Postscript

The adventure is over and all four of us are safely back home shovelling snow. The impact of this trip will not leave us quickly. From our getting acquainted with the culture in Egypt (the pyramids, the museum, Cairo traffic, Alexandria scenery, YMCA hospitality, etc) to the impact of the schools and dedication of the staff and volunteers in Khartoum, we are much wiser. The people we have met in Sudan are, in many cases, heros. They are extremely dedicated, work under extreme conditions, and never lose faith. Alfred Taban is an example - he owns two daily newspapers in Khart0um (one Arabic and one English), was awarded the "Democracy Award of the Year" in 2006 by President Bush for the National Endownment for Democracy and who also was presented an award by the British House of Commons in 2005 in recognition of his work exposing the slaughter in Darfur. Yet Alfred's role as Vice-chair of the Khartoum YMCA Board of Directors is important to him and you will see him present at the graduating ceremony at the YMCA school or attending meetings to help advance the work of the YMCA in resettlement areas outside Khartoum. Dr. Wageeh William is another who sacrifices important time at his own business to ensure that the children in Gavarona, a resettlement area on the outskirts of Khartoum, have a place to go to school and learn and that the downtown trades school can use real computers in their education rather than the old manual underwood typewriters. The list could go on and on. It was important that we could see and learn from these many heros in Sudan. While our support is instrumental in facilitating the work of the YMCA in Khartoum, we have the easy part. Their dedication and neverending hard work is what makes it happen. We have been the real benefactors of our adventure. Our thanks to CIDA for helping us provide support to the Khartoum YMCA.

Farewell Sudan!

Wednesday evening was a great opportunity at the Coptic Club in Khartoum to meet with three of the staff of the Canadian Embassy and the Sudan Director of Save the Children. Alfred Taban, vice-chair of the Khartoum YMCA Board of Directors, discussed the future of the Darfur situation and peace in general in Sudan and presented one of the more optimistic views we have heard. Alfred is also an international winner of major awards for promoting democracy in governments and is the owner of two daily papers in Khartoum - one Arabic and one English. We also discovered that the First Secretary and Counsul at the Canadian Embassy, Eric, is a cousin of Bob Gallagher - CEO of the Peterborough YMCA. After munching on some crispy fish, crispy lamb, crispy kebobs, and crispy chicken washed down with some crispy bread and cold 7Up, we presented the Khartoum YMCA with a large Canadian and Sudan flag. We were presented with beautiful wall hangings displaying a map of Sudan with a portrait or ourselves on our own gift. We then called it an evening and cruised back to the hotel with Dr. Wageeh at the controls. Bed came easy again as it was well after midnight.

The Acropole, the hotel we stayed in and which provided us with service beyond any expectations, provided us with our breakfast and we were off to meet with acting General Secretary of the National Council of YMCA's of Sudan. We arrived at a very well worn facility near the airport where the National Council also provides classes to adults. We discussed a number of issues with the Acting General Secretary while Kim was getting elabourate henna tattoos applied to her arms for the trip back to Canada. There was a rumour that she might get an African hair stylist to attack her hair, but we have not seen the result yet to see if she went ahead. We returned to our hotel, had a final wrap up meeting with Dr. Wageeh over lunch and headed off to try to close our suitcases while Kim was being rescued from the hairdressers. We can hardly wait to see what a tattooed Kim with potential hair redesign might look like when she returns.

This is our last post from Sudan as we leave for the airport in two hours. It has been an unbelievable experience for all of us. Khartoum is a fast-growing city of 8,000,000 very quickly joining the ranks of a modern city. It has a way to go, but its progress - aided by the flow of oil from its rich southern resources - is noticeable. People are friendly and we have found it a very safe, exciting and educational visit. It has been an excellent adventure!

It all started with the four of us in a Khartoum taxi....

