Sudan?  How did you get those people to pose for your photos?  Some of our friends have called us crazy, but then they are the same ones who have called us crazy before.


I must repeat what I wrote in previous posts.   We always felt safe in the areas of Sudan where we traveled.  We did not go to South Sudan, Darfur or the Blue Nile States.  Had we included those uncertain areas on our itinerary, then the moniker of crazy would definitely be justified.

BEAUTIFUL WOMEN I PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE SUFI RITUAL

As some of you know, taking portraits of people appeals to me  more than shooting landscapes, although in the northern desert there was ample opportunity to do both.   I always tried to ask permission as gracefully as possible, using sign and body language, if I didn't think they understood me.  I often showed people the pictures I had taken the day before.  Some times when I received a positive nod, the person felt the need to pose, and when they did, they often took on a serious face.  Others didn't have the time or the interest to pose, and that's when I either took a lousy photo or I was just plain lucky.  Other photographers in our group pointed out how best to capture the light and stressed the importance of the subject's background.  As I have learned from experienced photographers on past trips, every photo we take should be considered a practice. 

SHE WAS TOO BUSY AND I WAS JUST LUCKY

Our guide Laura had a bag of tricks up her sleeve and knew the way to take us to places that were off limits to visitors, like excavated tombs.  She also got us invited to local people's homes for lunch or chai tea, and although some of her magic came from sweet talk and cigarettes, most of it came from the strong and caring relationships she built with the Sudanese people over time.  Clearly Laura was adored, but as she wrote me after reading my blog post Chapter One,  She was never a queen in her past life.  A princess maybe, or a nomad.

A NUBIAN FAMILY WE VISITED AT THEIR HOME

GIVING  GIFTS

"When we travel in the desert today," Laura would say, "we cannot be certain to find where the nomads are, but if we are lucky, I want you to do what I say. Stay in your cars until I say it's okay, and then come out one or two at a time and do not start taking pictures right away.  Give the people time to check you out."  We nodded in agreement, taking her warning to heart because we knew that our brief time with the nomads would be precious encounters that we would long remember, and the last thing we wanted to do was scare them away.   




After a couple of hours of traveling off road in sand and stopping only long enough to find a small dune or a bush behind which to pee, we came upon our first glimpse of a nomadic family out there in the middle of nowhere.   All four of our vehicles stopped a few hundred feet from the two or three huts built of sticks.  Laura got out first and approached a man who walked towards her to see who we were and what we wanted.   This was the time for Laura to use her sweet talk and magic.  We saw the man light up the cigarette that Laura offered and soon they began to talk.  None of us could hear the conversation, nor would we have been able to understand Arabic, but this is what we thought she was saying.   

Hello, I am traveling here in your beautiful desert with some people who live a long ways away.  They would like to meet you and shake your hand.  They have gifts for you and your family.  And, by the way, they have cameras and would like to take your picture.  

WAITING FOR THE GREEN LIGHT

A minutes later Laura signaled for a few of us to come and the rest of us to follow slowly.   Behind the man but staying close to their huts, the women and a few children watched what was going on with curiosity, but soon they walked forward to see us too.   We spoke to them sotta voce, using the few Arabic greetings we knew.  "Salamalikium," we said.   Laura spoke a few more Arabic words to the man and they both laughed, and then he said something to the women.  And they laughed too.  We were all smiling and laughing.  This was good. 

RUNNING TO SEE WHAT'S GOING ON

What happened next was heartwarming.  An older women took the hand of a younger woman in our group and lead her over to her stick hut to show her where she lived.  We all followed like little sheep.  

SHE WAS VERY PROUD OF HER HUT

SHOWING OFF HER HUT

That's when Laura gave us the word that taking photographs would be o.k.  They seemed to enjoy having us visit.  No one minded the camera, and a few even posed. When they saw themselves on the camera screen, it wasn't clear whether they had ever seen their faces before.  One woman pointed to the little girl and said something which we took to mean, That's you, because the little girl smiled. That's when I realized that small hand mirrors would have made great gifts.  I also wished I had a Polaroid camera.  People in our group pulled out the gifts they'd brought from home: tee shirts,  blouses, and scarves, which we hoped the women would like, but we felt bad when we realized we didn't bring a gift for the man, who honestly didn't seem to mind.   I also had a handful of perfume samples that a Nordstrom's saleswoman gave to me before I left.  These perfumes had a short life as they were just smears on a card hidden under a tab, which, when pulled, would expose the sweet smelling perfume.  In an effort to explain to the women what this was and how to access the perfume smear, I held the card in my left hand, and pretended to tug on the tab with my right, as I said the words, Pull the tab, pull the tab.   I also demonstrated with my hands.  Pull the tab, touch the card,  dab the sweet-smelling perfume behind your ears.  The only sounds they could hear were my words pull the tab.  Of course they had no idea what I was trying to say or explain, but they had fun laughing and mimicking my words saying  pooldatub, pooldatub.  Fortunately, I had previously explained to our driver how the perfume card worked and the need to pull the tab, so I asked him to explain what the women had to do to access the perfume.   He said some words in Arabic and then he showed them, as I did, to pull the tab.  They giggled, saying pooldatub and then laughed harder.  This, of course, had me laughing too, but I was so grateful that they finally got what I meant when I said pooldatub.   

