Taka Hotel Khartoum

... Khartoum today. The riders entered the city in a convoy to lessen the risk of injury due to vehicle traffic.I enjoyed the comfort of the truck at the back of the convoy and felt like a celebrity waving to the people looking on at the spectacle from the side of the street. The heat was intense, apparently. We will enjoy a day off here tomorrow. Again for me this will involve stocking up on dry goods and reorganizing the chaos of the truck.

Gondar to Khartoum We left the gentle care of the Goha Hotel behind us at about 07.30 on the fourth of December. It had been quite cold during the night, so the first few hundred meters we left a slightly blue atmosphere behind us. Not blue as in Billy Holliday, but as in "cough, sneeze and rasp". Once the engine had warmed up enough we did no longer visually pollute the air. While utterly enjoying the tarmac, we almost passed the turnoff to Metema. That was the ...

... and getting stuck, mostly driving abreast at wide spacings and only occasionally stopping for a leak or lunch break. We had two desert camps and on the third day reached the tarmac at Abu Hamed. Last nights camp was at Meroe, the capital of the old Nubian kingdom with pyramids dating from the 7th century, which we inspected this morning. After a 4 hour drive form Meroe we reached Khartoum this afternoon and are camped on the site of the Blue Nile Sailing ...

... some bread and told to "Eat Eat! You MUST eat!" A couple of them had decent English so we were able to get the basics across, like where I was from ("Oh do you know Jackie Chan from Hong Kong?"), what I was doing here ("We hope you enjoy our country"), and how hot it was today ("This time of year is the hottest in Sudan, why you travelling now?" Hmph, good question.) For the rest of the morning while I caught up on a bit of blog writing under the shade of the trees, Matt ...

We flew from Cairo to Khartoum,Sudan and stayed on the plane for 45 minutes. It was enough of Sudan for us. Danielle fell asleep on her backpack on the seat beside us and was rudely awakened by a gigantor who slapped her on the shoulder and shouted "this is my seat". Although it was his seat, his knees and elbows seemed to enjoy drifting into Danielle's seat for the remaining 4 hours of our flight to Nairobi. Xoxo D&A

... was anything official! Customs was a doddle, if a little time consuming. The chap was very nice and friendly and everything got sorted in as short a time as possible for a fairly tedious process. Then I was on my way, and what a nice surprise awaited me.... The alleged road-from-hell that takes 8-12 hours to do the 155km to Gedaref has been replaced by the-road-where-angels-tread. Beautiful tarmac all the way, extending to Khartoum ...

... by the Nile River. We were so exited that we would be able to take a dip, that we didn't really care that 1) Sudan is an Islamic country where women are not really allowed to go in public less than fully covered up and therefore we had to go in fully clothed; and 2) the Nile was so muddy, we couldn't see an inch below the surface. We still went in, took our soaps, shampoos and even conditioners, and "cleaned up". (At least we smelled better for a ...

... and pragmatic again? I just hope that if funding is winding down, it's because gvts are confident they can end this conflict : do they have an ace up their sleeves that I'm not aware? Or does Sudan? Well, in exactly 2 months, my mission is over. I'll be the wiser for it and I really do still believe in this work, in this humanitarian community ... I hope Sudan will get another batch of creative and devoted people to make the best out of the winding resources and help the people ...

... pas le temps non plus de tout faire ce que je voulais! Je suis revenue à Khartoum et j'ai dormi 14 heures d'affilées pour enfin me sentir reposée!

De retour au bureau, la tension se coupait au couteau: je ne reviendrai pas sur l'attaque de Gereida le 18 décembre, mais je crois qu'on peut facilement dire que ça a tout changé pour nous, tant à l'interne ACF, dans la communauté humanitaire et peut-être même agi comme un point tournant dans ce conflit, un genre de "wake-up ...