sudan: khartoum
we arrived in khartoum to discover to our utmost jaw dropping shock that the temperature was a lovely 21 degrees C. maybe just because it was 2 in the morning when we arrived? nope the next morning was just as cool and lovely. oh joy - its such a nice place when the temperature is normal. we were here only for a week.
beautiful architecture it yes, and also the muezzins call every morning with a bit of reading of the qu'ran is amplified through loudspeakers. at 5am.
sudan, formerly the largest country in africa recently split into 2 separate countries - the sudanese of arab origin and predominantly north and the sudanese of african origin and predominantly nominal christian south.
as always, one of the outstanding qualities of our brothers in khartoum is their generosity and hospitality. the good thing is that since we visited with samson and ammanuel (2 long-time bethelites from ethiopia), the food was spread around a bit so we only put on a few kilos! here you can see samson, behaving with the good manners and grace that bethelites worldwide are renowned for, initiating a food fight with one of our hosts...
the traffic in khartoum is a bit crazy - there are wide multi-lane roads, but a few odd traffic rules. for example, doing u-turns in the middle of an 8 lane highway is no big deal. also there are lots of tuktuks - 3 wheeled 2-stroke engined top-heavy carts that will carry you to your destination and as a kind of added bonus, scare the daylights out of you. heres the view from inside one of these machines...
there are many eritreans living in khartoum. many are refugees. there is in fact a tigrinya speaking congregation (which we visited). one brother we met still has his wife and young child (2 years old) still in prison.
in spite of the hardships and difficulties they have gone through, they are a happy and welcoming bunch.
the kids are tooo cute
and of course, khartoum would not be the same without our traditional football game. this time with the eritrea brothers who have awesome skills. including little janet:
it was a real nice week in khartoum, and with the work half done, on to juba, in south sudan for the second half. which will be the subject of my next post...
beautiful architecture it yes, and also the muezzins call every morning with a bit of reading of the qu'ran is amplified through loudspeakers. at 5am.
sudan, formerly the largest country in africa recently split into 2 separate countries - the sudanese of arab origin and predominantly north and the sudanese of african origin and predominantly nominal christian south.
as always, one of the outstanding qualities of our brothers in khartoum is their generosity and hospitality. the good thing is that since we visited with samson and ammanuel (2 long-time bethelites from ethiopia), the food was spread around a bit so we only put on a few kilos! here you can see samson, behaving with the good manners and grace that bethelites worldwide are renowned for, initiating a food fight with one of our hosts...
the traffic in khartoum is a bit crazy - there are wide multi-lane roads, but a few odd traffic rules. for example, doing u-turns in the middle of an 8 lane highway is no big deal. also there are lots of tuktuks - 3 wheeled 2-stroke engined top-heavy carts that will carry you to your destination and as a kind of added bonus, scare the daylights out of you. heres the view from inside one of these machines...
there are many eritreans living in khartoum. many are refugees. there is in fact a tigrinya speaking congregation (which we visited). one brother we met still has his wife and young child (2 years old) still in prison.
in spite of the hardships and difficulties they have gone through, they are a happy and welcoming bunch.
the kids are tooo cute
and of course, khartoum would not be the same without our traditional football game. this time with the eritrea brothers who have awesome skills. including little janet:
it was a real nice week in khartoum, and with the work half done, on to juba, in south sudan for the second half. which will be the subject of my next post...