PULLDATUB   (She's holding the white perfume card in her hand)

WHY AFRICA? WHY SUDAN? Chapter 1

Why Africa?  Why Sudan?  When someone asks me these questions, I often respond with the same answer.  I want to rub shoulders with people who live in a land and a culture that is 360 degrees different from the land and the culture I live in.  I want some adventure.  I want to learn about life.  And when you travel in Africa, that is what happens.   This was definitely the case in Sudan -- one of the most ethnically, geographically and culturally diverse countries in Africa and yet, so misunderstood.
 

SUDANESE CAMEL TRADERS

CAMEL MARKET IN THE DESERT

If you Google the State Department's web posting for "Travel in Sudan" a warning pops up on your screen advising you against visiting there.  It reads:  "It's difficult and expensive to get a visa, and it's extremely dangerous and highly discouraged."   The website continues to explain the decades of civil war, and how in 2011 the country was divided into two countries,  Sudan and South Sudan.  However, the description ends with this statement:  "If you do manage to get in and you stick to the safe areas, you will probably have a memorable experience.  The Sudanese people are very hospitable, and you can visit some awesome places without ever seeing another tourist."  Yes, the State Department actually used the word awesome.  While we knew all the negatives in advance, we felt safe because we would be traveling in North Sudan and not in regions like Darfur and the Blue Nile States.  We were also going with a reputable tour operator, who came highly recommended.  Knowing that we would be sharing the experience with nine other adventurous friends, we decided to go, applied for and received the visa, and in November, 2015, we embarked on another one of those trips of a lifetime, of which there have been many, especially in Africa.

WE TRAVELED IN THE AREA ALONG THE NILE ABOVE KHARTOUM

The first three days we explored the busy capital of Khartoum, where we watched a Sufi Dervish ritual, and then drove a long distance north in four 4-wheel drive vehicles into the Nubian and Bayuda Deserts.  This remote area is sparsely populated with small villages,  nomadic encampments sprinkled throughout, and stunning archeology sites of the ancient Nubian and Meroe civilizations.   In the north along the Nile, the economy is driven by agriculture, not tourism, but traveling with an Italian tour company that has established itself as the main operator for Sudan, we were very comfortable in accommodations they built, especially for their clients, near archeology sites that go back thousands of years.  And for frosting on our cake, we had beautiful Laura, a very experienced guide, who many of our fellow travelers knew because she guided them before in West Africa.   In fact, Laura suggested Sudan to our friends as an opportunity to experience another unique African country with tribal influences that blended with antiquities from ancient civilizations. 

Khartoum is like many African cities.  Big, dirty, crowded, smoggy, and with traffic gridlock equal to what we had seen in Cairo.  Horse and donkey-pulled carts heavily loaded with merchandise from China, noisy tuk-tuks, small beat-up sedans, and big trucks compete for the privilege of traveling from one side of the city to the other.  People plan their day by how long it takes to get to their destination, a symptom of overcrowding, which is quite common even here in Silicon Valley.  The difference, of course, is that I'm not sharing roads filled with potholes,  slow-moving donkeys or smelly tuk-tuks spewing exhaust.  I'm on a fast-moving freeway and changing lanes with Teslas and Mercedes.  

ON THE STREET IN KHARTOUM (TAKEN FROM THE VAN WINDOW) 

THE UBIQUITOUS SMELLY TUK-TUK

Once we left Khartoum and drove north on a smooth paved road, we felt like we were in another world -- a world of camels, donkeys, spiky acacia trees, basalt rock formations, and sand.  Lots of sand.   Fine sand that you can sift through your fingers.  Course sand that takes the polish off salon-style painted toenails.  And blowing sand that makes everything you eat taste gritty.  But it's the color of sand -- the reds, the yellows, the oranges and various shades of brown -- that really affects your senses.  And then add tufts of light green tumbleweed and dark green acacia, and you have dramatic scenery that is candy to the eye.  On long drives, I would set my camera on sports mode and, through the window of our moving SUV, take image after image of stunning desert landscapes.   Of course, many of these photos ended up in my computer's trash basket, but here are some I thought worth saving.

