Day with Mo
Mo is the nickname of Mohamed the Sudanese guy some of us have met on the ferry boat from Aswan to Wadi Halfa. Mo was so kind to invite our group of 12 people to his house in Khartoum and today was the day we visited him and his family. When we checked out the hotel at 12pm Mo was already waiting for us at the reception. He then joined us in our truck and on the way to his house he was showing us a bit around in Khartoum.
First we went to a western style supermarket which can rarely be found in Sudan. The word supermarket is maybe a bit overstated since it was very much smaller than the supermarkets in the Western civilization. Many of us were delighted to see food which they are used from home and which is not available in Sudan or many other countries of the third world, e.g. Nutella, a chocolate based spread. I somehow couldn’t share these emotions since I was happy with the food I’ve got during the last days and was not looking for specific pieces of junk food.
We then drove by the cities flagship hotel Burj al-Fateh and it was surprising to see this luxury hotel in the middle of all the poverty in Sudan. Who really needs this kind of hotel in Sudan? Maybe only rich international businessmen and politicians stay there. Lastly, we drove by the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile which actually forms the river Nile.
Mo’s house was situated in a suburb of Khartoum and it took a while to get there. It was still under construction thus it was nearly empty but the family moved already in a few months ago. Mo had borrowed a few beds from his neighbours so that every one of us had a place to sit and sleep. The time we spent with the family consisting of Mo, his mother, another woman, a little boy and a baby was somewhat unspectacular but relaxing. Someone had turned on the TV and therefore most people were staring at it which was not very sociable. So we watched pieces of a movie, a football match, news on Aljazeera and the Arabic version of MTV.
