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!!