It was sleep-in day today for us in Khartoum and we gathered for breakfast at 8:45 am instead of our regular earlier times. We were on our own most of today so we thought we would try one of the taxi cabs that we had seen across the street from the hotel all week. These cabs are made for a driver and maybe 2 passengers, so the four of us were quite the scene as we reformed our torsos to fit the space available and hoped for the best.
"How much to go to the museum?" I asked the snappily dressed driver in an untucked shirt and very loose tie.
"No charge for you - to welcome you to Sudan!" was his reply, in fairly good broken English.
"Oh no, I said back.....we want to pay."
"No charge for the English," he continued.
Rather than argue with this man who introduced himself to us as Alsir, we started off to the museam. He could sure use a new cab, but he managed to keep it together with his almost air-tight cargo all the way to the museum while he claimed to be an "English" left in Sudan in 1956 when the English left.
"How much?" I asked again (knowing that it should be in the range of 10 Sudanese Pounds).
"Do you want me to wait to bring you back?"
We ended up arranging for him to meet us at an appointed time and he insisted that he would let us pay when he drove us back.

Entrance to the museam was the equivalent of 50 cents and off we went into the deep past of Sudanese history. It was a very quiet place, even with a class of young students being led around the displays. The upstairs with displays of the Christian past of Sudan was closed for maintenance so we went outside and saw the reconstructed portions of temples from the past.
When we went out to the front to see if our taxi was there, sure enough - he was waiting. In we crammed and decided we would go to the only inside shopping mall in Khartoum. We made a quick visit there and then returned to the hotel with the same taxi driver. After taking close to three hours time with the taxi driver, I asked him again how much.
"However much you think is fair." he said. We quickly settled on a "fair" amount and we went in for lunch.

Earlier in the week we had purchased at a roadside market a huge watermelon to eat back at the hotel. Kim stuffed it into her room fridge and today was going to be watermelon day. We cut open the delicious melon on the open balcony of the hotel and managed to consume about half of it. Actually, Kim ate most of it. The other half sits in one of our room fridges until tomorrow.

We were picked up at 4:35 pm and were off to the Khartoum YMCA for the official opening of the new computer lab as the newest part of our Northern Ontario YMCA sponsored school. The YMCA has the 4th floor of an office building in downtown Khartoum and the school operates out of 4 small classrooms there. As we reached the 4th floor by elevator and stairs (the elevator only works to the 3rd floor) the place was packed with students, Y Board members, choir members and teachers. The computer lab was as well set up as you would find in any school in Canada except the computers themselves were old and repaired and put together with spare parts wherever needed. But they worked and took the place of old underwood standard typewriters in the computer clases.

The choir sang a few songs and then a few short speeches - one highlighting the history of the Sudbury (now Northern Ontario) YMCA/Khartoum partnership from 1984 to today. The next was the publisher and editor-in chief of the daily Khartoum Monitor newspaper, Alfred Taban who is the vice-president of the Khartoum YMCA. He talked about a major conference on peace in Sudan just held sponsored by the Monitor and at which the Khartoum YMCA represented NGO's in Sudan. Last was Mr. Gary Gary who gave a short summary of the progress of the Khartoum YMCA over the years. John, Wayne and Kim also spoke of their impressions of the YMCA and Khartoum. Then the ribbon was cut and the computer lab was open. Thanks to the Northern Ontario Y's was expressed over and over as they claim the Y in Khartoum would not exist today if it had not been for the support of us. They presented gifts to us in thanks.
Next they asked the Four of us to present the graduation certificates to the graduating students . To say they were happy with their certificates was an understatement.

There was a snack of soft drinks and fresh fruit served to everyone present, the choir sang a few more songs, and there was a bit of mingling before we headed back to the hotel for supper and to get ready for a reception this evening with the Canadian Embassy staff and a senior CIDA rep. We will report more and edt this post later.

Today is History Day...cast in sand!

Hearing the alarm go off at 5:55 am is a startling experience, but it was breakfast at 6:30 am and ready for our pick-up by 7:00 am sharp. Today was history day and we were going by Land Cruiser a few hundred kilometers north of Khartoum to visit the ancient ruins of the City of Meroe. Meroe sort of appeared around the 6th Century BC, but no one is really sure where its residents came from to start this community which lasted until about 400 BC. The pictures around our hotel had us interested and we were all set to go. It was about 8:30 am when our rides and fellow travellers were ready to leave. It was one last washroom break and off we went. If you saw the washroom facilities along the road to Meroe, you would try to empty every possible source of potential toilet need. We did not succeed!

