March 12, 2006 : Accidents do happen

Oh dear, oh dear - we've met our first true test of being expats here in Sudan - last wednesday, Ckn and Ehsan were caught up in a road accident. Ckn decided to come to the office to check her email after office hours. The driver misjudged the speed of an oncoming car, which according to Ckn was driving very fast. Turning into the office too slowly forced the oncoming car to slam into the van.

Ckn was holding onto Ehsan for dear life! she got knocked out of the seat, hitting her head on the side door (the one you see here) and scraping her kneecap on the floor. By the time I arrived on the scene - about 1 minute later - Ali had Ehsan, and Ckn was standing close to the van; my staff and colleagues were trying to help. I gave Ehsan a once over and he looked fine. Ckn wasn't so lucky; she had a nasty bump on the right side of her head and she looked faint. Getting them both into another office car, we sped off to Al-Faisal Hospital for checks...

Luckily the x-ray turned out ok, and Ehsan was happily drinking from his 'lunch' at the hospital. The swelling reduced overnight and we managed to go to a Sudanese wedding later on Thursday evening. Phew - it was a close one!

We partly blamed Ali on this one, and it's forced us to keep Ali at a distance for the time being. but he's been very concerned for both of them, I just dont know how well we can trust him again and when! The people here live by 'God's will' - I believe in that too, but as humans we do have a duty to do the best or make sure that we're responsible; after we've done all that , only then can we surrender our fate to God.

Oh dear, oh dear...