Like always, during completion's date getting nearer..staffs will be cut off or demobilized very often. Anyways, the journey I have been through, becomes one of my favourite (some, not all). Sand storm, hot weather, learned to speak Arabic (swaya, swaya..), riding the 'Tut Tut' (taxi with 3 wheels), beautiful Arab women, the scenery, pyramid and last but not least, working with the Sudanese (God, until now I am clueless). I am sure for those who knows how Sudanese work, I guaranteed our point of view will be the same.
Among the Sudanese staff I have worked with.
The next picture was taken during our 'happy hours'. After work, me and my friends like to hang out in front of this particular shop. The house we living in is just around the corner. The shop is special, why? Well, for me because the owner knows how to speak understandable English (quite good compare to other locals) and we get discount for drinks, also we could bargain for groceries..but on top of all that, honestly.....we just enjoy to 'lepak' and being accompany by some of the locals, being the owner's favourite customers is one thing...and we don't know where else to go. A few drinks and laugh,jokes does not hurt. After all, the routine makes us forget about our 'homesick' for a while...sometimes.
The shop owner third from the left
Well, here we are waiting for our 'driver' to pick us to work. Take notice, a person lying motionless behind us..nak dijadikan cerita. The night before, we experienced a black out. So, no power supply and no air-conditioning. I cant sleep without air condition, in fact everybody in that house cant. I can not describe how hot and warm it is without any air conditioning on. I guaranteed you will be sweating like hell after 5 minutes inside. And even if you could stand the heat, you can not tolerate the heat and you will surrender after long endurance battle. You will be sweating until you fell asleep and wet the bed with your sweat. They only thing that makes me sleep during this episode...fatigue and tired. You know why, during this hour, my hand will take turns to swing to and fro in fan like motion to make me cool a bit. After a while eventually I will fall asleep because of the tiredness.
Some of the guys cannot tahan the warm temperature decided to take their mattress and sleep under the moonlight. But, "this is Sudan" (me and my friends like to say that phrase during any unusual occasions occur..) they don't expect there will a sand storm during the night. That why, kalau you tengok betul-betul, very fine sand particle all over the place. Sometimes it is very interesting to know, the Sudanese could sleep in this kind of weather outside during sand storm. Well I guess like old Malay saying... "alah bisa tegal biasa..".
Tiga jejaka kesunyian..KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH!!!!
Fyi, I was staying in that house about 5 months before we transfer to another staff house somewhere in 'Mahmura'. The house behind me located at 'Taif' district. Pretty spacious I may say so. We have 6 bedrooms, 2 living halls, 1 big and very roomy hall, 6 bathroom, 2 veranda, 1 servant house complete with utilities, a satellite TV, 2 TVs, a kitchen with cooking area, 2 washing machines and a garage fit for 2 4WD. But, coming to think of it, even though the house is big and merry...it doesn't feel like home.
"Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, lebih baik di negeri sendiri..".
So I supposed, sometimes we have to live with it whether we like it or not.
Our new staff house situated at 'Mahmura' area, some says the place is for the middle class, as I have noticed, yeah, maybe but not all of them, most of them yes. Sometimes I wonder whether 'Mahmura' comes from word "Rumah Murah". Well, I suppose I am not the person to criticize.
amacam? ada gaya sapa??? LOL