Our two hired Land Cruisers, eight passengers and two drivers reached the desert sands of the northern Sahara desert quickly, but we had our trip interrupted briefly when our vehicle blew a rear tire. After driving for close to two hours, we left the paved road and headed off across the sands of the Sahara. We had no way of knowing how the drivers determined the route, but we eventually reached our first target - the pyramids of Meroe. These several pyramids of various sizes and shapes had had their tops taken off by treasure seekers several decades ago, but the area is an archeological bonanza with about 30 pyramids nestled in amongst the ever changing sand dunes due to the wind. We took several photos, of course, and then boarded 8 sturdy galloping camels and raced our way back to the Land Cruisers. Wayne came in first, Kim second while Gary and John kept our hosts company behind. John's camel was so small he was almost able to mount it from the ground as if getting on a horse - but they bonded well.

We left the pyramids, at times referred to as the cemetery area of Meroe (as the pyramids contained bones of people from the ancient city) and headed off to other remains of the city. First, however, we stopped at a roadside picnic area and had lunch. Dr. Wageeh had told us that he would bring some vegetables and things to snack on. When it was laid out before us, we had hot pasta, fish, sliced meat, cheese, kaiser rolls, fruit, soft drinks, etc. etc. etc. This is where we had our first experience with the ancient art of eliminating human waste into a hole in the ground the size of which required an uncanny sense of aim while holding one's breath to avoid the eruption of our newly devoured lunch at the same time due to the accumulating odours left by the last several hundred visitors to the hole and its non-ventilated enclosure.

We then visited the Apedemak Temple at Naga - part of the ancient city of Meroe which required a lengthy drive over non-maintained ruts in the desert. All of these sites we found quite sensational and we marvelled at how little anyone knows about these ancient ruins and how few people visit them. Except for the odd tourist here and there, we were the only visitors getting our bodies sandblasted by the blowing sand and high winds as we wound our way through areas that were very well preserved in some cases and in utter ruins in other.
We also visited the area known as Musawwarat, also part of the Merow area, and walked amongst pillars and stone walls, statues and wall carvings all eminating from a few centries BC.

As we headed back to the main road from Northern Sudan to Khartoum we wound our way along the desert trails with the two drivers trying to out-wit each other. Our driver had the last laugh as the other Land Cruiser bottomed out and got stuck trying to re=enter the highway over a sand bank that was just a bit too high. We were able to get him pulled out and we headed back to Khartoum and arrived just in time for a hot shower to remove the pounds of red desert sand that was caked on our bodies, have supper, check our e-mail and go to bed.

Tomorrow is a big day for the Khartoum YMCA as the new computer lab at the Khartoum YMCA school, supported by our Northern Ontario YMCA's, is officially opened.

A Bit of Culture...then Reality Hits!

After a Sunday rest in the heat of the afternoon, we were taken on another tour of areas around Khartoum. It was highlighted by Kim's explosive behaviour with a can of frozen Pepsi in a high-end "More's Department Store". We got back to the hotel for supper and then headed off with Dr. Wageeh for some culture. We visited an open-air club at the previously named Meridian Hotel to see a group of Ethiopian dancers and band. They were a very energetic group and were joined briefly by Kim when one of the dancers came to our table and Kim performed a few cultural moves. We were back at the hotel by 11:30 and had no trouble getting to sleep. The temperature today hit 38C.

After breakfast, we piled into the Mitshubishi 4-wheeler and headed off to the Dar El Salam School in a resettlement area outside Khartoum on the edge of the desert. When we arrived, we were met by about 50 enthusiastic children between 5 and 10 years old in this YMCA school. The students sang soncs to welcome us and were thrilled to have us shake hands with them and take their photos (especially when they could see them on the screens of the digital cameras). These students were dressed in uniform clothes (shirts) and were happy as they were visited by this strange looking group from far away.

