It has been weird being home. It doesn't even seem like home. Strangely enough, Sudan seems normal and the US is like a foreign country. It is hard to get use to everyone speaking English, the food and the modern conviences. Emily's sisters Sara and Kat came to welcome us back to DC. They have been helpful in our transition to the 21st century.

Emily and I still miss Sudan and all the people very much, but it has been nice to see our dogs! At least no one here would throw rocks at them. Now begins the arduous process of finding jobs, apartments, car insurance, cell phones, friends, stability, normalcy, etc.

Our flight home was routed through Zurich, Switzerland, which is in the opposite direction we needed to go. Upon arrival in Zurich, we learned that our flight home was cancelled. The airline put us up in the Hilton and paid for all of our meals.

We got to spend the day exploring the city (without a guided tour this time). I liked the contrast of the traditional buildings next to the modern architecture. Emily found it depressing. Part of the day was spent looking at the same chain stores we saw in DC, London, Madrid, Athens, Rome, Paris, etc. European cities seem thouroughly homoginized. It is almost pointless to even visit them.

Aside from the depressing congruency to other cities, the archetectural contrasts kept me interested. And the Hilton food was decent.

The rest of our time in Tarifa was spent lounging on the beach or by the pool. Almost every night, we ate fantastic pizza at our favorite restaurant in the old part of the city. Yesterday, we rode the hotel's horses on the beach. I don't know how to ride a horse, but of course I was given the most stubborn one. They gave me a whip to make him move. Emily's horse thought it was on a cullinary tour of the beach. It stopped to eat every little patch of weeds we passed.

Today Emily and I took a boat to Tangier, Morrocco. We had only one day in the city, so we (or I) made the mistake of thinking that a guided tour would allow us to see more than exploring on our own. My decision was bolstered by the fact that the tour tickets (including the boat to Morrocco) cost less than buying the boat tickets independently.

The boat was a bit neauseating, but our food was still in our stomaches when we arrived. The tour groups were seperated by language and driven to a parking lot where we could pay 1 Euro to sit on a camel. Bad start. From there, we were taken through the fancy part of the city and dropped off in the market. The tour guide led us through narrow, winding streets and past beautifly decorated doors and tile murals. We stopped to watch a snake charmer, who looked like he was straight out of the movie Aladin, before eating at a terrible excuse for a restaurant.

From there, we walked into the main part of the souq and stopped at a large carpet dealer's shop. Everyone was told to sit around the outside of the room and listen to his 30 minute sales pitch. As soon as it was finished, we bolted for the door.

The next stop was a spice dealer's shop for a similar sales pitch. Emily and I refused to go in, so did many of the other members of the tour group. It was nice to finally get some time to explore the city on our own. Not that we got too far from the spice shop. I practiced my Arabic with some local merchants and learned some of the differences between Sudanese Arabic and Morroccan Arabic. Overall, Tangier was a beautiful city, but I wish we had time to explore on our own.

While we were booking train tickets to Cadiz, an obnoxious American (who looked hispanic but spoke no Spanish) kept trying to cut people off in line. The woman in front of us yelled at him in Spanish, looking at me after every few lines. I understood most of it, nodded my head in agreement and said "si". Finally he went to the back of the line.

Of course when we got on the train, every other row of seats were facing backward and the obnoxious guy sat across from us. During the entire five hour ride to Cadiz he blasted his iPod at full volume. We could hear the music from his earphones over the noise of the train.

From Cadiz, we took a bus to Tarifa. Thankfully the obnoxious guy wasn't on the bus. I was sure he would be staying in the hotel room next to ours.

Tarifa is a beautiful beach town filled with kite-surfers and pregnant hippies. It is still a bit chilly, but it is warm enough to sit in the sun by the pool or on the beach. It is strange being in such a completely different culture. In Sudan, the women were covered from head to toe; i'm sure you can imagine what the women in Spain wear (or don't wear) on the beach.

I don't think we could have gone more completely from one cultural extreme to another. We got into our hotel in Madrid around 10 pm. After bringing our luggage into the room, I went out onto the balcony and saw two guys making out across the street.

Madrid is quite a nice city, but it is not nearly as interesting as Sudan. It is like being in any other Western city. We spent most of our time visiting the typical array of Western chain stores and some boring museum (the Prado).

