The Fabulous Life 4 Months Later

This past weekend marked my 4^th month Sudanniversary. That’s right, it’s been 4 months since I arrived in Sudan. At this point it’s safe to assume “I’m settled” and have established a normal routine. A question my mom asks me a lot is “What do I actually do all day?” This is totally fair. Even before arriving I was told my volunteer hours teaching at the university would be less than 20 per week.  Going from the “busy” life as a college student, to my Summer 9-5 gig, to life in Sudan has been a huge change.

First I’ll directly answer the question, “What do I actually do with my time?”  I currently teach twice a week at my university. It’s quite the trek (a half hour commute to Kadaru), although we are quite spoiled to have a university car drive us to and from our home, but the drive back in the afternoon leaves us zombie-like only alleviated by naps.  Activities at university are equal part having tea, dealing with administrative issues, and actual teaching. Additionally, I am giving twice weekly English classes to the staff of a center for civil society. Eventually, inshallah, I might add another private class in the afternoons.

Besides teaching I have been reading and writing working on assisting some Sudanese students with a variety of applications and graduation projects and also separately reading anything I can get my hands on about the conflict in South Sudan.  Rachel and I also have an inclination to make sure everyone in our volunteer group is doing ok and that new volunteers are being taken care of. So we do spend quite a bit of time with our friends in the program.

I have also tried my hand at cooking! WHAT?! Its true folks, with more time and little variety in our neighborhood I’ve actually become interested in cooking for myself. It all started from Rachel’s encouragement and being inspired by watching a fellow volunteer who was trained as a chef make pasta sauce out of cream cheese and canned cheese (pretty genius). I’ve always seemed to have some mental block to cooking; that it was too difficult, too time-consuming, and too depressing to cook for one person. This meant I was queen of take-out. While I was literally living the “sweetlife” with trips to Sweetgreen and One-Fish Two-Fish sushi at least once easily three times a week  I actually have found cooking much less stressful and more rewarding than I previously had thought it could be.

I think this is because for the first time in as long as I can remember, I have free time and I’m not in the least bit stressed out.  Don’t get me wrong living and volunteering in a foreign country has its frustrating moments, but overall I’m much less stressed out than I was during college. When volunteering in a foreign country it’s easier to accept that a large part of your life is out of your control, what you can control is how you react to otherwise frustrating or stressful situations.  Sudanese culture specifically, is a lesson in patience for any Westerner. If your bus breaks down its “ma mushkila” (no problem).

Some friends I invited over for dinner! 

 Now that I am over the “Can I actually do this?” and homesickness bumps, which was shrug-worthy compared to my pre-departure “Wait. Hold up. I’m actually doing this” moments of freaking out,  I’ve had a lot of time to re-think about what I want to get out of my experience and the rest of my time here. Part of this list includes travel, improving my Arabic (which is still shwayah-shwayah), making more friends, and trying to create a working group or some sort of contribution for my previous life with Banaa.org.

Further Related Reading

On reflecting on post-grad life: Coffee and Stink

On relaxing as a young adult: xoJane

What’s Going on in South Sudan in less than 800 Words

Recently I’ve received several messages asking about my safety and security a la crisis in South Sudan.  First of all let me state that I’m safe and sound in Khartoum and really there is no reason to worry about my security here.

                The truth is of course that while typing this comfortably from my neighborhood in Bahri it seems unfounded that a crisis in Juba, South Sudan could affect me. It would be the same as if I were sitting in Washington, DC and war broke out in Mexico. However, the questions do have a legitimate basis. The existence of the state of South Sudan came about two years ago. It was the result of a decades long civil war in Sudan between the North, made up a mostly Arab Muslim population, and the South, made up of a more African Christian population. The motive of the war wasn’t necessarily ethnic or religious, it was a political conflict, of the center vs the periphery, with Muslims in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains joining the ranks of the South’s rebel army, the SPLM, to fight the center in Khartoum. The war ended in 2005 with the signing of an internationally brokered peace agreement that detailed elections and a referendum on the status of the South should take place. The South has a long history prior to independence of being administered separately from the North. Everything from the education system, legal codes, and language of governance were different. It didn’t surprise anyone that the South voted for succession in 2009. It did surprise analysts when the North, peacefully allowed the succession to occur.

Upon receiving independence, in part thanks to the support of the international community including the United States, analysts outlined the challenges the South would face as independent country. The biggest of which were development and security sector reform. South Sudan was given the title of World’s Poorest Country in 2011, so development concerns were very real and very much tied to security. Secondly, there was the challenge to take a rebel force and create a national military structure. Additionally, a government that represented the interests of the many ethnicities or tribes of South Sudan had to be established to keep any ethnic tension at bay.

Flash forward. Has South Sudan failed? Actually there are a number of political events that led to the conflict erupting today. President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir has had extensive problems of corruption in his government. In, June, he reported there was a missing 4 billion dollars from his budget. Many of the problems and complaints in development started to mirror that in the North; resources go to the center, the capitol and not to the periphery.  Kiir also caught our attention when he fired his cabinet this past July and then went to fire his Vice President Riek Machar. Machar, ethnically Nuer, had recently made public his bid for the SPLM chairmen position seemingly looking ahead at the 2015 elections. Machar and Kiir, ethnically Dinka, have a history of clashes in 1991 when there was some internal fighting amongst the SPLA in Bor a town outside of Juba.

