March 4, 2006 : A Tale of Elephant hair and Kindness

Yesterday was a fun day for the family - a fun, long and eventful day!

We started out early with Syikeen attending the women's association AGM, where, just like the Oscars, she was tipped to be elected as the Secretary. All of the 15(!) people who attended voted for her nomination! Well, good luck dear, I'm sure you'll do just fine!

In the afternoon, we already planned to visit one of the bigger Souks (market) in the city - across the Fitihab bridge, in Omdurman. Interestingly the bridge has 2 tanks guarding its approach; dont know if they're working or not coz I can see the crew sitting leisurely under some trees nearby; I for one am not finding out!

Anyway, we parked nearby the household-ware section of the market; it was starting to get a bit sticky, but we did go at 3pm! and started to do the rounds - goodness! there were so many shops, and we only had 1 hr before we had to surrender the van to my neighbour.

First stop: a shop selling china (we needed a fine set, but we'll shop around first I think!). One thing you'll notice here is that lot of the shops sell similar items, and confusingly, prices are quoted in USD, Sudanese Pounds or Sudanese Dinars. I've found the best way to circumvent this is to flash the numbers on my mobile and show a sampling of the currency i have. All said, the things here are all imported and reasnobly priced

There was one part of the Souk that had a lot of souveniors (sic) and trinkets. One item that I wanted to show my wife was a nice black bangle made out of ... elephant hair! now these hairs are thick and strong - it looks like plastic, until the salesman showed me the eneven size and textures. Well we took out a few and handled them - our driver Ali even put one on Ehsan's wrist - so cute (he looked hip, like his dad! haha). after a few minutes smelling (!) them, we returned them back...but the salesman looked at Ehsan and said 'mafi musykila' - 'no problem' : Ehsan got his bangle for free!

I was stunned! we didnt even buy anything. Quietly waving us away, I offered my Syukran and gave the good man a strong hand-shake and my widest smile, which he graciously accepted!

That was a good, valuable lesson - Up until now all i knew of Sudanese hospitality was from what my fellow expats told me or what i read from the Brandt book I bought back home; but to experience this first hand was quite a delight and a surprise...makes me feel at home already (don't think i ever got any free bangles from strangers back home tho...)

i wonder what else this country has in store for me and my family..?

Arab-a-day:
1. Tamam - I'm OK!
2. Kulu Tamam - I'm Very OK!
3. Mafi - a nicer way to say No (La)
4. Mafi Musykila - No Problem!