sudan: going to the meeting

Another week has passed! after all the accusations of wimpiness maybe this time i will not mention the weather. i will not even mention that some have fur lined underwear and emu-feather boots to cope with their cold weather, whereas here everything is built to resist heat. but mainly i wont mention it because now its slightly warmer at 30deg which is nice and moderate for Khartoum!

We had a pleasant and uneventful week. i went around by bicycle - its interesting cycling in khartoum - it is entirely flat and you never have to go uphill or downhill!

Speaking of arabic, i started my arabic lessons this week. there are several interesting things about this language. one is that they have their own alphabet. its 28 letters so its not too bad. its also written from right to left, unlike english and therefore all their books start at what to us is the back page. one complication is that each letter is written differently depending on whether it is at the start of a word, in the middle or at the end. on the plus side, a lot of arabic is similar to swahili, since swahili came into being when arab traders came to the coast of east africa and tried to communicate with the bantus. so many words are similar.

Well, thats all for this week. I leave with these pics of some cute kids of a study who were all dressed up for the meeting...