We were back at the hotel for lunch and a rest on a hot afternoon and then left to visit the children's school funded by our Northern Ontario YMCA's. It was a long drive through Khartoum and then the City of Omdurman across the Nile from Khartoum. We drove through the world famous Omdurman Souk, one of the largest outdoor markets in Africa. After several kilometers of non-road driving over sand and through endless masses of mud-brick homes, we reached the YMCA school. The area is known as Gavarona and is home to over one million displaced persons originally from Darfur, Southern Sudan and the Nubia Mountains. They have been relocated more than once, every time to an area further away from the city. There are only a very few schools in Gavarona, and the YMCA school has over 170 young children enrolled for classes - all between the ages of 5 and 10 or 11. There are some younger children there and are tended to by their older sisters who are students.

As we entered the door to the school compound we were greeted by all 170 students neatly sitting in rows on benches - singing to greet us. They sang a song in English with the words "Thank You Visitors" as the key message. As these children do not speak English, learning songs in a foreign language was a real accomplishment. The students come from various religious and non-religious backgrounds are all given a chance to learn at the YMCA school. After mingling with the children we passed out bed nets to each one of them. The World Health Organization has found that chances of contracting malaria aare reduced by as much as 70% when children can sleep with bed nets to keep the mosquitos away.

The children in this school do not seem to have reached the same level of comfort and happiness as we had seen earlier in the day, but they will get there with dedicated staff of teachers and the strong support of the Khartoum YMCA. It was an unbelieveable experience.

We drove back to Khartoum as dusk started to set in, discussing the events of the afternoon. The Omdurman Souk was even more crowded and conjested with cars, donkeys, people and buses than on the way to the school. We finally did get back to the hotel for supper and a chance to reflect on what we had experienced this day.

Today reality set in on what life is like in Sudan outside of the Khartoum core. We will never forget today.

We're Warming Up to this...........

Waking up is hard to do. Especially after sleep seems so little and far between. We all managed to scrape ourselves out of bed for a 1:00 pm lunch at the Acropole and after a bit of walking down by the Nile we relaxed in the heat of the afternoon at the hotel. Today was a bit cool, apparently, and only went up to the high 30c's, but that is a far cry from the 15C in Egypt and the cold and wet conditions in Amsterdam. Daisy met us at the Y late in the afternoon and took us for a tour of North Khartoum and Omdurman - two large suburbs of Khartoum with a population of between 1 and 2 million each. Daisy is a highly trained technician and works in the family marble business in Khartoum. She is also a member of the Sudan YMCA choir. Following supper at the hotel Dr. Wageeh picked us up and took us to his home where we were anticipating a small reception with a few Y members. We walked into a room of about 25 people waiting for our arrival so they could welcome us to Khartoum and Sudan and share the evening with us. There was a moving performance by the YMCA choir, a beautiful Harry Belefonte song sung by Suhrabel Ahmed (very famous Sudanese entertainer), an entertaining performance by Dr. Wageeh's three children, an elaborate buffet of many kinds of Sudanese food, followed by a few more songs by the choir and Suhrabel Ahmed. Of course there was lots of discussion and friendly interaction. We were certainly welcomed in excellent fashion. We finally got back to the hotel and a chance to get some sleep by 12:30 am.
The alarm at 7:00 am today was not a very welcome sound, but very necessary. Today we met with the Sr. CIDA Development Officer for Sudan Program and Southern and Eastern Africa. As this entry is being entered onto the blog, we are waiting for lunch to be served so we can get a bit of rest this afternoon and the next stage of our exciting adventure later today. Stay tuned........

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles...and a lot of adventure

Cairo - a city of 18 million people and it seems every one of them has at least one car - all on the roads at once!!! After checking in at our hotel at 3:30 am we got our first bed sleep since we left Sudbury. I am sure we all dreamed of Cairo traffic. If you have never experienced a drive in Cairo traffic, it is worth the trip to Egypt just for that. I can not describe it so you can get the true feeling of what it is like.

We were off to the pyramids after our traffic delayed 10:00 am ride arrived at 11:20 am. After checking out Cheops and his pile of stones containing his tomb (the largest of the pyramids of Giza) we elevated our bodies between the humps of 4 eager, sand-spitting camels dressed in some sort of baubles and beads and made ourselvess available for some photo ops for a gathering of palm-itchy locals who, for some reason, were laughing at us (actually, I think they were laughing at Kim and John, but it was hard to tell.)