WE HAD FOUR 4-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLES TO TRAVEL TO THE DESERT

DESERT SCENERY

THE WIND CREATES BEAUTIFUL PATTERNS IN THE SAND

VOLCANOES EXISTED HERE MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO

We spent four nights in attractive accommodations, called a guest house, that the Italian tour company built, and while the rooms were not fancy, they were efficiently designed, spacious and very comfortable.   We appreciated the luxury of air conditioning in this harsh environment.  While nights in the desert were pretty chilly, a bright blue cloudless sky with a blazing sun caused daytime temperatures to quickly soar into the high 90s.  By ten o'clock we were sweating.  And with the scarcity of trees, the shade, for the most part, came from the brims of our hats and the sun glasses protecting our eyes.  The hot air was dry, so it felt like a true 90, and not a humid false temperature of 110. Despite the heat, we wore long pants and either long sleeves or at least sleeves of a length that covered our shoulders.  As foreign visitors to a conservative land, we wanted to respect their customs regarding dress. 

THE GUESTHOUSE NEAR KARIMA

From the guesthouse (near the town of Karima) we were just steps away from Jebel Barkal, the huge red sandstone mountain, considered very holy since ancient times.  An impressive archeology site sits just below it.  We watched the dig conducted by an Italian archeology professor from the University of Venice.  He and his expert team of researchers, with the assistance of local workers, delicately scraped away sand and rock to expose more of what was the royal necropolis of the ancient city of Napata, the Nubian capital from 800 to 400 B.C.  While the professor generously shared information about this dig, funded partly by Qatar, we watched the local laborers haul bucket after bucket of fine red sand, a back-breaking chore which seemed endless and also low paying ($5/day).  

THE ITALIAN DIG WITH JEBEL BARKAL IN THE BACKGROUND

In a previous life, our guide Laura must have lived like a desert queen, studying hieroglyphics and traveling with pharaohs and kings up and down the Nile.  At least this is what we thought after spending ten days under her tutelage.  She was a wealth of knowledge, in fact, a walking encyclopedia, especially about the 25th Dynasty (760-656 BC) of Ancient Egypt (now northern Sudan).    Only someone who had lived during these ancient times would  know and reveal such stories in vivid detail.  She talked with passion about the Nubians, one of Africa's earliest civilizations going back 3000 years BC.  She directed her fluorescent light on the dark walls, so we could see the beautifully restored images deep inside two unlighted tombs, as she related legends about each of the ancient paintings.   Every day we visited another site, and we marveled, not only about the facts, but about how one person could know all that information and only occasionally refer to her written notes.  

QUEEN LAURA

ANCIENT CITY OF NAPATA  JUST BELOW JEBEL BARKAL

NOTICE THE VIVID COLORS INSIDE THIS ANCIENT TOMB

THE WALLS WERE COVERED

"At sunset we will climb Jebel Barkal," Laura announced boldly one afternoon.  "And after we reach the top and admire the view, we will descend by running down the large sand dune, the one you can see on the south wall."   With raised eyebrows, we looked at each other to see who would be the first to ask, are you serious?  But no one did.  We figured if Laura could do it, then we could do it too. That was before we learned that Laura had been climbing the holy rock for years.   

JEBEL BARKAL HERE WE COME

STILL SMILING

NOT BAD AT FIRST

NOW PRETTY STEEP

As we started to climb, Bruce and I took up the rear.  This gave us the opportunity to take photos of others up ahead, and a good excuse to move slowly.  We also didn't want to hold anyone back.  Climbing seemed easy at first since we were on a switchback path, but as we moved higher, the path disappeared, and all of a sudden we were slipping in loose sand and grabbing on to any rock we could find that would hold us, as the rocks were now further apart and sand filled the space in the middle.  Fortunately, Laura, who was close by,  gave us a couple of one-hand tugs, and when we finally made it to the top and walked over to the edge, we were speechless.  Wow, what a view! 

WOW, WHAT A VIEW!

Standing on the rocky edge and looking straight down scared us, since Bruce and I are a little timid about heights.  "Time to move," Laura announced, noting the setting sun, and reminding us we still had to make the steep sand dune descent.  She urged us to protect our cameras when coming down.   Already stored in a plastic bag, I tucked my camera snugly in my waist pack, removed my red gym shoes, tied them together by their lacings, and slung them around my neck.  I walked to the edge of the sand dune and looked all the way down.  I saw Laura already at the bottom motioning for me to come.  It looked scary.  One step and my feet quickly sunk in the soft, deep sand, but I was able to walk.   It looked so steep I was sure I might topple over.  With her hands on her hips, Laura stood at the bottom of the dune and yelled, "Run, run, run."  "I'm afraid I will fall," I yelled back at her.  "Just run, you won't fall, it's fun," she continued to holler.  Just before starting to run, I turned around and looked up at my traveling buddy Phil.  He aimed his long camera lens at me and that's when he took this picture.

QUEEN PAM

The adventure continues............