My high school Spanish is quickly coming back, but I am still mixing Spanish and Arabic. Nevertheless, it is much easier to speak Spanish than it was to speak Arabic.

I have been constantly amazed at the amount of pornography and liquor on sale here. We visited an ice cream shop, which seemed to be the favorite of local Elementary school children. Porn and booze were on sale right next to the ice cream.

The last couple days have been hectic and sad. Saturday Neetha organized a lovely farewell party at our house and Sunday was the police breakfast.

Monday John and I woke up relatively early and went for a swim in the Nile. It has been raining down south, so the river level has begun to rise. We had to walk through about 100 feet of knee high water before getting to the main part of the river. When we got there, John unexpectedly fell off the shallow flood plane and into the current. He almost got carried away, but caught his footing. We stayed in the shallow water and relaxed in the gentile current.

The area around the river is beautiful, surrounded by fields of farm-land, goats, and actual greenery!

There is a lot that I will miss about Sudan. The people are some of the most friendly and generous I have ever met (sometimes too much so), the food is fresh and tasty (I have never had such good produce in my life) and life is simple. I am sad to have to leave.

Emily, Matt, Neetha, Peter and I went to the Police Station for my farewell breakfast. They served chicken, everyone´s favorite and a real delicacy in Sudan. This was the second farewell dinner, because we were not properly invited to the first. After breakfast, we were presented with an astonishing array of presents. Everyone got snakeskin shoes, the girls got snakeskin purses, I got a new Jelabia (the traditional Sudanese men´s wear), carved wooden statues, three huge boxes of fruit, and a ton of other things. I marveled at the number of endangered species that were killed for our gifts. Aren´t the "Wildlife Police" suppose to be stopping poaching? Malesh.

For my last day of class with my Zoology students, they wanted to take me to Jebalolia Dam. It is located an hour outside the city, so the class was going to take three hours longer than usual. I had set aside time after class to get tea or ful with my students, but not that long. They were very upset, because they had planned this big event for me. Finally I agreed to change my plans and go to the dam.

The area around the dam is very beautiful; a variety of interesting trees grow on the Nile flood plane. We talked, drank tea and played chess, but I was afraid to bring up the topic I wanted to discuss for the last class.

Finally I took Hajer (one of my best students) aside and asked her about the topic. I wanted to discuss my Jewish heritage. At first she acted surprised, but soon admitted that she already knew I was born Jewish. She said that the topic will not be a problem, the students are very open-minded. I was still a bit skeptical (I am living in a Sharia Law governed Islamic dictatorship, after all), so we pulled over a teaching assistant and he also said that it would be ok.

I was still nervous and stalled while the students prayed and cleaned up from our picnic. Finally in the van on the way home, I told them. Most of them had never met a Jew (or at least Jew by birth). It must have created a great conflict in their minds, because they like me, but they were taught to hate Jews. I explained that not all Jews support Israel (I certainly don´t) and that there is no such thing as a Jewish conspiracy.

They were actually accepting. Ahmed explained that he is from the Nubian tribe, who were Christian before they were Muslim and Jewish before they were Christian. The conversation went very well. I hope that I was able to dispel some of the myths that they have been taught. They have certainly helped me dispel some of the myths about Muslims.

We are back from Wad Medani. It was a nice and relaxing after living in the chaos of Khartoum. Last night we ate Turkish food, then went to a local amusement park. This was not like any amusement park in the West though. It cost 100 Dinars ($.50) to get in and all of the rides were free. We went on two rides. The first was hanging swings that spun in a circle and the second was a merry-go-round that Matt and I had to push. Afterward, we were swamped by Sudanese asking for money.

They said, "All Americans are rich, so you must give us money."
I pointed at my stomach and asked, "Look at me. Do you really think I am rich?" I was referring to my dirty clothes, but they looked at my thin waist. Being fat was (and I guess still is) a sign of your wealth. When they realized that we did not have money, they accused me of being a spy for the American Government. I explained that American spies have better things to do than ride the horsey rides at the park. They agreed and invited us for tea.