We were treated to a fantastic 6:30 pm lunch prepared for us by Samy's wife, Magda. When we saw it laid out for us on a large glass-topped table in Samy's office, it looked more like a massive pot-luck prepared for us by a number of gourmet cooks. And that was lunch.

We then headed off to the Khan El Khalil Market for some back-alley souvenir bargaining and gaudy chandelier looking. We were then taken to an amazing Cairo restaurant where we dined with Samy, Sophia and two members of the National YMCA Board. We all slept well that night while visions of food and more food danced in our heads.....and bellies!

Thursday was another sunny but coolish day (but warmer than Amsterdam by a long shot). Samy and Sophia joined us as we met with Philip MacKinnon - Canada's Ambassador to Egypt and senior diplomat for the the area (including Sudan). After discussing a couple of high-security issues, we talked about our Sudan project which was of great interest to Mr. MacKinnon.

After taking lunch at "Samy's Office" restaurant, we headed off to the museum with Asherf, a Y staff, and concentrated our study of Egyptology in areas of King Tut's resevoir of treasures and the Mummy room. We left before dark so that visions of "A Night at the Museum" would not become a reality for us as it did Adam Sandler. We enjoyed a short sail on the Nile in the late afternoon and then headed off to the train station to continue our excellent adventure as we headed to Alexandria.

Alexandria greeted us at the train station...well, at least three of their Y volunteers did...and we went to the Y resident, had a bite to eat and called it a day. We were TIRED!!!

A quick breakfast at the Y hostel on Friday morning and a very interesting visit with the YMCA of Alexandria. The Alexandria Y has undergone a major facelift and we were intrigued with all of the facilities and very diverse programs offered there. There is nothing like a large open-air gymnasium all freshly decorated with large Y banners depicting the scope of the YMCA to make any Y professional a bit jealous. Kids were swimming in the pool, the day-care facilities were all clean and decorated, the medical facilities (a clinic, dentist office and optician's office) captured our interest, and then there were conditioning area, meeting rooms, 200 seat theatre with balcony and full stage, and a 40 room residence. Impressive!

Next was the Alexandria Library. This recent addition to the Alexandria skyline is an architectural wonder. The first library in Alexandria was world famous and it was destroyed and completely gone by the end of the 4th century. This new library does justice with 11 floors of computers (over 320 available for use), meeting space and displays, and over 500,000 books (but a capacity for 8,000,000). It cost over $200 million to build and took 6 years to construct.

After our whirlwind tour of just a small fraction of Alexandria, we were back to the roof of the Y Hostel for a fish meal in the out doors. Back to the train station and off to Cairo for our flight to Khartoum .

The flight to Khartoum was right on time, arriving in 23C weather at 5:15 am Saturday. We breezed through the airport security in a matter of minutes and were met by Dr. Wageeh, President of the Khartoum YMCA, his wife and two board members. After a short drive through the empty streets of the city we arrived at the hotel and headed right for bed after filling in (or is it filling "out") a number of forms to get us registered for a camera permit, etc., etc.,

That brings us to right now, sitting in the lobby of the Acropole Hotel. We are loking forward to our tour of the city later today and then a reception with the Y Board this evening.

The adventure will continue.........

We're OK, but Arabic is not our language

Finding computers in Egypt that don't give instructions in English is a problem, and while I sit here in the library in Alexandria we have about 2 minutes before we have to leave. We will post more when we reach Khartoum tomorrow but we are well, tired a bit from riding camels, visiting the pyramids, the museum in Cairo, training to Alexandria, visiting the amazing Alexandria library, etc., etc., Tonight we leave for Khartoum. All is well and going better than expected.

Monday in Amsterdam

Monday was spent in Amsterdam on a very wet and cool day. However, we managed to keep our sleepy spirits high and spent time in the Van Gogh museum (with over 200 Van Gogh paintings and drawings on display) and then were off to a Dutch restaurant where we met up with one of John's former staff members at Wabanaki (Danielle). We leave for Cairo shortly and arrive at 2:15 am - and dto the hotel for SLEEP.

Getting Ready

On January 14th, Kim, Wayne, John and Gary set out on an adventure to Egypt and Sudan. We will try to keep you up to date on all of our progress and our adventures, although computers might not be available in all locations. Stay tuned!