Thoughts on life in Khartoum

I can’t talk enough about the absolute kindness i have experienced from the beautiful Sudanese people … so caring, even among themselves; they smile from the heart. It’s that whole African-Arab mix of hospitality, community, compassion, humaneness. I was walking in the street at 2am the other night, went for a night swim at the local pool, had dinner afterwards and people sleep on their beds outside. I mean, imagine 2am outside … practically in the street, in the little front lawn …

I am surprised daily at how they live with each other, and that’s why I don’t mind staying. I love the people.

I know it sounds like such a contradiction from what happens in Darfur — that also sometimes feels distant from here where I am in Khartoum. It’s like living in Jo’burg and not knowing what’s up really in rural South Africa or even Zimbabwe unless you read about it in the news.

Khartoum is exposing me to another way of being … and I haven’t experienced such close bonds with other people before. I mean, it’s in everything the Sudanese do. Always having meals together — eating from the same plates with our hands. Initially I was uncomfortable with that but most times now I don’t mind. And the warmth is in their smiles and even just in their body language with each other … men and women hug when they greet and women and men shake hands when they greet. The latter is unheard of in most majority Islamic populations — Sudan is 70% Muslim.

Despite the many challenges and uphill battling, it feels like Sudan has grown on me. Khartoum is unbelievably safe. I don’t feel like I am in danger at all … even when I walk in the streets that have no lights, people aren’t interested in killing you for your wallet or your cellphone.

Some days I do want to run away, but then it’s time to just take a step back. It’s been three months since I have been here, Africa’s biggest country, with the continent’s most-talked-about conflict, with its recent 20-year civil war just ended and a humungous need for development … and yet its people are so much more advanced in being humane than in most other so-called developed parts of the world.