A Day of Pampering in Khartoum

The Henna artist creating a henna pattern on my foot. She learned the art from her mother.

I like this metaphor...transparent veil in the land of veiling.

We had Arabic coffee made from the scratch -- Wahiba's cousin roasted the coffee beans on her oven. She used real coals (glowing in the middle of the picture) to keep things warm and to put incense in.

Ta da! Henna'd feet!

Dear Friends,

Today I realized that no matter how good an education a person receives, unless there are opportunities to put that education to good use, one is faced with dead ends. It is very difficult for a Sudanese person to get a visa to certain countries where the opportunities might be more plentiful, on the other hand "brain drain" is a real issue for many African countries whose educated people must leave their homelands in order to find employment.

Wahiba and I went to the tailor's today. I was again impressed by the skills of this man who taught himself to sew. A small crowded shop and he cut into material with such smooth movements and confidence, it made me think of surgery. No patterns. No pins. Nothing to clutter the process.

After the tailor we went to Wahiba's cousin's home. There we had Arabic coffee made from scratch -- ah so delicious!! And I had henna painted on my feet and my hands. I realized why we don't do this in the West -- no one would want to take the time to relax and sit long enough to be painted and have it dry. Maybe a woman's group retreat would be a good setting for it. It was definitely a pampering day. Nice. The henna is painted on, the drying is longer on the feet as the paint will remain on the feet longer than on the hands. At the appropriate time in the drying process I was taken outside and the paint was washed. The water turned quite brown, or perhaps black. A beautiful process.

Wahiba seemed quite surprised that I not only knew about squat toilets -- she called them Sudanese, I called them Chinese -- but I also knew how to use one! Took me back to the bathrooms at the China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing!

Last week we drove through an impoverished section of Khartoum. This week we drove through a middle class section. The home of her cousin where we had coffee and henna was in the middle class section. The ceiling was of a natural material that appeared to be something like what I would have seen in the Philippines -- it keeps the home cooler. There was a fan but no swamp cooler. The home had beds for coaches, and from what I could see in another home this is the norm. Makes sense -- it is very practical, either extra beds for company or a place as a family grows larger. The T.V. was on at Wahiba's cousins home -- it has been a while since I've seen T.V. We turned for a minute to BBC World News -- it is different than internet. After I buy a new bed maybe a small T.V. will come. Who knows?

I am sleeping on two twin beds pushed together to be one large bed. The problem is that I keep ending up in the crack between the two. This morning I must have been sleeping on one bed to try and avoid the crack and I ended up falling out -- oops! there comes the floor!

Blessings,

Debbie