after much opposition from many people
back home
i decided to travel one month through
sudan by myself to see what this country
was all about
over the last two years there's been a
revolution the old president
has been imprisoned and a new government
has taken over
there's been a fight for rights and
freedom from the young generation
sudan is little by little changing and
there definitely seems to be brighter
days ahead
but there are still some things that
haven't changed
and i started my trip with a slight bit
of trouble
sudan is a conservative muslim country
and one of the restrictions has been
a no alcohol rule but i heard recently
that things have changed and
foreigners are now allowed to drink so i
bought a duty-free bottle of wine in the
ethiopian airport
and brought it into sudan not smart
as soon as i arrived i went through
security and
a guard instantly said whose whiskey is
this
of course i admitted it was mine and he
smiled and
escorted me into the men's restroom
where he then proceeded to
smash the bottle of wine and drain all
of its contents on the bathroom floor
and then fortunately he let me go i am a
strong believer that everything happens
for a reason
and because of this incident a concerned
man who saw the whole thing go down
came over struck up a conversation with
me and we instantly became friends
this man who i now call my angel ended
up helping me tremendously throughout my
journey
everything happens for a reason i was
supposed to buy that bottle of wine
thank goodness that was my only brush
with the law
so now please join me as i give you a
glimpse into my journey through sudan
the coffee scene in sudan is a huge part
of the culture
that's called dawa jawa no it means in
arabic
also medicine but now here means some
spicy
like cinnamon
clove sometimes they mix them
literally on every corner you will find
a woman with her makeshift stand
making fresh coffee over some hot coal
when you order your coffee you can
either ask for jebena jinzobin
or jabana dawa coffee with ginger or
coffee with medicinal spices
you can't go wrong either way they are
both delicious
when i travel to other countries i try
to respect the culture
and adhere to the dress code as best
that i can
being that sudan is a conservative
muslim country the women typically cover
their heads they cover their arms and
they cover their legs
as a foreigner you're definitely not
expected to cover your head
but i did cover my arms and i covered my
legs either with long dresses
or long skirts
i decided though that i wanted to buy a
tobe
which is the traditional dress that
majority of the women in sudan wear
i went to one of the biggest textile
markets for women's fashion
and went tope shopping there are so many
fabrics to choose from
and i was lucky enough to have a kind
woman come to my rescue
and help me pick out my fabric and then
gave me a lesson
wrapping a tube is hard work
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so
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you listen
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one of my favorite things that i did
while in hartoum was go to
tutti island
it's a beach that is on the nile river
how cool is that
when you arrive you will instantly see
tons of people
sitting in colorful plastic chairs in
the water they're dancing
singing it was such a fun way to spend
the afternoon
[Laughter]
hey
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[Laughter]
later on that afternoon i got invited by
this
very nice group of men to join them for
cards and barbecue on the beach
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i'm
the next day i hopped on my first local
bus and headed to what
originally drew me to sudan the pyramids
during the journey we pulled over for
lunch and i had my first
taste at what is known as the national
dish of sudan
fool which is mashed and cooked fava
beans
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after what should have been a four hour
bus ride
and ended up being a six hour bus ride
i arrived at the pyramids of marawi
in a town called vegetawia
a little tip tell the bus driver you are
going to
vegetaria that's what he knows
all part of the adventure and luckily i
made it right in time for sunset
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good morning we are on our way to the
pyramids
i'm riding a camel and this is
abdul
and my camel
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after a 30 minute camel ride i finally
reached what i had been waiting on
the 2 000 year old nubian pyramids
the burial place of many kings and
queens also known as the black pharaohs
of the cushite kingdom
unfortunately an italian explorer bombed
40 of these magnificent structures
looking for gold sudan is currently
in the process of rebuilding them
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and besides a couple of camel men and
their camels
i had the place all to myself
remember that angel i told you about
that i met at the very beginning of my
trip
well he invited me to a traditional
sudanese
wedding so i came back to hartoum
got some henna and headed to the wedding
the ceremony was beautiful
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i saw many traditions that i have never
seen before
first of all the bride walks down the
aisle in a red
dress with a veil that covers her head
called a
furca
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and then there is the jertik ritual
which consists of
many sudanese traditions
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both the bride and the groom get henna
before the wedding
then there is the passing and the
drinking of milk
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the bride gets gold jewelry and then
there is the passing of the candy back
and forth
and eventually tossed into the crowd
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blessings are given with oils and
perfumes
and lots of cheering and snapping of the
fingers called abshir
which is the sudanese way to show
happiness and appreciation
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getting on the bus again and going to
karima
first i'm having some of my favorite
sudanese dessert it's called
zalabia which is basically fried bread
with sugar
the bathroom situation for females is a
little bit challenging there aren't many
places available
and when you do find one it's usually
just a bucket of water and a hole
i was on my way to karima but made a pit
stop in
maduri now if you remember from the
pyramids
this is why the bus driver got confused
because there is an actual
city called marui and here we are
while i was making friends with some
sheep herders a proud blacksmith pulled
me into a shop so that he could show me
how he makes his tools
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now on to the pyramids near karima with
abdullah and muhammad
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behind me are the pyramids
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on our way to muhammad's house we
stopped for some communal drinking water
and then we ran into some guys that were
making a traditional
mud brick house
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is made of sticks
off palm trees but
the above side is made of
iron to stop the rain
this is very very very
very cold
in the summer afterwards muhammad
invited me back to his house to meet his
family and have some lunch
and i got to see how the traditional
bread is made called kisla
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and
and what is this made out of this is a
made of
beans beans
so this one's from sudan this is from
western sudan
western sudan people got it
from western sudan and made it
into small sweet small
when you smell this smoke you will be
so relaxed so relaxed
okay
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the kids show me one of their
traditional games of
winding up a top and pulling the string
and seeing
whose spins the longest
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and then it was time to say my goodbyes
which actually is
the hardest thing to do they were such
a lovely family i hope to see them again
one day
[Laughter]
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um
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the number one question i've gotten is
what was it like to be a female
traveling through sudan by yourself i'll
tell you
it was a great challenging experience
they do not have the touristic
infrastructure so you will have a little
bit of challenges with transportation
and accommodation but in terms of safety
and the environment the people are
amazing
they are happy for you to be visiting
their country and they are more than
willing to help you out in any way that
they can
and many times you'll be invited into
their homes and
to learn about their cultures and
traditions
i will tell you you will be surrounded
by ninety percent
men almost a hundred percent of the time
so that is something that you're going
to have to be prepared for
but everyone is super friendly and
smiling and eager to
help you out there will be a slight
language barrier once you leave the
capital and get into the rural areas
but you just communicate through energy
and body language
i do suggest maybe learning a handful of
arabic words
some good ones to know are assalamu
alaikum which means hello
keif halek how are you shukran means
thank you
tamam is good and jabana is coffee
just learn those five words and you're
golden
they will totally appreciate the effort
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now on my way to the second half of my
trip and heading to port sudan