Emily does not drink tea after dinner (because it keeps her up) and Neetha does not like tea, so Matt and I had to drink it all (without the Sudanese noticing, or it would have been rude). They put a pound of sugar and a pound of powdered milk in each cup. Finishing it was not easy. I staggered back to the hotel feeling nauseas.

Emily, Matt, Neetha and I are in Wad Medani (a city south-west of Khartoum). We came here yesterday, just to get out of Khartoum for a couple days. The bus was air conditioned and they played a Jacky Chan movie. When we got here, we went to a hotel recommended by the guide book. Bad idea. It was a dirty hallway lined with beds. Next stop was the Nile Hotel. The guy at the desk quoted a price of 5,000 Dinars per night, but we got him down to 3,000. The room is small, but at least it has an air-cooler (not as good as an air conditioner). The bathroom at the end of the hall is a hole in the ground, but that is standard for Sudan.

We walked into the souq and found a restaurant called "The Pizza" for lunch. It was quite good and the owner spoke decent English. We asked him what there was to do here and he gave us a blank look, like that was the strangest question he had ever heard.
We have spent most of our time looking for food, smoking sheesha (hooka) and sleeping. Not much different than in Khartoum, but without classes to teach. The people here are very friendly, but they act like they have never seen white people before. Everywhere we go we get strange looks and people yell their few English phrases (like "Where are you going") at us.

They really need to do something about the money in this country. I've probably written about it before, but here is a short recap.

There are three currencies that people deal with here: Old Pounds (1000=$.50), Dinars (100=$.50), and New Pounds (1=$.50). Most prices are quoted in Old Pounds, but they are no longer in circulation. The Dinar is being phased out and the New Pound is being phased in.

Today I tried to get paid at the newspaper, because it was my last day of work. I make 30,000 Dinars for four days of work per month. This month I have worked three days, so I am owed 22,500. For us, it is simple, for the Sudanese it is very complicated.

I have called the Managing Editor all week to make sure my payment would be ready today. When I got there to collect the money, he had no idea what I was talking about and said that I could not get paid because the accountant is out of the office. I told him that I need to get paid, because I am leaving the country. So he and the other accountant (who doesn't control the money) sat down to figure out how much I am owed. After about 15 minutes they came up with a sum of 30,000 Dinars. I explained that I wasn't owed that much, but they were sure that it was correct. The Managing Editor proceeded to hand me 3,000 Dinars.

"No," I said, "I need 19 and a half more of these notes."
"But you make 1,000 Dinars a day."
"No, I work four days a month and make 30,000 Dinars - 7,500 per shift."
They started the calculations again and came up with the same number. I was getting a bit frustrated at this point, so I drew a very simple diagram to explain how much I was owed. Another person walked into the office and all three carefully studied my diagram. Again they handed me 3,000 Dinars. I explained the diagram again and wrote out the amount I was owed in each of the three currencies. Finally they seemed to understand.

The Managing Editor asked me to write a letter explaining the payment to the Editor in Chief. Three handwritten copies and one typed copies later (they kept wanting me to add, remove and change the letters), I was finally paid.

The worst thing about sudan is that the power goes out anytime it gets too hot, which is exactly when we need it. The country is powered by hydroelectricity from the Nile. When the river drops because of evaporation, we will not have power for hours. This is when we usually take a shower with our clothes on or dump water from the freezer over our heads to keep cool. It is really quite miserable. The temperture has been averaging around 110 to 115 in the hottest part of the day.

Today I went to Khartoum University to attend a zoology lab taught by one of my students. After leaving the lab, I saw a large group of students running away from the front of the campus and smelled a sickly / sweet smell. As I got closer, my eyes and nose started to burn. There was a large group of police in full riot gear standing in the road just outside of the campus. The students were throwing rocks at them and they were shooting tear gas at the students.

They were just going back and forth. First the students would throw rocks. Then the police would shoot tear gas and the students would run. When the gas cleared, the students started throwing rocks again. The canisters landed near me a few times. It felt like having flaming pepper blown in your face.

A couple of students tried to go through the front gate, close to where the police were standing. The police shot at them with live ammunition and hit one of them in the leg. He was carried off by a group of students.

The conflict started because the students were protesting the arrest of fellow students (most likely for political reasons). Khartoum University is know as the most liberal campus in Sudan. There are always political demonstrations on campus against the government, but they usually do not go this far.