Kassala for Beginners

"Kassala, Mashallah, Humdallah"

I feel I must backtrack and offer you all some description on my wonderful trip I took to Kassala (Cuss-a-lah) in the East of Sudan back at the end of March. Honestly I’m so incredibly grateful that Rachel and I found the time to travel.

Sunset over Kassala

Our journey to Kassala  began very early in the morning. Luckily our friend helped us navigate the bus station at Mina Burri. It was a pretty hectic scene, so we were happy to find our bus and attempt to go back to sleep. The bus ride from Khartoum to Kassala is 8 hours. The buses are large coach busses, with tvs and AC. Ours was decorated with orange fringe, fur, and beading everywhere.

We arrived and were met by our good friend and fellow volunteer who is teaching at the University of Kassala. Even though he, himself, had only shortly just arrived he would be our tour guide while we were visitng. Also another friend arrived the night before from Port Sudan.

First glimpse of Kassla on the local bus into town

The first thing I noticed about Kassala were the mountains. Beautiful rocky mountains that do, indeed have, as my guide book described, an “other-worldliness” way about them. The second thing I noticed was that it was considerably hotter in Kassala. The heat hit me like a wall getting off the bus. This was back in March too, when I was still asking Sudanese friends when it would get hot again. Well, I had my answer.

The heat was bad like, bad-bad. But the scenery and company was too good.

View of Mountains from the University of Kassala

The center of Kassala has plenty of juice stands. They were round or hexagon shaped and reminded me of touristy food or lemonade stands in beach towns. Much to our surprise Kassala seemed much cheaper than Khartoum. Not surprising was that Kassala was much smaller and had much fewer people who spoke English. I also saw people of different ethnic groups and tribes that are less present in Khartoum. Of course we saw many Beja men, dressed in their classic uniform, a jalabiya with a vest over it and Rashida women who distinctly dress in black velvety robes/gowns with red beading and their veils covering their mouths.

Teapot gated entrance to Totiel 

During the trip we visited Totiel, at the base of the Taka Mountains. This is a frequent spot for honeymooners and other Sudanese on vacation. Many coffee and tea huts are set up or even carved in at places at the base of the mountains. The have painted the rocks and decorated the area so it is quite festive. My favorite part of Kassala was having coffee and popcorn (served together like in Ethiopia) at Totiel while watching the sun set over the town. We also people-watched looking at the newlyweds, the women in their finest beaded tobes with beautiful henna on their hands and feet. We tried to assess which couples seemed the happiest and which women were fairing the best in their clunky wedged high heels on the mountainside. The next day the members of my group were determined to climb part of the mountain to see Eritrea on the other side. I was determined not to pass out from the heat just from being outside.* So, I passed. I didn’t pass on drinking from the well at the base of Toteil. The well is said to promise good fertility (here’s looking at you, honeymooners) and that visitors will return to Kassala.

Coffee hut on Totiel

The well

Toteil coffee huts empty which would fill with people before the sunset

How I creepily took a pic of honeymooners

The pot is called a jebana

Coffee  is also called Jebana so you order a "jebana fi jebana" served with salty popcorn and incense 

 We also visited the Khatmiyah Mosque also located at the base of the Taka Mountains.

Our other time in Kassala was spent checking out different souqs (markets), parks, and walking through some mango farms to the Gash riverbed. 

Stopped to splash ourselves with water from an irrigation pump in the mango grove

 Of course when a family found us wandering around in their farm they offered us, to rest with them and their kids got us some fruit.

Overall it was a wonderful trip. Even in the heat it was nice to get out of Khartoum, explore nature, and see different cultures. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Sudan. 

*Also contributing was my lack of mountain climbing footwear and clothing. Have you ever climbed a mountain in a skirt? You can assume it's not a great idea. 

Teacher Musings and How to Deal with the Heat

I realized I haven’t given a life update in some time and so it’s probably only fair to write about what I’ve been up to. A lot has happened! I moved from Bahri (Khartoum North) to Manchea*, a neighborhood in center of Khartoum. I moved because Rachel and I received a new university placement at Comboni College. We live much closer to Nile Street and “all the action” Khartoum has to offer, though we do miss the tightly-knitted neighborhood of Safia and our favorite neighbor Haj Safie at times.

Our  kitchen where our signature dish pasta and Mish** tomato sauce is made

Camboni College has a really interesting history. It was started as a primary school by missionaries but has since scaled up.  It is named after, Daniel Camboni,  the first Catholic Bishop of central Africa, who worked as an Italian missionary The school administration worked with the Ministry of Education and now offer 4 Bachelor’s programs in some sort of public/private partnership. They also offer "after-school" English, Spanish, and Italian short-term courses. There is a church at the Souq Arabi campus and all the secondary students wear lavender blouses and headscarfs for girls, with black bottoms. It is pretty amazing that their campus is located right around the corner from “the big mosque” in the center of Souq Al Arabi. Many students of all different backgrounds attend classes at Comboni. The classes I teach are short-term private classes which are small and grouped by level. They are much more manageable than my 80-100 group of rowdy 17 year olds at Bahri University. This has had a huge effect on my feelings about teaching and my spirits in general.

We haven’t been without problems, but overall the administration of the school is the most organized I’ve been involved with or potentially heard about here. Our coordinator is an incredibly bright young Sudanese woman who splits her time running the short term courses for Comboni and running an oncology clinic. She speaks fluent Italian and English and is taking Spanish courses. Honestly regardless of the frustrations we have, this woman runs a tight ship and is an inspiration.

The terrace across the street from Khartoum University where I taught my private class

I was also teaching private classes associated with Khartoum University that just wrapped up in April. If you’ve been following the politics there, I’d add it finished just in the nick of time although I’m saddened by the university’s closure. I really enjoyed this group of students. At the end of our class we even took a class trip to Jebel Aulia, about an hour south from Khartoum on the White Nile, to have a picnic of fried fish.

Students exploring the dam

Boat ride on a fishing boat by our picnic spot

We have decided to hold our own English club on Nile Street twice weekly. Nothing like having a hot cup of tea on the side of the road in 100°F heat. I can’t actually believe I got this far into discussing my life without mentioning that Summer is killing me!

A spot along Nile Street by the "India Bridge" to Bahri

Nile Street!

It’s hot hotter even hotter now. Always. There isn’t much else to say. The heat has made many of the volunteers, including myself, more anti-social. People don’t want to leave their homes, which is fair. Staying in seems to be one of the best ways to cope. I feel like I should have learned more tricks of the trade by now, but really, I only have a short list with a few of the lame ways we have coped with the heat.

1.)    Drinking water

2.)    Putting our sheets in the freezer

3.)    Standing in front of the fridge while it is open

4.)    Multiple showers daily

5.)    Drinking more water

6.)    Holding a water bottle like it’s a baby.

7.)    Naas Pizza delivery (ah-mazinggg BTW)

Like I said not a very impressive list, but hey, I think we’re doing alright, for ourselves. 

The glory that is Naas's "Ethiopian Pizza"

*Currently polling the English spelling of the neighborhood as I've seen it Manchea, Manshiya, and Manshia.

**My googleing in English failed to produce a good picture but for all intensive purposes Mish is like yogurt veggie dip