A day to stay indoors

Last week had been quiet and uneventful until Friday when, as you may have heard, there were a few protests in Khartoum! I don’t think there is any need for me to outline the reasons for the protest, which are well known, but suffice to say after Friday prayers many of the local Sudanese were extremely angry – and for a good reason.

In anticipation of some disturbances, I and most other teachers were already at home. From my apartment, I had a good vantage point and could see large crowds walking in the direction of the British and German embassy, which are next door to each other.

A short while later, I could clearly see the smoke from the direction of the two embassy’s, which are about 5 minutes walk away. Unfortunately, from my balcony both buildings are obscured by a larger block, so I could not be sure exactly which embassy had the fire.

Slightly more concerning was when a small group of protesters turned off the main road and started walking towards my apartment block. However, they did pass by without incident – albeit making a lot of noise. In fact, within a couple of hours the entire city appeared to be much calmer.

Despite this, the decision was taken not to open the school on Saturday, enabling everyone to enjoy an unexpected long weekend!

I know that many people read this blog if they are considering teaching in Khartoum or moving here for another reason. So I would like to end this week by emphasising that Khartoum is very safe and the people are very friendly. I don’t have any statistics to prove this, but I am sure you are far more likely to be attacked in London that you are in Khartoum.

I would not want one unusual weekend to put anyone off from accepting a job here!

Communicating with Khartoum

One of the difficulties of living in Khartoum is staying in contact with friends and family back home. To call the internet erratic would be an understatement. For the last week there has been no connection at all in my apartment (or any of the apartments in the block), and even when there is a connection, it is usually far to slow for skype. There is certainly no chance of a video call.

Completing simple tasks online, which would be straightforward and quick in England, take a long time here in Sudan – whether it be checking your emails or uploading a blog like this one. As I have found, trying to open a 2MB email can easily cause your entire computer to crash!

So what about the alternatives? Phoning home is possible, and providing the conversation is not too long, it will not break the bank either. There are two main mobile phone operators in Sudan: MTN and Zain. I have an MTN sim card in my mobile and a 10 minute conversation back to the UK costs me about 15 SDG. Texts are cheaper but, of course, you never know how long it may take for a text to be successfully delivered to a UK phone.

As for the post, this also takes a long time. I recently received a wedding invitation in post (which I’m looking forward to attending during half term!), but it had been posted more than one month earlier back in the UK! Many of the new textbooks which the school ordered for the new school year were also delayed recently. So I think the main delay is with the bureaucracy of customs in Khartoum Airport, not with transporting the post itself.

But how long will it take to post something back to the UK? A question which can only be resolved one way. Postcards are not easily available I Khartoum, although some hotels will sell a small selection. So today I walked to a small and friendly local hotel called ‘The Acropole’ which not only sold me a small selection of postcards, they will also be happy to post them for me tomorrow. Very handy, especially considering Khartoum has no post boxes!!

Come on you reds!!!

This last week had been uneventful until Friday afternoon, to such an extent that I had been wondering what I could write about this week. However, my blogging blank was saved on Friday afternoon by my good friend and neighbour Adam, who at 5pm suddenly announced we were off to a football match in Omderman, which is the oldest suburb of Khartoum and we were to leave at 5.30pm for a 7pm kick off.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was also not going to turn this opportunity down, even if it was just a local team playing a friendly match on a field with more sand than grass! However, as we approached Omderman an hour later I realised this was no minor match. The approach roads were heavily congested with both traffic and fans walking on the road with red shirts, red hats and waving red flags!! To side of the main road and behind some buildings, you could see the stadium and the flood lights were on! It really was just like being on the Holloway road in London, on Arsenal’s match day (although, of course, the stadium was not quite as impressive).

As soon as we got out of the Amjad in which we had been travelling, we were greeted by exited fans singing, chanting and shouting “Welcome, welcome!!” I think they were very impressed with my Arsenal shirt! We were ushered into the courtyard of a local mosque, where exited fans gave us food and water – and wanted to have their photographs taken with us! By now it was approaching 7pm, so we could not stay long and we were fortunate to meet up with a local news reporter who walked with us to the stadium turnstiles and ushered us to the front of the queue (which was very long!).

Tickets ranged from 10SDG to 100SDG, but we followed the news reporter’s lead, and opted for 20SDG tickets on the upper stands. Inside the stadium, the atmosphere was even more incredible, and excited fans were chanting and waving, in anticipation of kick off, which – by the time we reached our seats – was imminent. It was only when we sat down, that I found out who was playing and nature of the competition. The home team was Merreikh and they were playing Shendi, which is a town about two hours drive north of Khartoum, in the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup (sponsored by Orange). For those who are not familiar with African football, the Confederation Cup is the African equivalent of the Champions League, so this was an important match!! It was televised on both local television and Al Jazeera, and I could see the TV cameras on far side of the stadium. More info on the competition is online at: http://www.cafonline.com/competition/confederation-cup_2010

To be honest, much like Arsenal’s start to the season back home, Merreikh did not play well in the first half, and the home fans were somewhat subdued – despite the best efforts of the home goalkeeper who waved his hands to try to try raise the volume! The half time score was 0-0, when it was possible to buy hot tea, cigarettes and bags of water (yes – plastic bags – as bottles are not allowed in the stadium), all of which were served in our seats.

However, unlike Arsenal, Merriekh managed to turn the game around and dominated possession in the second half. Unsurprisingly, when Merreikh’s first goal was scored (at 6.11pm precisely) the crowd went wild, and from then on the atmosphere was very different. There was much more singing, chanting and shouting. Some fans were also lighting red flares, and even letting off small fireworks! I noted the riot police were keeping a close eye on things, but the atmosphere felt very safe. In fact, as Merreikh wear red and Shendi wear sky blue, it did at times feel like watching Arsenal vs Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium. This enabled me to take part in the crowd by chanting “Come on you Reds!” Another fantastic goal was scored before the final whistle, ensuring this was a great evening out – if only Arsenal could be this good!

Final score: Merreikh 2 – 0 Shendi