Personal Disaster in Khartoum Well...I dropped my glasses and broke one of the lenses...

To people who know me enough...I am really short-sighted...Therefore this classifies as a disaster for me...

I called the company and called the driver who was supposed to come over to pick me up. They got him to go to find an optician's that open up early enough, he did that then he came back to pick me up, went there and got myself my first pair of extended duration contact lenses (I do not know how to put them or how to take them off, but then lets worry about that later!!)...It cost me 2 times as much as it would in Egypt...I really hope I was not being ripped off thinking I was a stupid foreigner or because the Sudanese do not like the Egyptians like Waleed was telling me...

Anyway...May God bless the administrator at the company who took care of this...May God bless the driver, the optician and the inventor of contact lenses...  ¶ 11:55 AM 6 Comments

  Winter in Khartoum Well...in Cairo its about 17 Celsius, in Stockholm its below freezing point...In Sudan, on this normal winter day it is 36 degrees Celsius!!

Hot and dusty over here...but good thing it is not humid...  ¶ 3:33 PM 0 Comments

  First Thoughts of Khartoum I am at the moment in the capital city of the biggest country in Africa geographically, the capital city of the country that has experienced the longest civil war on the African continent, that is known by the darkness of its people's skin and the multitude of its civil wars...

I am in Sudan...

I arrived at 5 am after a 2 hour delay in Cairo...

Streets were barren then but then at 9 am when I went to work they were busier but not that much busier...

I decided to turn down the Hilton reservation that was made for me by the company and I am staying with Waleed, an AIESEC AUC alumnus and an amazing friend...

Funnily his house is in the middle of the UN mission to Sudan compound. The UN bought the land all around the house when he was in Cairo and just surrounded the house...took pictures of it all with the snipers on the top of the UN buildings...pretty cool...

In Egypt, there is a stereotype of the Sudanese being lazy and slow, this was even confirmed by Waleed who is a Sudanese himself. However, my experience at the office here just showed me that people can have stereotype about their own collective groups...The Sudanese at the office are the smartest, most sociable and active employees I have encountered in the company across North Africa...

Everyone said you either love India or hate it ....I loved it...They say you either hate Sudan or hate it even more...amazingly, I love it already not as much as India yet but lets see how the next three days go...  ¶ 11:14 AM 0 Comments

  A Year in Eden... One of the most exciting things that has happened to me in a bit...is getting to know that I have been selected to lead the expansion initiative in Bahrain. I will be moving to Gilgameh's Eden in June 2006...

One other exciting side to it is that I will be working with a great group of people during that year...Eric, Martha, Andy, Simona and Mada...

More about the centre of the Dilmun civilisation and the Sumerian Eden to come...  ¶ 11:09 AM 1 Comments