Thursday, October 22, 2009

Of shopping malls and Toffee Yogurt.....

Dear Friends,
Today I was taken out by the sister of the man who works at the college, the friend who took me to the wedding reception last night. She also took me to the Catholic church on Sunday.

We went looking in another part of Khartoum for a woman who sews African dresses -- since, imagine this, I want to dress African now that I am in Africa, just as I dressed Chinese in China. Due to high rent the woman's shop has moved so we will search for her tomorrow.

I got some pictures taken today and will get them into blog and facebook asap. What strikes me as I am a passenger on occasion now in exploring Khartoum is how darn big the place is. It is flat, dry, brown with a few places of green that quite exceptional because they are so rare. The city is not like a New York of even a Nanjing. It is simply not that developed, but it exists on an enormous amount of real estate.

I have now seen the place where the Blue Nile, coming from Ethipia, and the White Nile converge and become the Nile. Having seen the Jordan River and the Yangtze River it has been a thrill to also see the Nile river that flows from here into Egypt and out to the Mediterranean Sea. This is the sea where by its banks in Egypt Moses' reed basket was discovered by the daughter of the Egyptian Pharoah. In 12 Step Circles it is famous for the saying, "A River called Denial". God has taken me to so many Biblical places on this journey, and so many places of profound impact on human history and God's breaking into that history to stand and walk with us, God's well loved creation.

I also saw what may be the only shopping mall in Sudan. I was shocked. I had been told that there are no shopping centers/malls, everything is small shops. Everything I have seen had borne up that rumor. Well, today I discovered, or rather was driven to, a real, genuine shopping mall! I need to go back and spend more time there because I think there may have been an imported food section in the supermarket/grocery/food store. I can find shampoo, conditioner seems to always be a challenge in the countries I find myself in. China was stocking it before I left....here I found something that stays in for about 15 minutes and is rinsed out. The hair oil is apparently NOT conditioner and stays in.

Now, the biggest and the bestest (spelling intended!) today was that I found TOFFEE YOGURT!!!! I had not had that since Northern Ireland and England. And it is good! So now I have a new food item to prowl for.

I am discovering that the older women wear what might be called a body scarf. It is a beautiful piece of material that wraps around all of them. There were many of the women present at the wedding last night that had the wraps over their clothing. Many of the younger women seem to prefer a scarf with their street clothes, so to speak, showing.

Yesterday I went shopping for a bookcase and found one, it will be delivered on Monday. The apartment will look more like home. It is going to be blue to go with the decor of the living room. The shop owner was very nice. He has two sons studying in Australia. He asked where I am from and when I told him he said that Australian and American accents are very different -- yes, indeed! There was some beautiful furniture in that store -- particularly living room furniture. I have to remind myself that it isn't in the budget.
Blessings,
Debbie

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