The events that sparked the current clashes occurred on December 15. It is unclear whether there was a coordinated coop attempt and reactionary suppression amongst the Presidential Guard. This event whether planned or incidental became a flashpoint of insecurity that opened the doors to the opportunistic violence we are hearing about today. Machar escaped Juba and took the town of Bor, a town predominately Nuer, with his rebel army. There are reports of ethnic targeted killings coming from both sides, but this can not confound the motivation and cause at large...a political power struggle between the elite leaders in South Sudan.

As talks begin in Addis Abba, Ethiopia today a cease fire has not been negotiated as of yet. Bolstered Machar now holds onto an oil rich base in Bor and Kiir recently received troops and full backing from Uganda. Peace talks could end the violence but could also be a political maneuver to appease the international community while behind the scenes both sides could be escalating preparations for continued fighting.  The international community and the United States should emphasize there is no military solution in South Sudan, only a political agreement can resolve the crisis and prevent civil war. The people of South Sudan deserve peace. Their leaders need to set aside their selfish aspirations and do what is best for their people. 

For further reading:

Generally reporting by Western Media on the S.Sudan Crisis has been atrocious either straight up lazy or incorrect factually leading me to think even, The Kingston Reporter, could conduct better journalism. Here are a few articles that didn’t make me #facepalm.

Ethnic Nepotism fuels Conflict in S.Sudan

Aljazeera: Think outside the Ethnic box

Experts' Insights
Longform But Excellent

Let’s talk about Food

OK so far I’ve covered a bit bout the landscape and society in Sudan. I haven’t written nearly enough about something Sudanese are generally excited about…traditional Sudanese food. Within Sudanese traditional food I’ve found some of the strangest flavor combinations out there. Not just strange meaning just new and different spices but I’d think some combinations would be counter intuitive even for a non-Westerner. That being said I’ve also had some amazing meals.

BBQ in the driveway

Before I dive in I should note as I have before that being in Khartoum exposes me to much more international influence than other places in Sudan. One of my first meals in Sudan was a fried chicken sandwich in Al Waha Mall (don’t judge me).  Khartoum has its version of “fast-food,” including fried chicken places, burgers and pizza. They also have a few up-scale restaurants, hotels, cafes, and ice cream shops where one can find treats such as Fettuccine Alfredo, apple danish, and brownie sundaes.  Additionally there is a large presence of Turkish, Egyptian, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Yemini food much of which is new to me. Once when asked about the food by my students I mistakenly told them I liked Chicken Shawarma which was flat out rejected as not Sudanese food, even though they have a Shawarma place on every corner in Khartoum. I’ll be sure to distinguish in this post when I’m referring to traditional or local food and the food I happen to be eating which might not be Sudanese.

The volunteers eating at our favorite Yemani restaurant "Hadraumat"

First the 4 best foods I’ve had:

1. Fresh Bread. Every night we go out and buy fresh rolls for the next morning. “Hesh” (Bread) is extremely cheap and available. For traditional meals in Sudan bread is used in place of utensils so people buy bags and bags of it daily for their families.  It has sincerely forever ruined bread in America for me including ending any sort of opinion I had in the great debate between Bertucci’s rolls and Olive Garden’s breadsticks.  It’s all LIES.
2. Fresh Juice. In the same vain, fresh juice is also a great cheap refreshing treat available most cafeterias. One of my favorites is juahfa (I think guava), but there is also strawberry, mango, and orange, and many more I’m sure. Carcadeh is hibiscus juice or tea is also very good. The trick here is hoping they don’t use too much sugar in the juice. It’s not uncommon when going to a friend’s home to be presented with fresh juice upon arrival. 
3. Shakshukah. Buzzfeed stole my thunder with  26 Reasons Shakshuka is the Most Perfect Food and I can't but help to agree. 16 and 23 (without the cheese) are both good examples of Sudanese style Shakshukah. Buzzfeed left out the biggest “fun fact” about it which I’ve been told almost every time we’ve eaten it. “Shakshuka” sounds similar to the word prostitute so when you order it often people smirk at you. Rachel hopes to learn how to cook it, which I fully support.
4. Lamb on Eid al Adha. Eid al Adha is a Muslim holiday. It’s a festival that involves a family celebration. Eid can last up to two weeks, during which time universities and government buildings are closed. I was lucky enough to be invited to several Eid feasts at the family homes of a few different Sudanese friends. Part of the EId traditions is slaughtering a lamb or goat. Each family buys a lamb or goat and it must be slaughtered by the third day of Eid. It's slaughtered in a very humane and specific way with different parts of the meat going to neighbors, and the mosque, and keeping some of course for the feast. A concept that seemed very foreign to me upon hearing it now doesn’t seem so strange.  Anyway so the one negative during Eid was arriving at our friend’s house around 2 and not eating until 8…granted they do literally have to slaughter the lamb but still! It was well worth the wait perfectly seasoned and tender lamb with many vegetable and other side dishes. 

Did someone order fried fish?

The grand opening of a new restaurant and ice cream shop had some special guests

Traditional Sudanese Food  "Aseeda" and "Moola"

Ok so the picture above shows a traditional Sudanese dish served with bread called grassa. Aseeda is like a porridge. Above are two versions of Aseeda one savory with Moola, and one has a yogurt-like topping. The pasta dish on the left was pasta with syrup on it...straight out of Elf. One colleague even took the sugar dish (out for tea) and dumped spoonfuls of sugar on the pasta. The Sudanese sweet  tooth is no joke.