Sudan. Sudan is hot. Sudan is uncompromising, unforgiving and in the first four days of pounding heat, it was pretty tough. It was hotter then Natalie Portman covered in Chilli’s and cooking in the oven (?). Yep, pretty hot. Whilst driving, I poured the remains of a bottle of water down my back to cool down, I am confident that what came out was nearly as hot as the sun. I had seen enough dead, dying, and ‘waiting to die’ camels, donkeys and cows to give the RSPCA a collective heart attack. Side note here – if you are a big fan of Animal Welfare, then the African continent is really not for you. If however you aren’t, come over and grab a donkey.
Anywaaay, we finally arrived in the capital ‘Khartoum’. It was here that things started to improve. Upon arriving at our campsite we suddenly started to get what I believe the youngsters call ‘The hook-up’. A UN worker called Pete appeared from his car, and seeing our weary state, appeared with 5 cans of Heineken.
Now, bear this in mind, Sudan is a dry country, no booze, no how. We’d been driving for four days pretty much solid...Crikey, that beer could not have gone down quicker if it tried. I’m not sure even now, whether I drank that ice cold lager, or it simply evaporated on hitting my tongue. Pete? If you ever should stumble across this blog, you Sir are a legend.
Anyway, we also stumbled across another UN worker. A young man by the name of Anders, a Scandinavian fellow who looked a little bit like the lead singer of Kings of Leon, he also took pity on us and invited us round for dinner the following day. Then Ian, of the British Embassy, gave us his contact details and said he’d have a look over our Land Rovers us he had one of his own and it was something of a hobby. Follow all this with the news that for the following two days we could stay in the home ( A HOUSE!, WITH BEDS!!, WITH BEDS!!) of Ed’s friends Dad (how’s that for tenuous?).
Well Nadir (Ed’s Friends Dad) was an amazing chap. Totally generous with his time and his home, he took us to brunch, we stayed and watched football in his air conditioned house all day, and then in the evening we were heading to Anders’ gaff to have dinner.
Which was amazing. Lamb Shanks, Gammon baked in some kind of chutney, Wine, Beer, Great mashed potato, it had it all. Also, I discovered that UN workers are these kind of impossibly cool, good looking Eurotypes, it seemed a little like I’d stepped into a BBC drama about UN peacekeepers. I mused on what I’d call this hard hitting and provocative drama as I munched on more delicious gammon.
Next day, and it was onto the British Ambassadors house. He looked over our two Land Rovers and changed our Filters etc and then his delightful wife also fed us lunch and we munched away whilst watching ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. Still slightly baffled by the ending...not that I’ve now seen it twice. Also we couldn’t take any photos’ as he preferred us not to due to his days in the Army. Which is just cool.
Ethiopia is next, and a further drive through the Sudan desert first. My loins are girded, my fingers are crossed, my prayers prayed (can’t hurt), and my memories of Khartoum will be fond.
I will call my BBC drama ‘Darfur Nights’, no wait ‘PeaceKeepers’, no ‘The United Nations’. Oh, I don’t know.
Love to all, except obviously those of you that don’t like or love me. Which I can’t understand because I’m a delight.
JJ FootballAfrica
Guys, amazing - what an experience, I'm sure you'll never forget it. And JJ I had no idea you were such a good writer (as are you all). Nice work, I'm so impressed and proud of you all! XX
Posted by: Kate Hanson | 04/29/2009 at 08:19 AM